GO TO A DIY SHOW THIS WEEKEND
By now, most of us are aware of City Hall’s latest attack in their sneaky and unpredictable War on Culture. A few weeks ago venerable Bywater institution Siberia ran into some permitting issues that caused them to suspend their expansive live music schedule, and just yesterday it appears a similar fate officially befell the similarly venerable Circle [...]
Thanks, Dog: A Strangely Fitting Kinship
It was only recently that I began to finally fathom, after four years or so, the narrow yet oddly pervasive influence of Dr. Dog in the consciousness of New Orleans. I’ve always felt their presence here; it’s inescapable when you live in the town that boarded the dudes who started a label specifically to put [...]
“Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and Questions of Avant-Garde
Though it may be surprising to find ourselves realizing that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the 2002 offering from Chicago-based Americana heroes Wilco, has already turned ten years old, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that, after ten years, we are still reflecting on, raving about, arguing over and debating the album, its surrounding controversy and its [...]
For Lack of a Better Phrase, NOLA Bands “Killed It” at SXSW
Hours before my fourth trip to South by Southwest Festival would take a decided turn for the Kerouackian, when I’d find myself sleeping among a sea of strangers thirty deep in what appeared to be a furniture-free detox safe house for strung-out teens with an elderly black man walking around smoking a cigarette preaching the [...]
An Open Letter To The New Orleans City Council
Dear members of the New Orleans City Council, When I moved to New Orleans in the beginning of 2008, after leaving a job in Minneapolis and a life largely spent in and the around the Chicagoland area, it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with almost every aspect of this majestic city. [...]
Barryfest Endorses: Basement Shows
Without any knowledge of history or topography, one would think that a city with as much filth and poverty as New Orleans would have a stronger hollowed-out basement scene. But unlike our blighted correlatives all the way up in Detroit, we don’t live the basement life, which is a shame considering our ballooning numbers of [...]
The Strange Confluence of Internet Media, Semi-legitimate Live Music Establishments and Hardcore Punk
It should have been artlessly apparent to anyone who attended Siberia’s Saturday, October 15 showcase of California supergroup Off! and Brooklyn newcomers Cerebral Ballzy – bands who overwhelmingly appear to represent the heart of a new wave of tradition-burning and norm-ducking hard edged music – that it was a categorical smash success for every party [...]
Thoughts on Voodoo And The Current And Future State Of Music
That the 2011 Voodoo Music Experience dispatched the second Le Ritual Stage to expand the electro-focused Le Plur area and add an additional DJ venue should come as no surprise to anyone who made it out to City Park last Halloween or attended literally any other weekend music festival in the last 12-18 months. Last [...]
Barryfest Endorses: Avant-Garde Side Projects
With a Webster’s Dictionary definition like “of or relating to an intelligentsia that develops new or experimental concepts, especially in the arts”, it’s no wonder so many musicians get blindly lost in the unavoidable pretention of being “avant-garde”. Some musicians spend their entire lives attempting to meet the aims of that definition, and are accountable [...]
