Jeremiah Zagar: Interview

Jeremiah Zagar is a filmmaker with an infectious passion and commitment to his craft. His documentary, In a Dream, was shot over a seven-year period and is culled from 300 hours of footage. The film is based around the relationship between Zagar’s father, Isaiah, and his mother, Julia. Isaiah’s work will be instantly familiar to anyone who has spent time in Philadelphia. His beautiful mosaics are sprawled across numerous buildings in the city, making him one of the greatest American folk artists of his generation. In a Dream brings Isaiah’s work to life in bright, vivid color. But it also affords him room to ruminate on his personal life, sparking a number of revelations that provide genuine insight into his character. I spoke to Jeremiah about the film in Brooklyn.

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Women - Women: Album Review

The four men who make up Women know a thing or two about confined spaces. This debut album by the band, which clocks in at just 30 minutes, is so densely packed with sound that it feels like their songs are pushing down hard on your skull. The arid air that filters through Women is in marked contrast to the band’s origins in the foothills and wide-open spaces of their native Calgary. The band members appear to have balked at these surroundings, taking a deliberately contrary step by forcing their music into a tightly compressed corner.

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The Vaselines - Enter the Vaselines: Album Review

I was apprehensive about seeing The Vaselines when they passed through New York last year on a brief reunion tour. The thought of Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly bringing their filthy, funny and endearing songs to the stage more than 20 years after they were conceived, seemed to run in marked contrast to the youthful nature of the original material. My fears proved unfounded; seeing Kelly singing “It’ll take three to satisfy me/ 'Cause I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be” (from “Rory Rides Me Raw”) was riotously entertaining. Further sharp witticisms and ribald jokes flowed between songs, with both members effortlessly tapping into everything that made this band great in the first place.

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The Horrors - Primary Colours: Album Review

I come from the same small town as the Horrors. It’s a rundown seaside outpost in the south east of England, full of petty violence and hatred. The kind of place that will suck all the dreams out of you unless you find a way to escape. Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday” video was shot there, and never has there been a more grimly appropriate interface between song and location. The Horrors are a band whose initial departure from such confines was met with a mixture of bewilderment, adoration and derision. Their debut album, Strange House, was a poorly received attempt at assimilating their ‘60s psych and goth influences, causing them to be swiftly dropped by their label, Loog Records.

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The Future of Music Writing

Last week, a group of British music critics united on Twitter to discuss the pertinence of their work in an age when their jobs may be sliding into irrelevancy. An unquantifiable, but abundant portion of recorded music is now available to stream or download online, often for free. The days of turning up at a record store and basing purchases on a shaky premise (the name of a producer, or a reliable record label) are over, and have been for quite some time. During the Twitter debate, former Melody Maker scribe Everett True asked: “In the babble of voices that is web 2.0, how is one more voice - however well-informed and succinctly argued - going to stand out?”

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Micachu & the Shapes - Jewellery: Album Review

If there can be a musical space where grime, punk and freak-folk meet, then it’s in Jewellery, the debut album from Micachu & the Shapes. This is a band very much of its time, with little care for genre boundaries or backward referencing. Jewellery is a roughshod collection of 12 songs that sound like they’ve been bound together with sticky tape and cheap glue. Led by 21-year-old Harry Partch fan Mica Levi, the group also contains keyboard player Raisa Khan and drummer (and leader of his own nine-piece drum ‘n’ bass band) Marc Pell. Completing this rag-tag collective is a producer: the microhouse musician of many aliases, Matthew Herbert.

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How Twitter is Shaping the Music Industry

The answer to a simple question that lies at the top of every Twitter page ("What are you doing?") is radically altering the way we process information about bands, musicians, and the music industry. The relationship between music and the internet has been guilt edged ever since MP3 files started zipping back and forth across the planet. Illegal downloading and services such as iTunes have led to a hasty shuttering of record stores, and the perennial question of how to make money from recorded music continues to confound.

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