RomiTheWriter

One full week without Tulip. I found out the day before she died was national tulip day, and the day after the tulips in front of the house bloomed. We have a "memorial table" set up with some of Tulip's things. We should get her ashes back at the end of the week. August still seems confused. It doesn't help that the other pup in their lives, from daycare, also died—the very next day after Tulip. The kids are asking about that one, too.

I had mentioned that I interviewed Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark last week, and they have a new song about the death of a puppy. I asked a couple of questions about that and here's part of what Paul Humphries told me. I like that he also referred to his puppy as a person.

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos has his eyes trained only ahead when it comes to this next stage of his band following the departure of founding guitarist Nick McCarthy.

On the day following the release of their sixth album, Ti Amo, Parisian quartet Phoenix could be jogging a victory lap and celebrating the end of a process that saw frontman Thomas Mars, guitarist/keyboardist Laurent Brancowitz, bassist Deck d’Arcy, and guitarist Christian Mazzalai working around the clock for the better part of three years.

Instead, Phoenix is figuring out how to perfect their new songs in a live setting. Outside the band’s trailer at a Bay Area radio station concert, the four chat, their faces not showing excitement, but rather, concentration. A few minutes later, Mars and Brancowitz depart, and Mazzalai and d’Arcy recall where they were at this point on the release schedule for Bankrupt! in 2013.

“We were headlining Coachella… So we were really focused, you know, performing with R. Kelly, who was our secret guest,” Mazzalai says. “So, again, now, we are focusing on the live [show]. Maybe it’s a way to just try to go always forward. Our little songs don’t belong to us anymore.”

CONTINUED AT FLOOD MAGAZINE

The thing about writing and recording an album remotely, by email and video chat, is that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a miscommunication will be made.

Eric Pulido of Midlake is on the phone from Denton, Texas to talk about BNQT (“Banquet”), his band with fellow frontmen Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses, Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, Fran Healy of Travis and Jason Lytle of Grandaddy.

He is describing how BNQT’s debut album, Volume 1 (released April 28), was supposed to consist of tracks featuring contributions from each member. “Real Love,” an uptempo Beatles-esque groove with slide guitar and brass, was one of two songs Pulido wrote—an ode to his wife. So he sent the track to the others after he felt the lyrics and music were nailed down, and asked whether they saw themselves coming in at the chorus, singing a verse or doing backup vocals.

“Maybe I wasn’t listening properly to him when we spoke on the phone,” says Healy, who has joined the call from Berlin. “I thought he wanted me to rewrite one of the verses. So I sat for fucking ages, man, and I was trying to get into it. I rewrote an entire verse and then the bridge thing and sent it over to him.”

CONTINUED AT PASTE.

Outward pop music doesn’t usually succeed under what Sally Ó Dúnlaing refers to as Ireland’s musical “glass ceiling.” While there’s a huge per-capita level of talent, successful Irish pop is still rare. And even at a time when Irish electro-pop artists led by the likes of Róisín Murphy and Young Wonder have broken through, guitar bands and traditional folk acts still rule the scene.

Ó Dúnlaing makes music as Ódú and while she grew up in Coastal Ireland, she was born in New York to English and Irish parents. Her debut EP, Conversations, was released on Feb. 24 and is filled with dark-yet-danceable pop songs about conflict, misunderstandings and heated emotion.

READ MORE

From the moment Kendrick Lamar dropped To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015, America began to take notice of jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington. He was but one of dozens of collaborators on the album that would eventually win pretty much every award under the sun, but his presence—an urgent momentum that propelled To Pimp a Butterfly through songs and interludes toward climactic resolution—was felt throughout.

CONTINUED AT FLOOD MAGAZINE.

Read an additional interview with Washington at RIFF. See some photos and video here.

It may come as a surprise that three bare-chested, tattoo-covered, hard rockers who have shared the stage together since their teens, tearing through sweat-soaked clubs, arenas and even stadiums, have two distinct fears. The first was of a small vacant room.

“We’ve always been a little bit afraid of the studio and we’ve always used it as a way just to document the sound of our band,” says 36-year-old Biffy Clyro singer-guitarist Simon Neil. CONTINUED AT PASTE MAGAZINE

More Biffy in the archive.

Check out RIFFmagazine.com next week for another Neil interview. Follow RIFF on Facebook and Twitter.

Hey everyone. If you follow me on Tumblr, you likely appreciate some of my music journalism, photos and videos. That, or you’re a bot.

I wanted to let you know about a new site I have started with several friends in journalism and other media. It’s called RIFF Magazine - www.RIFFmagazine.com, Facebook.com/RIFFonline and Twitter.com/RIFFonline. 

