For Stasia Irons aka Stas THEE Boss, there’s nothing better than music discovery. Not only does the bicoastal artist and musician love finding hidden gems for herself, but she also revels in gifting them to others to experience, appreciate, and enjoy. Irons values the internal nourishment that a musical revelation provides on a deep level. In fact, she’s devoted her professional life to ensuring others around her experience that feeling, too.
Read MoreCasey Catherwood, creative director and on-field host of the AAA baseball team, The Tacoma Rainiers, goes all out. Like a player sprinting home from third base, every ounce of energy or spark of thought is at Catherwood’s disposal daily as he works the crowd and wows hometown audiences at Cheney Stadium.
Whether he’s in the stands with someone dressed as a gorilla or watching Rainier fans race from the outfield to the infield, Catherwood makes sure those who come to spend a day at the ballpark are rewarded no matter the final score. That’s his mission, and, well, he loves it. It is clear during every home game.
We caught up with Catherwood to ask him about his in-game antics, why he does what he does for the fans and when he fell in love with America’s official pastime. (As of this writing, the Rainiers record is 59-42).
Read MoreJudy Collins is an all-time American performer, songwriter, and, frankly, storyteller. She’s regal, like United States royalty; one could curl up next to a giant fireplace and hear Collins recount story after story, casually dropping friends’ names like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, not to mention countless other writers, directors, and producers.
But Collins, who has a new live album, Live At Town Hall, NYC, released on August 27, is not from any blue blood lineage, per se. Her father, who was blind from the age of four, was a singer, songwriter, and radio host. He was a hardworking man who taught his daughter the value of sweat equity and laying a good, solid foundation.
Perhaps the songwriter’s biggest hit is her recording of “Send In the Clowns.” Penned by famed stage lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, Collins’ rendition went on to earn her a Grammy nomination (and win for Sondheim) and, in many ways, is credited with putting the song (and Sondheim) on the map. Here, we catch up with Collins to go behind the song of “Send In the Clowns,” which charted for 27 weeks and appeared on Collins’ 1975 album, Judith.
Read MoreCertain types of people just love the spotlight and Nick Hexum is admittedly one of those people. He enjoys the attention. It’s what he tells fans who come up to the frontman and co-founder of the genre-bending band, 311, when they ask for autographs or selfies. “I’m so sorry to bother you, do you mind?” they say, timidly. He replies, “If I didn’t like the attention, I would have picked a different career.” In other words, he digs the whole kit-and-caboodle of being a well-known musician. Hexum has been doing just that since 1995 when 311 broke through mainstream culture with its self-titled LP and hits like “Down” and “All Mixed Up.” Today, some 30 years after the band formed, they’re on tour spreading the good 311 word.
Read MoreGrowing up, Isaac Brock, frontman for the Pacific Northwest-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Modest Mouse, listened to a wide swath of music, from Hungarian and Irish folk to the “pro-cookie” songs of Sesame Street. His was one of those households where music was so prevalent and so natural that it just became the thing to do as he got older. For Brock, music was his “primary” interest. As a kid, he sent away for one of the 12-CDs-for-a-penny and got back artists like Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and Dead Milkmen. At 11 years old he was working at a community theater in Issaquah, Washington, surrounded by amateur musicians. At night he’d get a ride from the stage manager and go to an all-ages club in Seattle to see whoever was playing. Then he’d go to school the next morning.
Bits from all of these experiences and more are packed into his band’s newest LP, Golden Casket, released in June. In fact, the record itself is an amalgamation of stories and sounds; a composite of song fragments and feelings.
Read MoreIn 2012, if you turned to anyone on your left or right and asked, “Have you heard the new song, ‘Thrift Shop’?” It’s likely one or both would have emphatically said, “Yes! It’s great!” The song was a giant, ubiquitous hit, winning multiple Grammy Awards and on February 2, 2013, in its sixteenth week, “Thrift Shop” hit No.1 on Billboard.
“Thrift Shop,” which came out nine years ago today, on August 27, 2012, was a definite smash. It was written by Seattle’s Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and features the deep voice of Michael “Wanz” Wansley, a longtime veteran of the Emerald City music scene. While they didn’t know each other before, they’re in the history books now permanently together.
Wanz, who is today a regular at Seattle Mariners games, singing the National Anthem, remembers the day he went in to record the track’s hook. From call to completion, it took maybe three hours. Since then, those three hours have gone on to generate billions of streams and likely millions of dollars.
We caught up with Wanz to talk about “Thrift Shop,” the accompanying lavish music video, and how the world flipped upside down for him in 2012.
Read MoreCalifornia-born rock ‘n’ roll artist, Ty Segall, released one of the best albums of the year – Harmonizer – on August 3. It’s big, rugged, varied, layered, rich with cold showers of guitar tones and bright flashes of synths. There are sounds like the colors that jolt in front of your eyes when you’re hit in the head. It’s delicious – your ears will lap it up.
Segall, who is a prolific musician, is also a prolific engineer. He’s recorded myriad artists, from La Luz to Fred Armisen. He also just completed construction on a new L.A. studio, which he also calls Harmonizer, in which he recorded his new LP.
We caught up with Segall to ask him about the album (his 13th), what he loves about his six-string, how he survived all his self-made avalanches of sound and much more.
