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Akron/Family | Interview with Dana Janssen
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Hour Weekly/Montreal | Dylan YoungJan 11 / 06 Akron/FamilyPeople in your neighbourhood It's hard to tell whether we've given up on the whole music interview thing out of common disdain, mutual ambivalence or whether it's that we're both just really, really hung over. In any case, Akron/Family's Dana Janssen and I have spent most of the last hour trading party anecdotes, comparing rent between Mile End and Williamsburg, staring blankly into our coffee mugs, and pretty much avoiding most of the natural conventions of the music interview. We're sitting in a booth at Gimme Coffee, the Williamsburg café that doubles as a drop-in centre for the neighbourhood's aspiring hipster population. Janssen will insist several times during our conversation that it is the best coffee in the world. I won't dispute it, mainly because I am hanging onto mine like it is the last hope for my waning ability to string words together. Various people mill in and greet Janssen, shake hands with the guy from Montreal: a pretty brunette who paints pictures of show dogs, a sculptor from the '60s who lives in a converted Brooklyn schoolhouse, some dudes from other bands, a few cute girls who want to be......
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Akron/Family | Live Review
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Toronto Star Akron/Family raised an unholy (or a holy) racket Jan 15/06 ...Akron/Family raised an unholy or ‹given the quasi-gospel nature of its material and approach ‹a holy racket which ended with all four members of the largely shirtless band standing in the middle of the floor section of the hall exhorting the audience to chant and clap along to the refrain "love and space." Like everything else in the quartet's wildly unhinged, feedback-fuelled set, the rendition of the song in question, "Raising the Sparks," bore a recognizable but distant similarity to its execution on CD. The tribally primitive performance was a marked contrast to the delicacy that surrounded it.... ...
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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review
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www.pennyblackmusic.com | Jamie RowlandI find Akron/Family to be one of the most exciting bands around at the moment Dec 05This release on Young God Records sees the Akron/Family teaming up with ex-Swans man Michael Gira; here under his musical moniker Angels of Light. Now, before I get into reviewing this CD, I should say that I find Akron/Family to be one of the most exciting bands around at the moment, and it's very lucky I'm going to start gushing about them pretty much straight away (actually I think I've already started). I can only apologise for this.The first 7 tracks on the album are just Akron/Family by themselves. As we've already established, I like this band a lot, so let me explain to you why. On tracks like "Moment", "Future Myth" and "Raising the Sparks", it sounds like the band are having just the best time ever recording them, and that comes through in the music. This sense of enjoyment is infectious. It gets into you, and you can't help but feel good while listening to these songs. Or, at least, I can't.So that's the fun songs. But Akron/Family are also incredibly adept at creating heart-breakingly beautiful and atmospheric pieces......
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Angels Of Light And Akron/family | Review
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pennyblackmusic.com | Jamie RowlandIf I had to choose a couple of bands I was really excited about hearing more from in 2006, it would be Angels of Light & Akron/Family. Dec 05This release on Young God Records sees the Akron/Family teaming up with ex-Swans man Michael Gira; here under his musical moniker Angels of Light. Now, before I get into reviewing this CD, I should say that I find Akron/Family to be one of the most exciting bands around at the moment, and it's very lucky I'm going to start gushing about them pretty much straight away (actually I think I've already started). I can only apologise for this.The first 7 tracks on the album are just Akron/Family by themselves. As we've already established, I like this band a lot, so let me explain to you why. On tracks like "Moment", "Future Myth" and "Raising the Sparks", it sounds like the band are having just the best time ever recording them, and that comes through in the music. This sense of enjoyment is infectious. It gets into you, and you can't help but feel good while listening to these songs. Or, at least, I can't.So that's the fun songs. But......
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Akron/Family | Live Review
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popmatters.com | Peter JosephGoodbye 45-minute sets and hello two and a half hours-plus of exhausting, exhilarating rock. AKRON/FAMILY + WOODEN WAND14 January 2006: Knitting Factory ‹ New YorkLong Hauls? Yes; Bong Hauls? Maybe...Indie rock is awash with clichés, and it's high time we lost a few: goodbye cowboy boots; goodbye extreme bangs; goodbye black horn-rimmed glasses; goodbye American Apparel (Sorry, Dov Charney, you'll just have to post your amateur porn on the Internet like everyone else).And, most importantly, goodbye short sets. I've had enough of headlining acts that only play for 45 minutes. So what if you only have one album? I paid three dollars for this can of Pabst, and you better not finish before I do.Of course, I'd gotten as used to the short set as the next guy. Maybe it's the nine-to-five, or because my left ear has started to ring like the alarm in Hell's firehouse; either way, I had started not to mind the short sets as much. Until recently, when bands wrapped up and packed up just shy of midnight, I was happy to bid them goodnight. Of course, this was all before Akron/Family came by, and reminded me of just what I've been......