Nashville Music Blog

​In this week's dead-tree edition, I profile Beulah co-founder Miles Kurosky's six-year journey -- from the end of that band to the eventual release of his solo album The Desert of Shallow Effects last week. Since I spent most of the piece explaining the ordeal of surgery and physical trauma that characterized the album's production, I wasn't able to fit in much of the unrelated stuff from the 20-minute conversation we had.

The full interview is presented here for your reading pleasure -- minus some chitchat about Nashville (dude is all about barbecue)--including his philosophies on letting kids see shows, complexity in music and whether or not he deserves his reputation as an asshole. You can catch him live on Monday (Mar. 22) at The Basement with Duqette Johnson. Check out the interview after the jump.

​As you just read in a previous post, I crowned local Renaissance man Chris Scruggs The Duke of Music City in the Scene's second annual People Issue -- on shelves this week. Over the course of more than an hour I talked to Scruggs about his extraordinary upbringing around country music legends, his own illustrious bloodline, his love for Nashville and more. I'm posting a transcript of the Q&A after the jump. As you'll learn, not only is Scruggs one of the most impossibly talented musicians in Nashville, he's a walking encyclopedia of its musical history, and one of the nicest guys in town, to boot.

​Those who have glimpsed this week's glossy pages or read Steve's blog posts earlier today know that this week's cover story was "10 Artists to Watch in 2010." What were the criteria for the artists we selected? They're from Nashville, they've got artistic merit according to the writer selected for the profile, and they plan on doing stuff in 2010. You know how a lot of bands want to be covered, but they won't, you know, do stuff? These guys all definitely have stuff in the works.

So Daniel Pujol answered some questions for my Pujol profile (or Puj-file). Were his responses esoteric? Perhaps. Cryptic? For sure. Big-picture? No doubt. But they also made for an entertaining read, and you can check them out after the jump. Below you can hear two of Pujol's songs. They're typically stuck in analog-listening format, so enjoy them in rare digital form. And as far as that photo? We encouraged the subjects of this piece to bring "props" to their photo shoots, thinking they'd be inclined to tote along instruments and whatnot. Pujol elected to bring a ceramic kitty cat.

This transplant is tinged for success.

​So American Songwriter has just posted an interview that took place during Next Big Nashville betwixt a WOXY.com rep and Nashville's very own David Vandervelde. It's a nice little piece that features Vandervelde bragging on the caliber of Nashville's players, talking about his relationship with the late great Jay Bennett and discussing what it took to make his latest record. But guess what! He also mentioned us.

I've been here about a year and a half. I guess it was in the [Nashville] Scene; any time I read something, if I'm in a show, it always calls me a transplant. I'm wondering when they're just not gonna call me a transplant cause I live here now. Is everybody a transplant?

Nice! And yes, everybody is a transplant. Especially you. But honestly, we've only called Vandervelde a "transplant" here, here, here and here. Well, and of course here. But hey, we've also called him both " '60s-tinged summery psych-pop" and "glittery glam-tinged." So I'd say we call him "tinged" almost as much as we call him a "transplant."

​ By now you should have, in hand, a copy of the Scene's Best of Nashville '09 issue in all its glossy glory. In the music section you'll notice an excerpt from a Q & A I did with Monotonix guitarist Yonatan Gat. I now present to you the interview in its entirety. For those of you who don't know, Montonix are an Israeli garage-rock band known for their raucous live shows in which they play on the floor among the audience, empty trash cans on each other, set their equipment on fire and douse each other with beer, among other antics. Last week Gat told me all about why they go about their performances the way they do, shared some of his best stories, talked about his affinity for Nashville as well as his excitement over their new record Where Were You When It Happened? You can catch them when they come through town this Sat. (Oct. 17) with Turbo Fruits and JEFF the Brotherhood. Check out the interview after the jump.

It doesn't take long for Cortney Tidwell to get her hooks into you. By the time you get to the very first full-throated chorus in "Solid State," the opening track on her latest album, Boys, you know beyond all doubt that this isn't some wispy singer-songwriter reading off coffee napkins--this is a singer, and this song is going to take you somewhere. (And probably cause a bit of delightful havoc with the little hairs on the back of your neck in the process.) There's a spell that Boys casts, and as a listener, you're happy to be under it.

That's Walter. I think.

