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ItÕs been a whirlwind summer for the guys of Deer Tick, the whiskey and beer rock band out of Providence, Rhode Island. Buzz around the bandÕs second album, Born On Flag Day, began late in 2008 and by the time the Summer of Ô09 had ended the band was continuing its non-stop touring; had been interviewed by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams (who confessed to being a big fan of the band); released its sophomore album; added a new new guitarist; and to top it off, the bandÕs lead-singer asked Nikki Darlin of Those Darlins for her hand in marriage.

And you thought you had a busy summer.

From a musical perspective, the bandÕs album crossed country, folk and rock to appeal to a fan base who cherished whiskey and dirt and a lack of pretentiousness in their music. Much like Lucero did in there early days, Deer Tick became the band people who didnÕt listen to Ó that kind of musicÓ listened to Ð and loved.

Four months in the making, here's DJdc's exclusive interview with Deer Tick: DJdc Exclusive Interview with Deer Tick is up: http://www.deadjournalist.com/interviews/20090930deertick.htm

Labels: deer tick, interviews

Calling lifelong New Yorker Alan Semerdjian a singer-songwriter - while accurate - would be limit his artistic prowess. As a poet, he's been complement on his work by noted poet Michael Klein. He was called a "Songwriter and Poet to Watch" by Newsday. Combined, he has performed more than 1,000 shows has a poet and singer.

HIs talent is apparent to anyone who has read, or listened, to his work. As a musician, Semerdjian released the album The Big Beauty on September 1, 2009. The album, which was recorded with Matthew Cullen (My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne) at The Clubhouse Studios in Rhinebeck, NY, was produced by longtime friend and collaborator producer Michael Bloom, who has performed with Rilo Kiley, The Elected and Rachael Yamagata.

Also performing on the album are musicians Franz Nicolay from The Hold Steady, Djivan Gasparian Jr. on duduk, Chris Kuffner (Ingrid Michaelson, Regina Spektor) on bass, Dave Diamond (Zen Tricksters, Shanna McNally) on drums, and multi-instrumentalist Philip A. Jimenez (Wheatus).

In addition to the album, Semerdjian most recent boo, In the Architecture of Bone, will be be released in October 2009 via GenPop Books.

Semerdjian, as an artist and lyricist, evokes hope in the process - matching dedication to his craft with the gift of storytelling.

DeadJournalist.com brings you this exclusive interview with Alan Semerdjian.

Labels: Alan Semerdjian, interviews

I typically don't give back stories on interviews, but I first contacted Passion Pit about an interview in early January 2009. As happens from time-to-time, bands blow-up in the midst of the process, and sites like this become a back burner or forgotten altogether. No hard feelings - it is the way the business goes. But a funny thing happened when I reached out to the band in June to see about resurrecting the interview ... it came back to life.

So I am more than a little happy to bring the readers of DeadJournalist.com this interview with Passion Pit - one of the hottest (and best) bands of 2009.

Click here for the complete interview: http://www.deadjournalist.com/interviews/20090722passionpit.htm

Labels: interviews, passion pit

At long last!

DJdc Exclusive Interview with Luke Temple of Here We Go Magic

http://www.deadjournalist.com/interviews/20090715herewegomagic.htm

Labels: here we go magic, interviews

With our 67th exclusive interview, DeadJournalist.com brings you an interview with another of the hottest up-and-coming bands of 2009: The Soft Pack (formerly known as The Muslims).

To read the full interview, click here: http://www.deadjournalist.com/interviews/20090630thesoftpack.htm

As a little something extra, here's a bonus question not found on the interview:
Is there an artist or album that you especially enjoyed or were inspirited by this decade?

MM: I really liked that Radiohead album In Rainbows. It's more direct and song oriented. It is a relaxing album to play.

Labels: interviews, the muslims, the soft pack

At long last - almost five months - we're back with our 66th exclusive interview: Cymbals Eat Guitars.

Quoting InSound.com, "Cymbals Eat Guitars are very possibly your new favorite band. Prepare yourself to love again."

Here's the link to the full interview: http://www.deadjournalist.com/interviews/20090623cymbalseatguitars.htm

Labels: cymbals eat guitars, deadjournalist.com, interviews

I'm happy to announce that this week will boast the return of our exclusive interviews with two of the best up-and-coming bands in the indie/college rock (whatever you want to call it) world.