RIFF is all the good stuff you like from my Tumblr posts, but in a more centralized place, and with the help of other talented writers, photographers, musicians, promoters, radio personalities, TV news people, record label directors and more. We’re just starting now, and I’d really appreciate it if you were among the first to bookmark the website and follow us on social media. 

Best, Roman

The second time I spoke to Margo Price (the first is here), she was ramping up for what would soon become a deluge of TV appearances and publicity events. Did you catch her on Saturday Night Live this past weekend? She was about to again spend a lot of time on the road to promote her debut solo album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. So I asked her what it was like spending time away from her 5-year-old son. Price let me know that he has come on several of her tours in the past, while her in-laws—Price is married to her bassist, Jeremy Ivey—have moved to Nashville to care for him when the family is separated. 

“It has been hard to realize that I have to spend time away from my son; I never want to do that,” Price told me. “But when I am home I’m with him 100 percent of the time. I try to look at the fact that Loretta Lynn had four children before she made it, Tammy (Wynette) was also a mom, and Emmylou Harris. 

“But you see men do it all the time and it’s not a question that people would probably ask Sturgill Simpson,” Price continued. “But it’s harder for a mother to be away from home, and I’ve felt judgment from friends, at times. Like, ‘How does it feel to go vacation everywhere and go to Europe and leave your kid at home?’ It’s not always a vacation and it is work.”

The quotes above didn’t make my story, which ran today in Paste.

The first time I spoke to Nashville singer-songwriter Margo Price, she was stuck in a motel room outside the airport in Newark, New Jersey. Winter Storm Jonas had already cancelled three of her flights out of the area, and Price and her husband, band member Jeremy Ivey, were beginning to go stir-crazy. “We’re lucky we haven’t killed each other yet,” Price told me. Luckily, for me, that meant we could have a pleasant, nearly hourlong conversation. 

The result of that conversation is this story in FLOOD magazine, which I’m happy to say can be found both online and in print. Margo Price is a name you’ll hear a lot in 2016. Here’s your introduction.

I met with the Oregon-raised and Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter in San Francisco last Sunday, before the second of her two shows opening for St. Lucia. She’s been on the St. Lucia tour for a while, but thanks to a mix-up, got to share the stage with rapper Vince Staples in Vancouver, B.C., just a few days earlier. “St. Lucia was having some difficulties getting into Canada and ... they weren’t going to have a show,” she told me. “They ended up having it but we already were able to get on the bill for Vince Staples. There was a bunch of drama. It turned out really well and we weren’t expecting so many people to be so receptive of the non-hip-hop vibe.”

Mitchell’s drama continued in San Francisco when her driver dropped her a mile away from the Independent while it was raining cats and dogs. Read the whole story now at The Bay Bridged.

Mitchell has a debut album on the way. Look for it and some more shows this summer.

I came, I watched, I got dizzy from the background. Check out my review of the first of two Prince shows at the Paramount Theatre last night, in FLOOD Magazine.

Photo: Prince in Oakland. Courtesy of Nick Buckmaster.

A full multimedia extravaganza! Words, a video and photos! Check out the music-related coverage of Super Bowl 50 Media Day I and photographer Jon Bauer put together, in The Bay Bridged.

I interviewed St. Lucia’s Jean-Philip Grobler just a few days ago, two days prior to the drop of his sophomore album, “Matter.” The 40-minute conversation ranged from making the album, to designing a coherent visual representation, and the lead-up to release. Check out the story now at Paste Magazine.

I’ve spoken to Jean before, and there’s previous St. Lucia coverage in the archive.

Sunny Levine has produced some prominent names in music, and also happens to be in a family synonymous with production of great music. Check out the interview in FLOOD Magazine.

Last month I interviewed Julien Baker, an amazing up-and-coming singer-songwriter, for FLOOD Magazine. This month, I spoke to her again for Paste. The Magazine just today named her debut album to it’s 50 best of 2015 list.

Check out the new story today. Come back later this week to learn a little more about how Baker was inspired by her parents to help others.

She’s got an East Coast and Midwest Tour in January. The following month, expect to see her on the West Coast. The tour dates should be announced shortly.

Julien Baker tour dates

January 14 – LOUISVILLE, KY @ ZANZABAR 15 – CHICAGO, IL @ LINCOLN HALL* 16 – MADISON, WI @ HIGH NOON SALOON $ 18 – COLUMBUS, OH @ BIG ROOM BAR 19 – PITTSBURGH, PA @ CLUB CAFÉ 20 – PHILADELPHIA, PA @ BOOT & SADDLE 21 – NEW YORK, NY @ MERCURY LOUNGE 23 – BOSTON, MA @ THE RED ROOM AT CAFÉ 929 26 – WASHINGTON, DC @ DC9 27 – CARRBORO, NC @ CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM 28 – ATLANTA, GA @ AISLE 5