Notizie

Patterson Hood has on several occasions claimed that his favorite album is Todd Rundgren’s sprawling 1972 avant-pop opus Something/Anything? It’s an influence that’s never been especially detectable in his music, to put it lightly. Runt’s magnetic popcraft as a songwriter and dense, meticulous style as a producer seem practically antithetical to the direct and unlabored, populist ethos of his band Drive-By Truckers—and perhaps that’s due to the steadfastly rough-and-ready influence of his partner in crime, Mike Cooley.

With that in mind, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, Hood’s first solo album since 2012’s Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance and fourth overall, feels like a record the 60-year-old singer-songwriter has been keeping inside him for decades only to finally burst out. It doesn’t sound like Rundgren, per se, but the melodic, piano-based songwriting and lush, evocative orchestrations that are abundant throughout represent a level...

Jim James, Andrew Bird, Grace Potter, Lucius, the Decemberists, Warren Haynes, Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile, Julien Baker and Benmont Tench all collaborated on a remote cover version of Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love” as part of the Newport Folk Festival’s virtual festival.

The performance, music-directed by the Decemberists’ Chris Funk, features home-recorded performances sewn into a massive web of sound. The collaborators also include Hiss Golden Messenger, Yola, Glen Hansard, Valerie June, Ruby Amanfu, Phil Cook, Sara Watkins and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band,...

Stephen Malkmus has been on quite a creative roll as of late. In 2018, he released Sparkle Hard, one of his best albums to date with his backing band, the Jicks, and last year, he took a detour into synth-pop with Groove Denied. Now, he’s putting out another solo set, this one a folk album called Traditional Techniques on which he plays a 12-string acoustic guitar. While the music is a different look for him, it often evokes pastoral Sixties influences that have been part of his sound for years,...

Stephen Malkmus has announced a new album, Traditional Techniques, out March 6th on Matador. This will be Malkmus’ third solo LP without the Jicks or Pavement, following 2001’s Stephen Malkmus and 2019’s Groove Denied.

Malkmus recorded the record with Chris Funk of The Decemberists and Matt Sweeney, who’s worked with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Chavez.

The indie artist also shared the album’s lead single, “Xian Man,” on Wednesday. In a press statement, Malkmus referred to the song as “straight-up commune rock,” making reference to Christianity and using Afghani instrumentation amongst its 12-string guitar-picking.

Dolly Parton’s surprise appearance may have grabbed most of the headlines during this past summer’s Newport Folk Festival, but one of the weekend’s most exciting moments came during the Sunday evening closing set when Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, the Shins’ James Mercer and Eric Johnson (Fruit Bats) offered a note-by-note rendition of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1969 classic.

With an all-star backing band that included Janet Weiss, Jason Isbell, Benmont Tench, John Stirratt and Chris Funk, the trio worked their way through the song...

For someone so lyrically and reputationally sardonic, Stephen Malkmus’ songs and melodies are often pretty upbeat and cheerful — and without getting into a “best since” pissing match, his new “Sparkle Hard” may be his most approachable album since Pavement’s days of yore.

Over the course of 17 years and six previous albums, he and his Jicks wandered down some daunting musical rabbit holes, and while there’s no shortage of imaginative arrangements and knotty melodies here, Malkmus has said he wanted this album to be more direct, and it is; the experimentation of the past has been distilled and absorbed into the tighter and more concise sound. This is probably due in no small measure to producer Chris Funk of the Decemberists (no stranger to idiosyncratic singers), who diversifies the band’s palette without ever cluttering it, via keyboards, percussion, subtle effects and even a Left Banke-esque string quartet on “Solid Silk.

I’ve been asked to do a “best of” sort of post to close things out. My best of is sort of a “behind the scenes” experience that brought me to this site a long while ago.

So, where to begin?

Although I’ve only been a Completist a short while here, I’ve been a lurker and a follower of No Fact Zone for quite a while. I used my LiveJournal account as a means to follow Nfz ever since a memorable event, not only in my experience as a fan, but also as a milestone in the progress of the show itself: Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon! It all began with the first ever green screen challenge, followed by the coattail riding antics of the Decemberists and the subsequent rivalry that ensued. It culminated with the final show on December 20th, 2006 – a show that sealed the The...