Early this week: Cymbals Eat Guitars, the New York-based band

"You could blame it on so many bands being from autophobic NYC, or that the Pacific Northwest gods of indie are still going too strong to already be a primary influence, but neither would explain New York's Cymbals Eat Guitars' Why There Are Mountains. While there's plenty of geographical signifiers on their debut, it's almost topographic in its approach, without hooks and choruses so much as map-like layouts of mountains and sloping valleys." - Pitchfork

"I'll be the first to go on record saying that Cymbals Eat Guitars/Joseph Ferocious will end up indie famous within the year." - Charles Bissel, The Wrens

Later this week: The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims), the L.A. via San Diego-based band

"They mix a kind of Strokes-y, and therefore VU, detachment and something that bumps in the night like Hell and his Voidoids (or, better yet, Hell and the Heartbreakers doing "Love Comes In Spurts"). You can also hear a bit of the Stooges - not just because the band cites 'em, along with the Replacements, as an inspiration - and early Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers (see "Future Rock," "On My Time," etc). Whatever the mix of forerunners, the Muslims find a way to make it their own -it's kinda uncanny." - Stereogum

Even more interviews coming soon!

Labels: cymbals eat guitars, interviews, the muslims, the soft pack

From time-to-time an artist comes along who has the uncanny knack of mixing the unique with the popular and ending up with a distinctive sound that is unmistakably their own.

Welcome to the music of Dent May.

May isn't your typical indie-flared musician hailing from New York, Portland or Canada. May isn't even from the southern indie hot spots of Nashville, Atlanta or the tobacco roads of North Carolina. He's is from the land of the Blues, Mississippi.

But before you conjure misconceptions base on geography, erase thoughts of a bluegrass player in overhauls and a straw hat. May is signed to Animal Collective's Paw Track label and was in film school at NYU. He was a sensation at last year's SXSW festival for his showmanship and stage presence. And on February 20, he kicks of his first national tour opening for A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers.

And what of that unique? That would be the ukulele. The instrument native to Hawaii, and known by many from the exploits of 1960's icon Tiny Tim, spent years as more a novelty instrument but has in recent years found favor with musicians such as Zach Condon, Jens Lekman and Patrick Wolf. It is one that May also embraced, so much so, that his band is officially named Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Don't let the guy who sometimes rocks the 1970's era Elton John-esque glasses fool you into thinking he's a one trick pony with his ukulele.

While it is the instrument that takes primary focus on this album it is not an instrument that, in the end, will define him. This is not to discount the seriousness of which he takes the ukulele but to emphasize the range of talents he possesses.

For more information on Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele, visit his Web site: DentMay.com or his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/dentmay.

Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele will release their debut LP The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele on February 3, 2009.

DeadJournalist.com brings you this exclusive interview with Dent May of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Your debut album is released tomorrow, February 3. How does it feel to finally have that day upon you? How long did it take you to write and record The Good Feeling Music of Dent May?

DM: It's an enormous relief. I wrote most of the songs within a relatively short period of time. Perhaps it was several months. I had the whole album written with demos recorded long before recording with Rusty, and it's been seven or eight months since we recorded. So I'm pretty psyched to finally have it available for public consumption.

How did you come to work with the other members of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele? What led to the band signing to Paw Tracks, the label formed by Animal Collective?

DM: When I got involved with Paw Tracks, it was a solo project and still is essentially. There have been many lineup changes in my band, but everyone in the band I've been friends with for a long time. Basically, I just recruited friends. A couple of the bandmates on the record can't tour because of their jobs.

Click here for the complete interview with Dent May

Labels: deadjournalist.com, dent may, interviews

It's a good interview: Dead Confederate

Labels: dead confederate, interviews

Coming within the next week will be an exclusive interview with Dead Confederate ... so yeah, pay attention!

Labels: dead confederate, interviews

DeadJournalist.com's exclusive interview with Mason Proper is up. Check out this quality interview with the boys from Michigan here

Labels: interviews, mason proper

It is in my hands, so this week I'll be posting my exclusive interview with Michigan's Mason Proper. It's a good one, you'll want to check it out!

Labels: interviews, mason proper

My exclusive interview with Pierre de Reeder will be up later tonight. de Reeder, who released his debut solo album last month, is also the bassist for Rilo Kiley.

Here's an outtake from the interview:

Who were the artists that influenced you the most as a younger musician? Who most influences you now?

PdR: Ah influences É such a broad thing. Because even music I heard when I was six still has a lasting influence.

My young, young years had a lot of Tom Jones, Sinatra, Humberdink, etc. floating around the household.

