PRESS
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Larkin Grimm | Interview
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foxydigitalis.com | Brad RoseHaving experienced so much already in her life, she has poured these adventures into songs about murder, love, sex, death... Larkin Grimm emerged from the woods last year with her amazing debut, "Harpoon," on Providence imprint Secret Eye. With an absolutely stunning and powerful voice, her songs have a life of their own. Her music is brutally bare and honest, but that only adds to its magic and its beauty. Larkin Grimm is an old soul making her way through the world. Having experienced so much already in her life, she has poured these adventures into songs about murder, love, sex, death... and she does it in a way that makes the most awful things seem beautiful. These ghost songs will haunt you long after they're over. This interview as conducted in March 2006. Where did you grow up and how has that effected your art and your music? From conception to age six, I grew up in a hippie spiritual cult/commune called The Holy Order of MANS. After my parents decided to leave the commune, we moved to a small town in the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia, just south of the North Carolina border. My father,......
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Akron/Family | Interview
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naturalismoSeth Olinsky of Akron/Family was kind enough to answer some of my questions before embarking on a nationwide tour. Naturalismo: Both Meek Warrior and Love is Simple seem thematically consistent, in terms of the outlook projected in both. Meek Warrior seems to be inspired by Buddhist thought (particulary the Heart Sutra in Gone Beyond) whereas Love Is Simple seems borne from the Advaitic school of Nondualism (”No point exists” - There’s So Many Colors). Do you write albums with lyrical themes in mind? Seth Olinsky: Meek Warrior was developed a little more thematically than Love is Simple. Meek was a spur of the moment recording session in Chicago with our hero free jazz drummer Hamid Drake. When we heard of the opportunity, we just hung out in a hotel room and threw together a few songs that had been sitting around that seemed to work together. Part of the selection process was that the songs had themes of or were inspired by Buddhism. Love is Simple didn’t come together this way. It was at first just all of us bringing new songs to the table and then editing down from there. But early on I remember Ryan playing the song......
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Fire On Fire | Review
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Newnoise.com | Nadeem AliFOF = Fire On Fire = Freaked Out Folk "Cerberus Shoal sounded like aliens making space music, FOF sound like aliens making folk music. " Fire On Fire used to be Cerberus Shoal more or less. They might have swapped their electric instruments for a variety of acoustic instrumentation but FOF are recognisably Cerberus Shoal.That isn't to say this is merely a rebranding or an old sound disguised with a new name. FOF are a whole new entity. Chriss Sutherland (vocals, guitar, doumbek), talking to New Noise, explains how the Cerberus Shoal morphed into FOF. "I don't think there is an easy answer to this question and maybe we never really thought about it as we were 'transforming'. We have been together as people for quite some time so I think we saw Fire on Fire as the next logical/natural phase of our existence together. Cerberus Shoal had run its course after almost 12 years so the decision to move on was something that really wasn't decided...it just happened." Cerberus Shoal sounded like aliens making space music, FOF sound like aliens making folk music. That spazzy otherworldly weirdness remains hiding in the backwoods racket they now peddle. The......
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Fire on Fire | Review
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On Milwaukee | Julie LawrenceGritty, yet melodicI heard this South Portland, Maine band on KEXP's "Music That Matters" Podcast and loved the folksy sound from the start. The DJ played a song off their latest release on Young God Records, immediately following a new Bonny "Prince" Billy track and I actually thought it was one long song, if that gives you a feel for the music. Gritty, yet melodic, and chock full of beautiful banjo, accordion and upright bass. Check them out....
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Akron/Family Interview
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Impact Magazine Nottingham UK | Sophie Pearce and Ian Steadman Miles Seaton of Akron/Family ruminates on love, joy and being part of a quasi-religious hermetic brethrenAs an antidote to the money flying around this issue, Miles Seaton of Akron/Family ruminates on love, joy and being part of a quasi-religious hermetic brethren. "Love is simple," Miles says. "Love is a simple and boundless force that suffuses all life. It has no agenda; it's like a fire burning inside you." This is a view that won't surprise anyone familiar with Akron/Family and their particularly joyous and love-ful music. If you're not familiar, then perhaps Pitchfork's label for them, 'unmitigated hippy gaiety,' could go some way to summing up their sound. Or are they being simplified and misunderstood by a music press too eager to place bands into categories? "A little bit. I think we're operating in a system that is constantly looking to be impressed or to impress. Our music is sort-of hippy," he says. He's not wrong their latest release, coincidentally called Love Is Simple, is full of homages to the more flowery periods of 60s psychedelia. The opening track, "Love, Love, Love (Everyone)," could easily be passed off as a Beatles......