by Jay Hathaway
“I had been in a sexually hibernated state of mind…”
– Kevin Barnes
Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes has been experimenting with pop music for almost 20 years, all the way back to recording home demos in high school. He started of Montreal in 1997 in Athens, GA, and fell in with the Elephant 6 collective, which included bands like Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Apples in Stereo. Since then, of Montreal has put out nine records, including Barnes’ biggest critical success, 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
[..]
by Andrea Larrabee
“I’d kill some zombies.”
– Craig Mabbitt
It’s 4 o’ clock in the afternoon, and I’m in the dancers’ dressing room at Crazy Girls, a strip club on the corner of La Brea and Sunset in Hollywood, waiting to meet Craig Mabbitt and Max Green from the post-hardcore band Escape The Fate. Their third album has just been released the previous day, and the boys are scheduled to perform a special mini-set for a select group of guests invited to a record release party hosted by their new label, Interscope, at the intimate venue later on in the evening.
Cracked mirrors and a ’70s style red formica laminate counter run around three walls, the fourth being taken up mostly by a bank of sticker-adorned lockers. The carpet has seen better days, the lighting is harsh, and the room is otherwise sparsely furnished with a few cheap chairs and an exceptionally wobbly table. Ink jet printed signs are taped up in several places to remind the girls who usually occupy this space that the $25 house fee must be paid before they start their shift. In short, in the cold light of day, the circumstances are seedy rather than sexy – though that would change later on in the evening as the club came alive to the epic, hormone-charged sounds of Escape The Fate’s grind-friendly release.
[..]
by Nicole Powers
“There’s something inherently scary about kissing a cannibal.”
– Diablo Cody
“I constantly want to feel like I’m in danger,” says author and screenwriter Diablo Cody during our interview. This statement reveals a lot when you consider Cody’s resume. She punctuated a rather mundane series of office jobs by moonlighting as a stripper, phone sex worker, and a peep show girl. While still working for “the man” she documented her experiences in the sex industry in a very public space — a popular blog called Pussy Ranch. Subsequently she penned a full-blown memoir, entitled Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, which was published by Penguin imprint Gotham Books.
[..]
by Brad Warner
“John Lennon’s alcohol stinking spittle in my face…”
– Mark Mothersbaugh
There was a peculiar notion going around my high school in the white bread and meatloaf suburb of Akron, Ohio where I grew up that said that bands like DEVO were “wimp rock.” But seeing DEVO at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood where I had the privilege of sitting in on the final rehearsal for their current tour gave the lie to that. Even with several members of the band having passed sixty years old and the rest closing in quick, DEVO rocks like no other band on Planet Earth.
[..]
by Fred Topel
“I don’t listen to anyone else.”
– Robert Pattinson
Three years ago, anyone who wanted to talk to Robert Pattinson could have probably just phoned up his agent or publicist and gotten a lunch date with the struggling actor. Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire didnt exactly have groupies, and that was his only really visible role.
[..]
By Erin Broadley
There are drummers, and then there are street drummers – the guys who truly aren’t afraid to get down and dirty with their craft. The musicians in Street Drum Corps are both, having played played traditional drums in rock bands for years before lending their sticks to something decidedly more free-form and experimental.
[..]
by Fred Topel
“I’m good at starting things.”
– Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam movies are hard to explain anyway. Try to encapsulate 12 Monkeys in a logline about time travel, or pose The Fisher King as as simple drama about grief. The lengths Gilliam had to go through to finish what tragically became Heath Ledger’s final film take things to the next level.
[..]