But I guess I really started being interested in being a ÒmusicianÓ when I was around 14 and right at that time I was just coming out of a lot of classic rock. Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Beatles, etc. And moving into a strange combination of Reggae and Goth rock!

IÕve moved through the worlds of The Pixies, David Bowie, The Cure, The Zombies, Willie Nelson, The Jayhawks, Modest Mouse, Elliott Smith, Dylan, Neil Young and on and on. All of which endure and have had their influence.

ThatÕs the funny thing, to some degree, they always will.

Labels: interviews, Pierre de Reeder, rilo kiley

News and Notes coming this weekend. Interview with The Old Believers also coming this weekend.

Labels: interviews, the old believers

I'm happy to announce that my interview with Albert Hammond Jr. (solo/The Strokes) will be going up early this week.

Labels: albert hammond jr, interviews

My interview with the Swedish band Those Dancing Days has been up for a couple of weeks, so check it out!

Labels: interviews, those dancing days

My interview with the Swedish band, The Bell, is now up (link below). I've mentioned this band several times this year. Their new album came out last week, and it is a worthy purchase. The band has a mature sound that is steeped in the classic post-punk tradition.

The Bell Interview

Labels: Interview, interviews, the bell

New Today: An exclusive interview with Snowden.

Here's an excerpt:
With the success of the band, it's no longer a project, so what is the most challenging aspect of being a "professional" musician? What do you wish you could change most about the reality of the music industry?

JJ: The challenging part of being an artist today is that there's no map to follow anymore. Yes, information is free and you can deliver your music to anyone in the world in a few minutes, but you're screaming out from a pack of a million animals. How can you be heard? How can you survive with less and less "grass" so to speak? We're part of an evolution right now and the only answers are trial and error.

For the full interview, click: here

Labels: interviews, snowden

Check out this new interview with A Sunny Day in Glasgow (with MP3): HERE

Labels: a sunny day in glasgow, deadjournalist.com, interviews

Check out our new, exclusive interview with Young Galaxy!

DeadJournalist.com Exclusive Interview with Young Galaxy

Labels: deadjournalist.com, interviews, young galaxy

The site is coming back slowly, and so with that lovely intro, the interview with Thee More Shallows is up. So check it out.

Labels: interviews, thee more shallows

if you read this site regularly, or if you are reading this for the first time, you've probably noticed that there haven't been any new interviews up in almost a month. i believe there's a saying, something along the lines of, "music is for the youth". while that isn't completely true - there is some merit to the concept.

a good friend of mine, who is my age, asked me yesterday what i had been listening to lately. my reply? nothing, there's simply been no time. even when there has been time, there hasn't been the drive to dive into a new cd and listen to it for hours. for the past eight months, i've been hoping that it would change. despite some blips here and there, it hasn't.

DeadJournalist.com was my next-generation way of staying in the music. i did not intend to let it languish as a time capsule; and especially not since readership was at it's zenith. reality is reality, and the reality is i'm not sure how much time i'll have to devote myself to the site in the upcoming months.

there are two three interviews that i only need to post, and six band made commitments to do interviews. i hope to complete these, at the least.

in the meantime, thank you for reading the site. i hope you've enjoyed the interviews. and hopefully, the laws of physics will get the site back in motion soon.

Labels: deadjournalist.com, hiatus, interviews

The interview with Hail Social is in and will be going up soon.

It's either feast or famine with me these days. There are a number of interviews going in and coming out as quickly as I can get on them.

Labels: hail social, interviews

EXCLUSIVE Interview: The Raveonettes
Chuck Norton, DeadJournalist.com
05.10.07

Five years ago, while walking through the CD section of a major electronics retailer, an album cover caught my eye. It looked like a movie poster from a 1950's noir film. Five minutes later, I owned the album.

It only took one listed to the EP to get me hooked. The band, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, blended vintage rock and pop, all in a minor cord (B-flat) to create a distinctive sound that was, and is, unmistakable.

Thus began my affection for The Raveonettes.

From that 2002 EP, Whip It On, to their last release, 2005's Pretty In Black, The Raveonettes' slick, rebellious rock 'n roll sound evolved dramatically.

Pretty in Black found the band diversifying its sound by adding a techo beat to "Twilight" (which was influenced by both '50's sci-fi and Miss Kittin) and legendary voicalist Ronnie Spector on "Ode to L.A".

read more: here

Labels: interviews, the raveonettes

Very exciting - just got back the interview from Sune of the Raveonettes, so be looking for it in the next day or so!

Labels: deadjournalist.com, interviews, the raveonettes