By Doug Wallen
Photos by Ray Lego
Ed Droste wrote some out-there songs a few years back. The terms were pretty basic: one dude, alone his bedroom, taking down ideas on a tape recorder—this type of thing happens in Brooklyn all the time. And being in a huge band? Last thing on his mind. But let’s face it: When the blogs start buzzing, you just can’t stop them. With the addition of instrumentalists Chris Taylor and Chris Bear, and another local songwriter named Daniel Rossen, it happened for Grizzly Bear. And if being handpicked by Radiohead to open for their U.S. tour is any measure, it happened pretty big.
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By Doug Wallen
Photos by Brent Stewart
Regularly called “indie rock’s poet laureate,” David Berman has released a string of indelible albums—all on the revered label Drag City—under the guise of the Silver Jews that are just as fawned over as his canny 1999 collection of poetry, Actual Air, later reissued in hardcover by Drag City.
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By Shane Gill
Photos by Autumn De Wilde
Five full-length albums into their career, My Morning Jacket has finally outpaced the goal posts of success with their most accomplished album to date, Evil Urges. Death+Taxes caught up with MMJ’s guitarist and vocalist, Jim James, to talk about their new record, blue-eyed Soul, and why we should knock on wood when someone says Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.
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By Alex Moore
Photos by Ray Lego
I’d heard all kinds of things about the man. There was the burning down of not one but two houses. The rumors of crack addiction. The three months in jail. There was the attempted documentary, Fight Harm, which consisted of Korine provoking everyday street guys into beating the shit out of him. Korine’s only rule for his friend David Blaine, who was filming the fiasco: Keep filming, no matter what. Don’t break it up unless I’m going to actually die. The project was eventually abandoned when Korine was hospitalized.
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By Jed Cohen
Photos by Susan Moss
You know Wolf Parade; you’ve at least heard of them. You probably really like their music. You might know that there are two singers–that the guttural baritone on “This Heart’s on Fire” is Dan Boeckner, while the operatic alto on “I’ll Believe in Anything” is Spencer Krug—though you sometimes can’t tell who’s who. In September 2005, you read Pitchfork’s gushing review of their first album, Apologies to the Queen Mary, and were shocked that they rated it a 9.2. Then you heard it, and were shocked at how good it was. You haven’t heard their new LP, At Mount Zoomer, yet, but you predict it’ll be pretty sweet. You can’t believe that the members of the band are involved in so many side-projects. How do they have time to do anything but play music? If you’re a real fan of Wolf Parade, you probably know that the band’s first gig was opening for Arcade Fire. Right? Wait—not so fast. Time to clear some things up:
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