Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin and Wood gets scientific

Posted: November 21st, 2009 | Author: Lilledeshan Bose | Filed under: Chicago, Los Angeles, jazz | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

I interviewed Billy Martin, the percussionist of Medeski, Martin and Wood, for The Onion. Read the interview here. MMW will be in Chicago tonight, and all over California in February.

“Amber Gris” Music Video from Medeski Martin and Wood on Vimeo.

Here’s an outtake from the interview:

Lille/The AV Club: Why is the series called Radiolarians?

Billy Martin: The images all over the packaging are actual Radiolarians [drawn by 18th century scientist German biologist Ernst Haeckel]. To us the drawings are architectural forms that we related to our music in an abstract way, evolution and life. We always use that word [evolution] as how we like keep going with our music. We like to evolve, and that’s what our creativity is about.

Tour Dates:

Saturday, Nov. 21, 9:30 PM, House of Blues, Chicago, 312-923-2000 http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/chic

Thursday, Feb. 18, 9 p.m., The El Rey, Los Angeles (323) 936-6400 http://www.theelrey.com/

What It Is: As Tall As Lions

Posted: June 10th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: indie rock | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

As Tall as Lions is touring this summer. To give you an idea of what they do, here are a bunch of words used by the Alternative Press and Stereogum (but not all at the same time): “dreamy,” “ambient,” “swirly.”

For some reason that sounds like coffee to me, but their new album “You Can’t Take It With You” is supposed to be Doves-ish, so that should be good. Then I went and watched a bunch of emo-ish videos by them and realized singer-songwriters are hot when they’re singing about being unable to  get over girls.

Show dates:

June 30 - New York, NY @ The Bowery Ballroom

August 6 - Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge *

August 30 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre *

August 31 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre *

* with Dredg & RX Bandits