Tag Archives: Coldplay

Kids interview A Silent Film; band unveils new Sycamore Tapes videos

For the most part, I’ve given up on terrestrial radio, opting instead for the variety XM provides. UK-based A Silent Film have been getting loads of exposure on satellite’s Alt-Nation station which has their song “Danny, Dakota & The Wishing Well” in heavy rotation.

The band had a late-afternoon slot at the Bunbury Music Festival on July 14 where they played to a thousand or so fans who – much to my surprise – seemed to be intimately familiar with the band’s Coldplay-meets-The-Killers-sounding songs. Later that afternoon, while waiting for Grouplove to perform, I spied A Silent Film’s lead singer Robert Stevenson sitting by his lonesome so I approached him and asked if he – or anybody from the band – would be willing to answer a few questions from our now-expert 11-year-old reporters, Olivia and Connie. He gave me drummer Spencer Walker’s cell phone number and said, “Give Spencer a call or text and he’ll work out all the details.”

The following afternoon we hooked up with Spencer who informed us he was the only member of the band at the park at the time but, “The drummer’s always the best person to interview because we have so many interesting things to say!”


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Friday: Greg Laswell @ Rumba Cafe

There’s something about passionate British artists that American songwriters just can’t seem to capture within their songs. When you hear Snow Patrol or Coldplay, you KNOW they are British bands – they just have that overly dramatic sound. Greg Laswell is from … California (!!!) … but somehow he pulls off that soundtrack-style music. It’s touchy, it’s dramatic, it’s custom-made for network TV dramas (on which Laswell’s music gets plenty of exposure).

On his fifth release, Landline, Laswell tried something a little different – he invited female singers to accompany him on fourth of the tracks. His wife, Ingrid Michaelson, appears on the title track, Sia sings on “Dragging You Around”, Sara Bareillas swaps lines with Laswell on “Come Back Down”, and Elizabeth Ziman (Elizabeth and the Catapults) – Laswell’s tour partner on his current tour – is featured on “Back to You”.

Greg Lawell and Elizabeth Ziman share the Rumba stage on Friday night. Tickets are $15.

Coldplay pays tribute to Adam Yauch

Wow, Chris Martin can make any song sound like a Coldplay song.

Lollapalooza 2011 – Day 1

Who schedules outdoor festivals during the hottest part of the year? The heat was excruciating today at Grant Park where Lollapalooza 2011 kicked off. I guess if there was any sort of relief, it was that clouds blocked some of the sunlight by late afternoon but it still wasn’t much of a reprieve.

If you check out bands that you’re truly interested in seeing, chances are you won’t walk away disappointed and while I’m not a superfan of any of the bands I checked out today, I didn’t stray far from what I knew so therefore I had a great day.

Started off at high noon with Merge Records duo Wye Oak. Poor Jenn Wasner was plagued with guitar pedal problems almost from the get-go and at one point stopped midsong saying, “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.” You had to feel for her as she was playing in front of a large and eager crowd ready to get their Lollapalooza weekend started. Wasner is a completely amazing guitarist and she battled back from the problems early in the set to wow those hanging out at the Sony stage.


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New From Clinton Reno: The Decemberists, Coldplay

Our main man Clinton Reno has launched a new website. The complete archive of his work is still not completely up, but a bunch of new things he has done is now there and available for your ownership.

One thing to especially note: for the first time ever, Reno has done a limited variant of a poster. This one is a Decemberists poster where he changed the colors and added some glow in the dark ink. Check it out. Oh yeah, he’s now on Facebook too. And Twitter