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Elizabeth McCullough, also known as the New York City-based rock and roll artist, Alpha Cat, knew the moment she had to give up drinking. She was at a diner and had ordered a greasy cheddar cheese omelet. But as she waited there on the counter, she shook. Her body wanted a drink so badly that she could hardly sit in her chair. That’s it, McCullough thought, enough. And she hasn’t had a drink since. McCullough’s personal history is full of episodes like this: difficulties she’s had to navigate to find herself in safer waters. As such, the concept of freedom is central to the music of Alpha Cat, which is most evident in the latest music video for the single, “Thatched Roof Glass House,” from the 2019 album of the same name.

“I decided way back when I was in graduate school,” says McCullough, “that basically everything that occurs in life that you witness is a metaphor for what’s going on inside of your head. And with this song, that’s definitely the case.”

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When examining the life and career of the notorious musician, Saul Hudson, better known, of course, as the Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist, Slash, one uncovers a great many gems. For example, the UK-born musician was high school classmates with the handsome rocker, Lenny Kravitz. Slash’s parents were also well-respected celebrity artists. His mother, Ola, was a costume designer for artists like David Bowie and Janis Joplin and his father, Anthony, created album covers for musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. In fact, says Slash, seeing Mitchell strumming the guitar in the studio at an early age is one of his fondest memories.

“I always liked Joni Mitchell when I was a kid,” Slash says. “I was around her a lot. I remember going to a couple Joni sessions at A&M Studios in L.A. and I was very intrigued by that whole environment. It was her and her acoustic guitar. She was just sitting in the studio by herself, singing and playing. It was really beautiful. Just to watch somebody basically produce those sounds so perfectly in the studio by themselves is impressive. I didn’t know that much about the technicality of it all but to watch that raw, human talent was very impressive.”

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Right before the turn of the 21st century, the melodic Boston-born band, Guster, stood at a crossroads. The group had just put out its third LP, Lost and Gone Forever, and one of the co-founding members needed a change. Comprised of three musicians who met and hit it off immediately at Tufts University in the mid-90s, Guster stood out, in part, because of their unusual lineup: two guitars and a percussionist. No drum kit, no bass player. But in 1999, percussion player, Brian Rosen Worcel, said he no longer wanted to play bongos. He needed more. That moment, when everything for the band could have crashed down, instead sparked the necessary jolt that’s kept Guster breaking new sonic ground ever since.

“After that record,” says vocalist, Ryan Miller, “Brian was like, ‘I don’t want to play percussion. I want to groove like the Talking Heads. I want a high-hat, kick drum, snare. Adam [Gardner] and I were scared at that moment.”

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Dave Johnston, co-founder of the Nederland, Colorado-based bluegrass group, Yonder Mountain String Band, has been helming a set of musicians throughout a long, steady and prolific career. The jam band, which was founded in 1998, has played to countless fans, released five studio albums (and many more live recordings) and toured with famed artists like Bela Fleck and the Dave Matthews Band. During those two-plus-decades, Johnston has learned at least one very important lesson about how to treat his relationship to music. And that is to treat it like a relationship to a person he loves.

“I was talking to one of my wife’s friends the other day,” Johnston says. “She’s a photographer and we were talking about loving what you do. And she said, ‘Well, if you love what you do, treat it how you would treat a person you love.’ Meaning, you can’t be overbearing and you can’t demand stuff that just isn’t there.”

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For many, the latest music video from Bay Area-based band, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down (for the song, “Phenom”), has been the highlight of quarantine. Released April 3rd, the work was one of the first prominent pieces to utilize the now-ubiquitous Zoom meeting technology. It also demonstrates a number of creative achievements, perhaps chief among them is the artful physical rage displayed by the performers in the Brady Bunch-esque video panels. The release offered in the work, which was itself released in support of the band’s next LP, Temple (out May 15th, pre-order), is bolstered by the track’s at times-feral feel. It’s a tone front woman, Thao Nguyen, has mastered and mixed in with her prolific melodies, one that she shows off with renewed confidence.