Just a little piece of advice: If you're ever granted a phone interview with one of your favorite bands via their PR person, don't operate under the assumption that you'll be talking to the frontman. I have to thank Intern Lance for not including the first portion of my interview with The Walkmen's Walter Martin in the following transcript--I'm sure it would come across as even more awkward in print. Have a look after the jump as Walter and I chat about You & Me, the Grimey's staff and Shane McGowan.

​Sibling duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger compose the prolific Brooklyn-based rock act known as The Fiery Furnaces. I got the chance to have a chat with Matthew last week, and I wrote a feature on the Furnaces that will be out in tomorrow's dead-tree edition. As I recall, I loosely defined the Friedbergers' music as "disjointed, art rock-influenced, psychedelic pop." On top of that, they're also full of novel--and debatably wacky--ideas. Matthew and I discussed The Fiery Furnaces' upcoming silent album, their album of "covers" of their own material, what kind of arrangements they'll be playing live, the merits of the term "accessible" and what he thinks of the glockenspiel.

Nashville Cream: You guys seem to be pretty consistent with releasing about an album a year. Do you find that's the way you guys are most productive? Do you think you'll ever take a year off, or are you going to stay with the same schedule?

Matthew Friedberger: Well, you never know what happens, but I think a year is about the minimum you want to do, especially now. You can put a record out every five years to keep people interested in you, but now you have to record even more, because there's so much more information for free available to people so you might as well take advantage of that, and recording a record is fun. You really want something to come out every nine months, I would think. Gestation periods, you know?

NC: I saw your plans to do a cover album of the I'm Going Away material. Would you mind talking a little bit about that? Are you guys working on that right now or when you're done touring?

MF: Yeah, I think the first one might be done now. I don't know if the other one is finished, but we were going to record them separately. In the past we were always really into the songs and often just kept the words and I made up a new arrangement for them. So we thought we'd do something like that for the record. I don't know if we're going to be giving this record away or if it's going to cost something very low on the Internet. I don't know what the plan is as far as putting this out goes, but we thought we'd put a record out with that approach because that's what we do live. Also, for this record we asked that people review the record before they heard it, just our fans. So, we got a lot of descriptions, hypothetical descriptions, of the record.

​ This week I got to interview legendary Def Leppard drummer and triumpher over adversity Rick Allen. Mr. Allen--who was joined by his wife Lauren Monroe--was exceedingly nice and excitable. He talked about his band's place in the rock 'n' roll pantheon, battling the '90s, returning to Donnington--where he was crowned the "Thunder God" in 1986--his affinity for Coldplay, producing his wife's record and his passion, The Raven Drum Foundation--an organization he and his wife founded to aid people in post-traumatic crisis through drumming. Def Leppard play Sommet Center, with openers Poison and Cheap Trick, Monday, Aug. 10. Tickets are available here.

Update: The Sommet Center show has been postponed.

Nashville Cream: So, Def Leppard are going to be here Monday?

Rick Allen: Yes, I do believe that. I'm actually on a break at the moment, so I'm not very focused on the tour, but I'm excited to get back and play the shows, it's been going really well.

NC: How long have you been out so far?

RA: We've been out for about, what is it 6 weeks?

Lauren Monroe: Since the end of May.

RA: So, I think it's probably about 40 or 50 shows this year. It's not that long of a tour, it's not like some of the tours that we've done.

NC: You guys aren't promoting a record at the moment, are you?

RA: Yeah, it's called Songs from the Sparkle Lounge.

NC: Okay, so that's the 2008 record?

RA: Yeah.

NC: OK, I know you guys were here last August as well so I didn't know if you were still in the same record cycle?

RA: Yeah, this is basically the last cycle. As we speak we're recording new songs and writing new songs, coming up with new ideas and getting ready for the next chapter.

(Thanks to our editorial intern Rachel Warrick for the transcription.)

Frequent Scene contributor Chris Parker filed this entry.

 Matt or M. Ward has been making music as a solo artist for a decade since the demise of his trio, Rodriguez. During that time his stark haunted folk-blues sound has grown richer and more robust, culminating with arguably his most beautiful and certainly most baroque album, Hold Time. Last year he completed and toured in support of She & Him, a project with actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, and he's awaiting the September self-titled debut of Monsters of Folk, his supergroup with My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Saddle Creek über-producer Mike Mogis (Cursive, The Faint, Rilo Kiley). We caught up with Ward at his Portland, Ore., home.

Nashville Cream: What were some of your initial influences that got you involved in music?