Read MoreThe two founding members of the New York City-born group, A Great Big World, have found their method, their songwriting strategy. In an age when it’s practically second nature to look elsewhere, outward or to someone else when in need of something, bandmates, Ian Axel and Chad King, instead look deeply inward, and for them, it’s made all the difference. For the songwriting duo, who rocketed to fame and fortune with their 2013 hit, “Say Something,” which later featured a version with Christina Aguilera that’s been streamed over half-a-billion times on YouTube, to look internally and to dive deep into their own proverbial pools of vulnerability turned out to be the key to success. And this is especially so on the band’s new album, Particles, which is out today (August 27).
Read MoreGrammy-winning musical emissary, Judy Collins, practices mindfulness. In fact, she has for sometime. Collins, who is known for her fluttering, buttery voice, original music, and impactful reinterpretations of all-time classics like “Send In the Clowns” and “Mr. Tambourine Man,” has also endured long stints recovering from significant illnesses in her life, from contracting polio in 1950 at 11 years old to later suffering from tuberculosis in 1962 after her debut performance at Carnegie Hall. In those isolated times, Collins focused pointedly on mental composure. It’s a super power, in a way, and one she uses today to remain a sought-after, precise performer at 82-years-old—exemplified on her new album, Live At The Town Hall, NYC, out tomorrow.
Read MoreTwin sister singer-songwriters, Felisha and Fallon King have always had an unspoken connection. How could they not? The two started as womb-mates and have since grown up together singing, writing, and participating in music groups since they could talk—or even before that. As infants, Felisha (who recently married and is now Felisha King-Harvey) and Fallon were always humming, warbling, or intoning. When they asked their mother for a snack, it was in-melody. Seeing talent in his daughters by the age of six, the twins’ father, Charles, began to manage them. They formed the group, Cherish (with older sisters Farrah and Neosha), and have since gone on to work with artists like Justin Bieber and earned No. 1 songwriting spots on Billboard.
Read MoreIf you ask the award-winning songwriter and performer, Judy Collins, about her father, she’ll tell you that he helped to set her foundation as an artist—but, perhaps more importantly, she’ll also tell you that he helped to set her foundation as a hard worker first and foremost. Collins, who later went on to earn several Grammy nominations and a win in 1969, is known today for her crystal clear singing voice, folks aesthetics, and interconnectedness with some of the biggest names in American entertainment, from Leonard Cohen to Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Stephen Sondheim. Collins—whose forthcoming album, Live At The Town Hall, NYC, set for release Friday (August 27)—remains focused on the work at 8 years old. She’ll drop another studio record in 2022 (called, Girl From Colorado) and, she says, she’ll continue to write, sing and live in song for as long as fate allows.
Read MoreIt’s said that life is often a battle between what one wants and what one perceives to be the expectations of others. For Tierinii Jackson, frontwoman for the Memphis-born Grammy-nominated band, Southern Avenue, growing up, this was absolutely the case. For Jackson, who was raised in a musical but religious household and who spent many hours in church, life early on was a struggle to find and fight for her identity—even in the places where she should have been accepted the most.
In a world where Jackson was taught more what she couldn’t do than what she could, finding her voice and her place wasn’t gifted to her by her parents or the church. Yet, she pushed ahead. Now, she and her band are set to release their latest LP, Be The Love You Want, a positive, advice-laden record that reads as much like a blueprint for self-worth as it does entertainment.
Read MoreFamed French composer, Yann Tiersen, remembers seeing a mountain lion. He was out in nature about five years ago in Northern California when the animal began following him and his cycling party. Tiersen and his group were hours into a long ride and far from formal help. He remembers seeing cubs, too, thinking that the mother and babies were probably very hungry, even starving. It was dangerous. Around that time, a cougar attacked several hikers in Washington State, killing one. While the mountain lion never pounced, for Tiersen, the experience was formative. At that moment, a strong sense of what an ecosystem really is crystallized in his mind. Life is not human-centric, of course. So, Tiersen thought, his music — including his new release, Kerber, out Friday (Aug. 27) —should be something of an ecosystem, too.
Read MoreChris Ballew, frontman for the Seattle-born band, The Presidents of the United States of America, remembers the super-tornado that sprung from his band’s self-titled 1995 album and its smash, worldwide hit, “Peaches.” It was in 1996 some 25 years ago when “Peaches” really took over the airwaves, playing seemingly every 30 minutes on commercial rock stations around the country (and, likely, globally, too).
“Peaches,” which hit No. 1 in Iceland and reached the top 20 in a handful of other countries, peaked at No. 29 on Billboard and No. 8 on its Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. In the mind of many teenagers at the time, though, it was surely a domestic No. 1 hit. The song, itself, is cartoonish, fun: Peaches come from a can, Ballew sings. They were put there by a man. In a factory downtown”
But the story behind the hit is both drug-filled (in a good way) and full of coincidence. Here, we catch up with Ballew to learn the origins of the song and how it changed his life dramatically. Ballew, who recently put out a new solo project, I Am Not Me, under his own name is a true dynamo of creativity.
Read MoreThink of two jump ropes. You’re in between, one arcs above your head as the other sweeps under your feet, which are themselves lifted off the ground. Picture this whirl of string and height going for two, three, four minutes at length. This is a metaphor for the music of Oakland-born artist, Still Woozy, whose dreamy, off-kilter songs are produced with such studio savvy that it comes across like sonic childhood Double-Dutch. Still Woozy, aka Sven Eric Gamsky, makes music that feels like your eyes just opened or your whole body is in mid-air. This is especially the vibe of the artist’s latest album, If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is, which he released on August 13.
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