Author Archive for Hilary Crowe

Interview: Black Lips

From Atlanta to India, the Black Lips cross the globe in search of good times, leaving good shows – and new fans – in their wake. Now on tour supporting their latest release, 200 Million Thousand, bassist Jared Swilley talked to Black Plastic Bag about being chased out of India, getting covered by Wu-Tang's GZA, [...]

Interview: Benjy Ferree

Don't call Benjy Ferree's latest release, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee, a concept album. A tribute to Bobby Driscoll (the child actor who inspired Disney's animated Peter Pan) Ferree's new album celebrates life, reflects on death, and creates a brilliant sophomore LP in the process.
Black Plastic Bag had a [...]

M. Ward at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue

For many, Matt Ward is best known as one half of She & Him, the indie-folk duo Zooey Deschanel (the Ward's other half in the band) foisted into the limelight last March. But to those who know better, M. Ward is the Fahey-following, finger-plucking guitar hero whose jaw-dropping performance Saturday night silenced the sold-out crowd [...]

Weekend Music Round-Up

Friday

The Blue Line, Jo Henley Band, Stella Schindler. The Red & The Black. $8. +21.
No Second Troy, Olivia Mancini & the Terrible Two, Meredith Bragg. Black Cat. $10. All ages.
Drive-By Truckers, Bloodkin. 9:30 club (Friday & Saturday). $25. All ages.
EARLY SHOW: Ludo, Sing It Loud, This Providence, The Morning Light. $12. LATE SHOW: P.O.S., Doomtree, [...]

Weekend Music Round-Up

Friday

Imperial China, New Rock Church Of Fire, The Sentiment, A Born Idler. Rock and Roll Hotel. $10. All Ages.
Julie Murphy Wells. The Barns at Wolf Trap. $20. All ages.
Donald Harrison, John Lamkin Quartet. Bohemian Caverns, (Friday & Saturday). $25. All ages.
Velodrome feat. Mas y Mas, DJ Ed Dudes, DJ Scott Bauer. Velvet Lounge. $8. +21.
Holy [...]

T.I.’s “Road to Redemption” Paved With Revelations, Brownie Points

Lately, it seems every musician is endorsing or supporting one cause or another–be it a new design for Coke's discotheque presence, the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels, or, in Clifford "T.I."/"Tip" Harris' case, troubled youths.
In his juridical ass-kissing MTV docu-series "T.I.'s Road to Redemption:45 Days To Go," the 28-year-old Grammy-winning rapper intervenes in the lives [...]

The Weekend’s Must-See Music Acts: Deleted Scenes, DJ Decibelle, and Cat Power

Friday

Caverns, Deleted Scenes, Hammer No More The Fingers, Acedia. Rock and Roll Hotel. $10. All ages.
Sweet Interference CD Release Party, Carousel Rogues, Earth Note Syndicate. The Red & The Black. $8. +21.
Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Joan Jones. 9:30 club. $25. All ages.
Lonely Hearts Club with DJ Decibelle, DJ Jackie O. and AK Slaughter [...]

Steve Martin: “The Jerk” Goes Country

Steve Martin–known to boomers as "The Jerk," to hipsters as the jerk opposite Claire Danes in "Shop Girl" and, more recently, to your kid sister as Inspector Clouseau–is an accomplished banjoist. According to the New York Times, in the country/bluegrass community, Martin is an esteemed master of the difficult clawhammer playing style. Martin told [...]

McCartney, Killers, Cure Headline Coachella 2009

That's right. Coachella posted the full line up earlier today. Of all the stellar bands slated to burn up Indio, Calif., April 17-19, two of the three acts chosen to headline the festivities–I'm blogging at you, Paul McCartney and Robert Smith–haven't made an album worth listening to since most Coachella attendees were in diapers. As [...]

ScarJo Butchers Buckley

At Coachella 2007, smokin' starlet Scarlett Johanson lent her sultry vocals to then-freshly reunited Scottish noise-poppers Jesus & Mary Chain's performance of their best-known single, "Just Like Honey" (also featured in Lost In Translation). Roughly a year later, Johansson foisted an album of low key, lounge-lizard reworkings of Tom Waits classics (Anywhere I Lay My [...]