M. Ward: I think that part of it was playing guitar along with the Beatles songs. That's how I learned to play the guitar, going through Beatles anthologies. That's how I discovered chord progressions, and how to play songs.

NC: I understand that around that time in high school was when you got your first four-track and you also discovered SST records [home of the Minutemen, Husker Du and Black Flag, among others].

MW: I was discovering all of these things at the same time. The first shows I ever saw were fIREHOSE shows in L.A., and that made a big impact. Hearing Sonic Youth prompted me to buy an electric guitar. Before that I just had an acoustic guitar. Between SST, The Beatles and the four-track, you get a pretty good picture of where my head was at the time.

NC: It feels like there's a growing presence across the albums. Where early albums may have been a little more minimal and atmospheric, there seems to have been more details and a more wrought quality about them.

MW: I think it's safe to say I'm slowly coming out of my shell. I started out just playing guitar, and not singing much, and whenever I make a record I'm learning new ways of using the voice. So I think it gives off the appearance that I'm out of my shell, but I'm very comfortable halfway hidden inside those things.

D. Ricky Rodriguez

Sometimes rock star interviews are like stump speeches. When posting this interview with Judas Priest's Glenn Tipton on the Cream last week I was quick to point out that "like most bigger artists, [he] was pretty hard to get off of his script." There was only one solitary comment in response to the interview and that one comment, courtesy of Ryan, who said "Sir Tipton interviews like a politician," turned out to be quite astute. This morning I came across this Tennessean article--written by my fellow Nashville media mogul Dave Paulson, who also spoke with Tipton--in which the legendary metal guitarist makes statements that are almost identical (some verbatim) to those made to the Cream, essentially proving my point and Ryan's as well. Here are some comparative examples for your entertainment. Priest plays their classic British Steel in its entirety Wed. night at Municipal Auditorium. Tickets are still available here for the low price of $17.50 if you buy four or more.

Glenn Tipton on Guitar Hero: "I've never played the game, but I think it's a great idea. I think that in this day and age when you get video games that advocate bad things like guns, violence, and drugs a lot, I think it's great to have these games based around musical instruments like the guitar and to encourage kids to pick up an instrument you know. I'm very much for that and it's a great way to introduce kids to our music. It's an excellent idea" (Cream).

"There are so many video games out there that are based upon violence and the use of guns and death...we think it's an alternative that actually encourages kids to pick up and play an instrument. It's a much healthier attitude...we've never advocated the bad things, like the use of drugs or violence" (Tennessean).

In honor of Judas Priest's upcoming performance of British Steel in its entirety--which will be going down at Municipal Auditorium next Wednesday--I've decided to post my Q & A with guitarist Glenn Tipton "in its entirety." I interviewed Tipton for this piece that I wrote in the current dead-tree edition of the Scene. Mr. Tipton was extremely nice and gracious, but, like most bigger artists, was pretty hard to get off of his script. Nevertheless, this should be of interest to any Cream readers of the hesh variety. In other Priest news, Municipal Auditorium is offering a buy two tickets get two tickets free deal for the show next week. You can purchase those through this link.

Nashville Cream: How's the tour going so far?

Glenn Tipton: The tour is fantastic; it's really been well-received. As you know we're playing British Steel in its entirety and that's fantastic. Supplemented with other songs from that era....

NC: What are some of the songs that you've been doing that aren't off British Steel?

GT: We've been doing "Rock Hard Rock Free," "Hell Patrol," "Another Thing Coming," the original version of "Diamonds and Rust," "Freewheel Burning" and "The Ripper" to name but just a few.

NC: Do you change it up from night to night, or do you keep it the same?

GT: We keep it more or less the same. We're doing "Victim of Changes" and we started doing "Rock Hard Ride Free" unless we're doing "Hell Patrol", but basically it's the same. We have to keep it the same for production really. The production guys need to know what we're doing.

NC: What kind of things should we expect from production?

GT: Production is fantastic. We've got the bike of course, the Harley comes on stage. An incredible lighting rig this time that all moves around. It's quite incredible, really. We really were surprised in production rehearsals at how good it all looks We've got lasers, we've brought lasers back. It's a great live show, great production.

