Interviews

Andre Williams is opening for Justin Townes Earle on Memorial at Chicago's Millennium Park.

We look forward to Mr Rhythm singing "Jailbait" and who knows what else in front of thousands of possibly unsuspecting Chicagoans.  The potential for weirdness is quite high.

Enjoy THIS interview with the Man himself, which includes several videos, the Blues Brothers, Lawrence Fishburne as Ike Turner, and quotations such as this, when asked about his inspiration for writing "Shake a Tail Feather": "OK, since you asked that question, I knew there had to be a way to say, "Come on, and shake your ass."

PopMatters famous 20 Questions feature turns its sights on Ha Ha Tonka's drummer Lennon Bone.

Find out about his love of Steve Reich, YouTube, his gift for hand farting, his heroes and why he will never NEVER go see Marley and Me.

Read it HERE.

Videos! Interviews!  Rather than post separately, here are the nifty bits 'o' media oddness that crossed our virtual desks today (well, maybe not TODAY, but I'm finally getting around to them.)

--HA HA TONKA:  Most people assume that life on the road is one of glamour and comfort.  Well, HHT shows just how TRUE THIS IS with THIS hilarious (yet sadly accurate) little video on Digital Tour Bus about their trusty (well, not so trusty, but that's another story) van.  SWOON ALERT: Luke Long is shirtless throughout the video.  See how REAL musicians travel...

--JON LANGFORD: While Jon girds himself of his upcoming EAST COAST tour, we thought we'd wet your musical whistle with THIS video posted on Time Out Chicago of him and band performing acoustic "Getting Used To Uselessness" from his latest fab slab Old Devils

--SCOTT H BIRAM: Someone thought it would be smart to put SHB on TV in Austin.  Check THIS out, man.  Scott's covering Don Walser, yodels his ass off in a Black Flag T and camo trucker cap after being intro'd by the squeaky clean super square TV host.

--BEN WEAVER: A fantastic feature on Aquarium Drunkard. It's called Diversions and covers artists waxing about subjects other than performing.  Ben talks about meeting the great southern author Larry Brown

--WHITEY MORGAN: Our Flint outlaw country dudes did a podcast with Taproot Radio.  Listen in HERE

WHEW!  That oughtta keep you all occupied for AT LEAST an hour at "work"

Enjoy

In the current Time Out Chicago, Jon Langford discusses his new album Old Devils, actual old devils like Kingsley Amis and Andre Williams and why his bass player is allowed to ride mechanical bulls in bars, but not his guitar player.

Read it HERE

Jon and some of the Skull Orchard performed "1234 Ever" in the Time Out Offices.  Watch it HERE

And HERE they perform at photographer Jim Newberry's studio the NPR affilliate WBEZ studios ---"Strange Ways To Win Wars"

Enjoy, and we hope we see you at The Ball!

Usually, when we get bits and pieces of news or interesting tidbits, we try and weave them together and present them to you as a thematic whole.  After much mulling, we could find no way to do that, so we thought the very LACK of a theme would be the theme.  Thus, three totally unrelated bits of news for your time-wasting pleasure as we slink towards the three day weekend:

--ASCAP posted a great little "Audio Portrait" of Graham Parker. He talks about the songwriting process, what he looks for in a perfect pop song, how he balances the dark with the cheery, PLUS you get to hear segments of several of his new songs from his lastest album Imaginary Television.  Have a listen HERE

--When Devil in a Woodpile broke up, we were (and remain) very sad.  However, washboardist/harpist Rick Sherry's new band Sanctified Grumblers have picked up the slack some.  In addition to reviving the Tuesday night gigs at the Hideout, HERE's a video of their song "Stump Grinder"---it'll put some lead in your pencil.  We'll see you Tuesdays...

--Finally, we've been running this madhouse known as Bloodshot for 15 years now, working longs hours for low pay faced with the constant vicissitudes that beset small independents like us.  So, you'll have to excuse us if we get a little miffed when interlopers and dilettantes muscle in on our territory.   When we got the news that ELLEN FRICKING DEGENERES has started her own label, well, part of us wanted to rail against the heavens at all the easy publicity she's getting and part of us wanted to go all Virginia Woolfe and put rocks in our pockets and wade into Lake Michigan.  Maybe then we could get the wider world to pay attention.

Enjoy your long weekend and remember: only YOU can prevent such madness...

Here's a grand interview with Exene Cervenka from the The Sunbreak in Seattle.  She talks about working with Ray Manzarek of the Doors, how X would jam to Carl Perkins tunes early on, why record stores are important, what her favorite albums are and so much more.  It's a great, informative read and, as we keep mentioning, that's getting rarer and rarer in the blogosphere.  There's even this little snippet that made us blush (for the record, we did NOT pay her to say this, or threaten her in any way.)

"Tell me a little about your relationship with Bloodshot Records. They're very akin spiritually to the vibe you've always been on."

Exene: "That's the first time I've ever heard of a record label being accused of spirituality--they're usually considered heartless bastards that everyone hates [laughs]. But not in the case of Bloodshot. Spirituality, indeed. They asked me to do a record, and I was thrilled to death, because I love Bloodshot Records, and they've been nothing but good to me. They really have worked hard. Everyone who works there is smart, intuitive, caring. I've done a couple of South-by-Southwests since I've been on Bloodshot. They just work their asses off to get this music out. They really believe in what they're doing, and they're awesome. Best label I've ever been on."

In anticipation of Exene's West Coast Free In Store Tour, Orange Coast Magazine published THIS extensive profile and interview.  Exene talks about her move back to SoCal, the punk days and her creative process.

We like nice in depth stuff like this...

Entertainment Weekly corners GP about his new record, "the year's most creative concept album by far," his hedonism, what he watches on the TV and a lengthy insight into how he writes (the age old Stones or Beatles, Pepsi or Coke, Ginger or Mary Ann, lyrics or music question...)

Check it out HERE

A few weeks ago, Nan and Rob appeared on Chicago's own talk show The Interview Show in front of, as they say in the TV biz, a LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE (or, in this case, The Hideout).

Now it's been edited and posted on the Huffington Post.  Have a gander at Nan's silver space lady boots and purple hair.  Marvel at the oddly placed microphone that hides most of Rob's face, but not his dry wit.  Listen as they talk of the cruel vicissitudes of the music racket and check out the Blacks performance

See it HERE.

Top shelf Chicago music scribe Greg Kot gives the low down on the Blacks' improbable reunion in the Chicago Tribune, as well as a review of their new digital only release In Sickness and Health

A snippet:

"In true Chicago fashion, Danny Black doesn’t sugarcoat things. When asked whether he thought his band the Blacks would ever get back together after breaking up acrimoniously 10 years ago, he says, 'No way. I would say no [frigging] way. When it’s going well with this band, it’s pretty incredible. But when it’s bad, it’s really bad. There was no way I thought it could happen.'”

Read the whole piece HERE.