“There’s a latent part of me that only comes out in music,” says Nguyen. “And I would be bereft without it. When I’m on stage, people have said that I’m a ‘rabid animal’ and I take that as a compliment. To have the opportunity to channel the kind of disdain and frustration and disgust with the abuse of power and all this bullshit, it’s really – I’m very grateful.”

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Ben Morrison, co-founder of the San Francisco-based Americana band, The Brothers Comatose, grew up surrounded by song. When he was young, his mother played in a folk quartet that rehearsed at home. Later, in high school, his parents hosted regular music parties on Sundays. Morrison – and his brother and band co-founder, Adam – first played the instruments that their parents and friends would leave around the house. Morrison played guitar, Adam played banjo. But betwixt all this music, Morrison first learned to love song at a very precise moment: the day he could first play one on a six-string.

“I was sitting in a circle in the community center playing ‘Proud Mary’ for the first time,” Morrison says. “That was when I could barely play three chords on the guitar; I was about 11- or 12-years-old. Being able to play that and get it to sound something like the original tune was the first time I went, ‘Oh, this is powerful. This is a special thing.’”

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Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius) opens his latest album, Set My Heart On Fire, Immediately, with a jarring statement: “Half of my whole life is gone.” The lyric, sung in typical heartbreaking Perfume Genius fashion — as if a feather is floating between falling and bursting into flames — sets the melodic-sullen tone of the artist’s new record.

But it also sets an intriguing point of demarcation for the artist. What now, one wonders, will Perfume Genius do with the rest of his life at this raw halfway point? The answer has something to do with forgiveness.

“I had a choice after I wrote that line,” Hadreas says. “I just started singing and that line came out and it’s like, OK, where do you go after that?”

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Seattle-based, groove-focused eight-piece band, Polyrhythmics, have a trick. And they learned it from the famed Nigerian musician and activist, Fela Kuti. The musical mysticism begins with the bass line. It’s deep, hefty and continuous. Like the pocket watch on the end of a chain, it sways. Soothing synths, nimble guitars and pulsing percussion enter the picture. When you’re mesmerized, that’s when the horns drop. The spell has been cast. The music leads you like a cartoon finger around the corner. For Polyrhythmics, it’s all about the trance. And these techniques are on full display on the band’s new record, Man from the Future, out today.

Polyrhythmics, which will also celebrate the release of the new 8-song record tonight via a live stream at 7 PM on their social channels, is a captivating group on stage. The full band fills the room with an impending mood. Something is always just about to happen. And this vibe is supremely evident on the group’s new LP. Like the methods the band gleaned from Fela Kuti, hypnosis and surprise make up the sonic foundation for Polyrhythmics’ songs.

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If you’d asked Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, co-founding members of the elegant acoustic duo, The Milk Carton Kids, in October, during the release of their latest LP, The Only Ones, if they’d like to participate in digital live stream concerts, they would have thumbed their noses. The duo is notoriously suspect of any performance that isn’t tactile, in the room. But things change. A pandemic has befallen the globe. Enter: the duo’s new online series, Sad Songs Comedy Hour, which features music from the band, guest appearances and charitable donations to organizations helping amidst the health crisis.

“For me, the most surprising thing about the show,” says Ryan, “has been just how meaningful doing a little 10-minute digital episode with our friends has become.”

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Seattle-based country musician, Miller Campbell, has always been a go-getter. She performed musical theater as a child, has earned multiple college degrees, aspired to work for the U.S. State Department and was offered a job with the actual C.I.A., which she accepted. But it doesn’t end there. Campbell, who at one time had her jaw wired shut and was unable to speak for 18 months, learned during that time an acute appreciation for music. So much so that just two weeks before she was to travel overseas to Turkey to meet her future C.I.A. colleagues, she decided to turn down the position. Instead, she took aim at songwriting.

