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Larkin Grimm | radio interview
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Wnyc Public Radio | David GarlandLive Radio Performance The fabulous Larkin Grimm (future Young God Records recording artist) performed live solo and did an interview too for one hour, April 15 on David Garland's NYC Public Radio (WNYC) show Spinning On Air. LISTEN NOWHIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!! Do it! Do it now! All the Best, Michael Gira/Young God Records Master ...
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Akron/Family | Live Review
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Jambands.com | Jesse Jarnow Club Europa, Brooklyn, NY- 2/14NYC ROLL-TOP: Akakakakakakakakakak. Post-yourmom indie jammers Akron/Family made a hometown pitstop on Valentine's Day, at Brooklyn's Club Europa. Over the ambitious two-hour set, the prolific quartet demonstrated an energy they are still shaping. Beginning the set with all four bandmembers at centerstage, they hummed into the "Love and Space" mantra that closed last year's Meek Warrior, accompanied by minimal acoustic guitar, and revealed a group of predilections: chanting, prettiness, vague spirituality, and using the stage effectively. And, afterwards, spread back out and playing "Moment," they revealed three more: jamming, noise, and dramatic songwriting. Beginning with a blast of guitar, the song's structure is curious: chaos first, a seamless drop into a drum-rolled chant, some gently disintegrative feedback, some omming, a burst of guitar harmonies, a cosmic Americana breakdown, about how "this moment is over," and then -- wouldn'tchaknowit? -- some good ol' Beach Boys ba-ba-baing. With all of these factors established, the band varied the levels. There were other tricks, too: Seth Olinsky beginning "Running, Return" by playing music box-like ringtones through his bass pick-ups, and getting the crowd to naturally join in the outro chant (and then begin whistling the melody while the......
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Akron/Family | Interview
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readthehook.com | Vijith Assarwe're just dorky guys who make weird musicPublished February 15, 2007 in issue 0607 of the HooK.CULTURE- Splitsville: Akron/Family's 'nonsensical' blending As even guitarist Seth Olinsky will admit, if any of the Akron/Family albums had come from a single composer, it might have suggested mild mental distress. As it turns out, there are four people in the band, but I'm still not entirely convinced. They're just too comfortable with too much. For every cacophonous and epic "Dolphin Song," there's a charming and disarming pop nugget like "I'll Be On The Water" or a riff-rock sing-along like "Raising The Sparks." Every once in a while you'll realize that they're serving up all three simultaneously. It would, however, be a great disservice to the band for me to claim that they strike a balance between these extremes. The truth is that they're all over the map, with no unifying stylistic thread save a compositional sense that is at times brilliant, and elsewhere never anything less than utterly precocious. These guys know how to write a hook, sure, but what sets them apart is that they also know when to ignore it-- and they're not afraid to force you to......
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Akron/Family | Review
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Washington Post | Mark Jenkinsthe group has fashioned a musical mix that pulls in many directions yet never seems forced or haphazard"Meek Warrior" Young God IT'S ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE that Akron/Family's impressive new mini-album, "Meek Warrior," includes one song whose lyrics come from a Buddhist mantra. On its previous releases, this New York-based post-rock quartet has attempted to conjure the fashionable vibe of "old weird America." There's still some of that on this disc, which includes a Elizabethan-sounding ballad, "Gone Beyond," and ends with a sort of New Age bluegrass hymn, "Love and Space." Yet such remarkable pieces as "Blessing Force," an almost 10-minute expedition through thumps, drones, chants, bleats and phase patterns, seem to take their direction more from Osaka than from Appalachia. Perhaps the Boredoms and their successors weren't a direct influence on "Meek Warrior," but Akron/Family has found its way to a similar sort of agitated yet coherent eclecticism. With free-jazz drummer Hamid Drake joining in, the group has fashioned a musical mix that pulls in many directions yet never seems forced or haphazard. "Meek Warrior" is unlikely to be the band's commercial breakthrough -- it's too, well, weird -- but it is an artistic one......
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Akron/Family | Live preview
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Washingtonpost.com | David Malitz you never know when you'll have your mind blown The first (and only) time David saw Akron/Family was Dec. 8, 2005. Why does he remember the specific date for a random concert? Because -- and sorry to get all Zach Braff on you -- more than any other show over the past few years, that one changed his life the most. Here's why: It wasn't necessarily the best show I've seen during that stretch, although it certainly was great. It was more the circumstances surrounding it. It was a Thursday night, the forecast was calling for snow, it was a band I was into, but not all that much. Still, I felt some pull to go see this show, to support a good band that I hadn't seen before on a night when there clearly wasn't going to be much of a crowd. So I went to Iota and was rewarded with one of the most unique performances I've ever seen. The band certainly didn't care that there were maybe 30 people in attendance. It went about its business as it normally would, playing a two-hour-plus set that veered all over the map from instrument-free four-part singalongs in......