One of the more unexpected mainstream success stories of the 2000s was Modest Mouse. More than a decade after the arty Pacific Northwest indie-rock band formed, its sixth album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, reached Number 18 on the Billboard 200, thanks in part to its Number One Modern Rock single “Float [...]

Five years ago, Brett Dennen was a camp counselor who played guitar, wrote songs and performed fireside. With a self-made album, he began playing coffee shops along the West Coast and a devoted following formed. A modest independent record deal led first to his 2006 break-through album, So Much More, then to the attention of [...]

Michael Franti is a very big man who has always dared to say very big things through his joyous and passionate music during an unusually diverse and highly impressive career.
Yet for all the wide-ranging, yet consistent excellence of his body of work, what’s most impressive about Michael Franti as a recording artist and live performer [...]

This South Carolina-based indie-rock band’s swirling, dreampop-like musical backing, ragged Neil Young influences and tenor vocals initially drew comparisons to fellow Southern-based indie rockers My Morning Jacket. Multi-instrumentalists Ben Bridwell and Mat Brooke formed the group in Seattle in 2004 after their slow-core band Carissa’s Wierd broke up due to mounting financial problems. After releasing [...]

Rare indeed when a collection of songs creates an entire world. Yet that’s exactly what transpires with Steppin’ In It’s “Simple Tunes for Troubled Times.” Sonically painting with a pleasant array of old time country swing and blues, this Lansing, Michigan, quartet brilliantly updates a resurging American musical genre. Populating this 11-track collection is an [...]

Bernard was born and raised on Earthwork Farm in Northern Michigan, surrounded by gardens, goats, hippies, rednecks and stringed instruments, smack dab in the middle of a tightly woven circle of friends and family throughout the Regan Era. Just outside Lake City. A fine small hometown. No shortage of churches, bars or lakes around. The [...]

Born into a family of musicians, May Erlewine has been playing music all her life. She learned to sing and play piano at an early age, and her acoustic guitar is seldom far from her side. Erlewine, who was home schooled, paid her singer-songwriter dues in her late teens with several years of hitchhiking back [...]

Joe Craven wears many hats and plays many things.  He’s a madman with anything that has strings attached, including hospital bed pans, gas cans, cookie tins, roasting pots, fiddles, mandolins, tenor guitars, saz, cuatro and a world of percussion instruments including animal bones, latex squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and…Himself. [...]

David Grisman’s bands in their various quartet and quintet configurations, have showcased acoustic music ever since he started the first DGQ in the fall of 1975. That band featured David on mandolin, Todd Phillips on mandolin, Joe Carroll on bass, Tony Rice on guitar, and Darol Anger on fiddle. Ever since then, the DGQ has [...]

Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) is back with his 3rd album on Illegal Art. With each release getting closer to his notorious semi-naked live show, Night Ripper is focused less on beat-f**kery and more on bringing heat to the party. It bangs as a continuous mix packed with wildly disparate Top 40 genres and eras. [...]