“I’d played a really fun open mic, which I know sounds silly in comparison,” says Campbell. “But I graduated from college when I was 21 and I thought, ‘I have my whole life to do this, I want to do music now.’ So, I turned it down.”

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Ed O’Brien needed a new perspective. A co-founding member of one of the biggest bands in the galaxy – Radiohead – the multi-instrumentalist felt claustrophobic.

Living in London, O’Brien says it was as if he was constantly running on the “hamster wheel of life.” While not ignoring his professional good fortune, O’Brien says he was burnt out by the “constant stimulation.” So, he moved across the globe to rural Brazil with his family. There, he refocused his priorities on three things: food, family and music.

He taught himself to sing lead vocals. He made a record. He grew, dramatically.

“It was the classic cliché,” O’Brien says. “Why am I making my life more busy and complex by more stimulation? All I want to do is write, play music and be with my family when I’m not doing that. Realizing that was key for me. It was the moment I simplified my life and the music started to come through. It was like breathing again.”

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It’s often said that the first thing someone puts their mind to as a child is the thing they really love, the thing they should be doing their whole life. If you’re inclined to agree with that thought, then it won’t surprise you that Alex Ebert, principal creative mind behind the well-known musical projects, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and Ima Robot, as well as his own solo work, recorded his first song at five-years-old. The artist, who released his latest solo LP, I vs. I, earlier this year, adored recording at a young age. And it’s a love affair that has continued through the decades – albeit, if not a little rocky at times.

“When I was about five,” Ebert says, “I had this little music class in kindergarten that ended up going all the way through 6th grade – that class actually was the model for Edward Sharpe. I remember my first recorder-thing. If I remember correctly, it had a little microphone. It was the only prize possession I’ve ever lamented losing.”

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Katie Stelmanis, also known as the electronic musician, Austra, grew up playing the piano. She was obsessed from the start. She took lessons and played for hours, endlessly satisfied by the music. Soon, she fell in love with classical music, with its lush complexities and delightful compositions. But it was a rock concert years later in Calgary, Alberta that would change her life again. Stelmanis, who will release the latest Austra record, HiRUDiN, on May 1st, says that live events helped her see music in a new and affecting way. 

“One of the first shows I ever saw was this hardcore band from Calgary,” says Stelmanis, a native Toronto, Ontario. “One of my friends was dating one of the members so we went to the show. It was my first time seeing loud guitar music in a live setting. I was floored by the volume and the intensity and the power. It kind of changed me for life.”

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For someone who has seen as much life and spent as much time behind the curtain of the music industry as grunge icon, Mark Lanegan, one might think there wouldn’t be a lot of new ground for the artist to explore. As has been detailed, Lanegan, who rose to fame with his band, Screaming Trees, in the mid-90s in Seattle, experienced drug addiction and the loss of prominent friends and collaborators. He’s also a platinum-selling front man. Yet, some 25 years since rising to notoriety, Lanegan continues to seek out new creative territory, as evidenced on his forthcoming record, Straight Songs Of Sorrow, set for release May 8 (pre-order it here).

“There are a lot of firsts on this new record,” Lanegan says. “My wife helped make some of it. I engineered quite a bit of it. This is also the first record in 35 years of making records where I actually played almost every instrument on some of the songs myself.”

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Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter, Damien Jurado, has an extreme faith in that which is unseen. This ardent faith shows up in all the aspects of his life, whether personal, professional or creative. As a musician, Jurado, in many ways, is like a channel or faucet, he says. He opens himself up to language, music and thought and lyrics and melody spring forth like water. It’s the reason the artist has been so prolific in his decades-long long career, which continues with the release of Jurado’s latest LP, What’s New, Tomboy, set for release May 1st.

“I’m a very spiritual person,” Jurado says. “I’m very in tune with the spiritual side of my life. I have a pretty intense communion with God, I really do. You open up your mind’s eye or your heart’s eye and you just take it in. I believe that if you’re open to it, I believe God shows up in a great way.”

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