RECENT ARTICLES

It’s not easy to write a book. To pen a biography of, say, a celebrity-artist like Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, it takes hundreds of hours of research. You have to find the right macro- and micro-narratives. You have to interview dozens of people, ask difficult questions and be open to surprising responses. You also have to not drive yourself crazy along the way, either by taking on the dark realities you research or by thinking you can’t handle the task of writing Cornell’s biography in the first place.

This is what Northwest writer, Corbin Reiff, had to go through (endure?) in order to research, write and produce his recent accomplishment, Total Fucking Godhead, the biography of the screeching, model handsome Cornell, who died in 2017 of suicide, which is available now.

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When famed music video director, Mark Pellington, asked Matthew Caws, front man and principle songwriter for the rock ‘n’ roll band, Nada Surf, what he was reading, a world of possibilities unfurled.

Caws had been studying writings – meditations – by his father, Peter, a well-respected professor of Philosophy. At the time, Pellington and Caws were discussing a few possibilities for videos for Nada Surf’s 2020 LP release, Never Not Together. But after Caws described what he’d been reviewing, he and Pellington went to work creating the 10-minute music video masterpiece for the song, “Just Wait,” which features a desolate cityscape and both Caws and his now-late father reading existential, self-assuring lines from those poetic meditations. We are happy to exclusively premiere that video here today.

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Growing up around New Orleans in the 1960s, acclaimed songwriter, Lucinda Williams, absorbed much of what was happening throughout the turbulent country. She engaged in protests in the streets for racial equality and to end the Vietnam War, among other important social statements. She listened to artist like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Her parents were academics – a creative writing professor and a music major – so Williams’ education was fostered and supported at home. At one point, she was expelled from high school for not saying the “Pledge of Allegiance.” But her father found an ACLU lawyer who fought the verdict, saying the expulsion was unconstitutional. Today, Williams says she sees many of the same divisions in the country that she did decades prior. These themes run throughout her latest LP, Good Souls Better Angels, as well as her forthcoming group of shows set to benefit American music venues in their time of need.

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Sharon Jones was immediately memorable. At the time, about twenty years ago, Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann), the co-founder of the famed label, Daptone Records, needed three backup singers for a recording session. This was before Daptone Records existed. His saxophone player, Joe, recommended his then-girlfriend. She could bring two friends with her, Joe said. Roth agreed but, the next day, only Jones showed up.

“Why pay three when you can pay me?” she intoned. From that moment, Roth was hooked on her “irrepressible” energy. In many ways, he dedicated his life to being the tide that lifted her musical boat. And that effort continues today, despite Jones’ passing in 2016, with the forthcoming release of the new covers collection, Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Rendition Was In. The LP is set for release digitally on October 23rd and on vinyl November 29th.

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Sometimes it takes a decade-plus to remember what you’ve had all along. For Los Angeles-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Local Natives, ideas of friendship and the importance of familial bonds have been the manna on which the group has subsisted ever since its early days. And they remain important sources of nourishment. But sometimes people have to be reminded of the bounty at their fingertips. Sometimes through the work and during the successes, it’s tantamount to remember what the group has had since the very beginning. The foundation is just as important as the top floor, of course. That’s what the members of Local Natives have re-experienced recently while producing the band’s new exultant EP, Sour Lemon, set for release on October 23rd.

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At first, Mike Shinoda, co-founder of the immensely popular band, Linkin Park, didn’t want to go back to the past. He didn’t want to revisit the early demos, relive the old memories. Why look back? On October 24th, 2000, Linkin Park released its debut LP, Hybrid Theory, which, it turns out, was more like a debut greatest hits record, featuring songs like “One Step Closer,” “Papercut” and “In The End.” But, thanks to some lifelong friends and collaborators, Shinoda was convinced more recently to unearth the lost material. Now, twenty years later, on October 9th, 2020, the band, led by Shinoda, released a 20th anniversary retrospective package of their seminal album that features alternate song takes, forgotten lyrics and decades-old video footage of the group, which their leagues of fans will assuredly continue to enjoy and devour.

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Matt Berninger, the crooning front man for the popular rock ‘n’ roll band, The National, likes to write songs while riding his bike. The sharp, rapid-minded and loquacious singer-songwriter engages in conversation often like a metaphorical triathlon participant. His brain is chugging along in a marathon, swimming laps and cycling all at once. But amidst all the frantic activity, a logical through-line emerges. So does sonic and melodic clarity. Berninger says lyrics come to him as he pedals, avoiding trees and following traffic signs, because when his mind is focused in on myriad other things, the art can step forward and show itself. Revelations like these are the substance of Berninger’s forthcoming solo record, Serpentine Prison, out October 16th.

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Australian country musician, Angus Gill, has a baby face but an aged soul. The 22-year-old, award-winning songwriter first began making music at six-years-old. By the age of 11, Gill had contemporary music heroes like Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash while other kids were donning Batman costumes or playing peewee soccer. Later, Gill began to regularly play at his own high school assemblies with his self-titled three-piece. He’s been rife with ambition since listening to his grandmother’s favorite twangy records as a boy. For his whole life, Gill has been focused on becoming an established artist. And he’s off to a fast start. His latest in this effort is the new 11-track LP, 3 Minute Movie, which will be released Friday and features the legendary songwriter, Steve Earle.

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Jessica Dobson, frontwoman and principle songwriter for the Seattle-based band, Deep Sea Diver, was adopted. While this is indeed a very personal bit of information it is also pertinent to the story of the band’s new LP. Any work of art takes a lifetime to create. While, in truth, from first note to final mix, a song may take, say, a year or two, the work is, in actuality, a culmination of a person’s entire existence. It wasn’t until recently that Dobson met her birth mother, which was both monumental and fascinating for the expert musician. The encounter is one of several recent marvelous moments for Dobson and her percolating, neon-electric-sounding group, which is set to release its latest LP, Impossible Weight, on Friday.

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