Joshua Black Wilkins

Last week I was fortunate to do an interview with Jesus Lizard guitarist and Nashville resident Duane Denison for this piece I wrote about the band in the current issue of the Scene. I only had so much space for the article and focused exclusively on the band's reunion tour, the U.S. leg of which kicks off on Tues. at Exit/In. However, in my conversation with Denison we touched on much more, including the current state of the music industry, the Shack Shakers indecent exposure incident at last year's Rancid RCKTWN show, amusing anecdotes about John Cale, Mike Patton, David Yow and more. Before the interview I posted on Cream to ask if anyone would like to suggest questions. I ended up using the two questions submitted by (user name) Matt. The other questions he basically answered before I got a chance to ask and a couple came in too late. Enjoy.

Nashville Cream: So you live in Nashville; how long have you lived here?

Duane Denison: I've been here just over 10 years.

NC: So what brought you here?

DD: Well 10 years ago, the Jesus Lizard pretty much officially broke up. Actually, it will be ten years exactly today I think. We played our first show ever July 1, 1989 and then we decided to break up July 1, 1999.

NC: For what reason?

DD: A number of reasons. We had been doing it 10 years longer, actually. We actually started before that but our first official show was in 1989. After 10 years and six or seven studio albums we kind of felt like we had sort of run out. Things had changed, our original drummer, Mac, had left a couple of years before and the chemistry wasn't the same so we just decided to call it a day and that was that...when the band broke up I got a call from Shelton Williams from Hank III, we had some mutual friends and he called and asked if I might want to come down and play guitar in his band, which I did for about a year and a half. That's really what brought me here, and then I just sort of liked it and stayed and got married and bought a house and all that. But yeah, that's what brought me here.

"Your songs have to wind up being used as soundtracks to jump rope."

Irrelevant Topics is a new section up on Beck.com where BH interviews other artists. Currently, there's Part 1 of an interview with Tom Waits. It's a fascinating read because it follows the aimless, tangentially driven form of a natural conversation. Plus, Tom Waits usually says interesting stuff.

They discuss being from L.A., playing outdoors, the early rock 'n' roll festival circuit--playing stages made from scrap wood with no volume to project--and the strange notion of what endures in art and how it's valued. For instance:

BH: Yeah, I think I read that only 20 percent of the films made before 1930 have survived.

TW: It's the way of all flesh. Even in the world we're down to the last of 20 percent of all animals that were originally here on earth are left. There were millions of other species that vanished. You really have to fight. Only the strong survive. Whose song was that? "Only the Strong Survive"? Your songs have to wind up being used as soundtracks to jump rope. Tapes will go, but people will still be jumping rope. They'll need tunes for jump rope.

BH: It's true. I think the last song standing will probably be "Happy Birthday."

TW: I'm sure it will be. It's terrible, but I guess songs are just interesting things to do with the air.

As you may recall, last week I asked if any of you in cyber space had questions to submit for an interview I did with the Jesus Lizard's Duane Denison. I'm happy to report that that interview was a blast. You can read my article on JL in this week's issue of the Scene, and I'll be posting the complete Q&A on the Cream within the next couple of days. Tomorrow I'll be speaking with Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton--as long as he gets through customs in time for a phoner. And you know what that means: Submit any questions you might have for the legendary Priest guitarist in the comments, and if they don't suck I'll use 'em.

"...I would not have been a complete moron on camera."

Dude, words to live by. Searching for public redemption after extremely public fuck-ups, Andy Dick did a stint on VH1's Sober House, and now states he is over 10 months dry. He will be at Zanies tonight, Friday and Saturday doing (in front of drunks) what can only be described as an exercise in multimedia saturation--it will be Twittered, taped and MySpaced, all online, ad infinitum. When everything is recorded anyway, why not jump the gun and record everything first?

It was incorrectly assumed this was going to be a stand-up performance, but no. It is "Andy Dick, The Musical." Comma not colon. He is not Denise Richards and it is a good idea, according to the gentleman in question, "to keep the Dicks away from the colons." Since it's a musical there is indeed music involved, in the form of guitar-playing with between-song tangents and wanderings. Though Mr. Dick stated that he's been doing a version of this act for 20 years, we were informed that "no two shows are the same."

His son Lucas will be opening, doing a more traditional stand-up routine before Andy's "provocative and strange one-man show." When asked what it was like to go on tour with his family, he said he was hesitant at first: "I was thrown back to the old days where I had these alcoholic flashbacks with airplanes and hangovers and I was like, I don't want to do that again. I forget I'm not drinking anymore."

He also said that Nashville is a lot like Austin, Texas. Take that any way you want.

D. Ricky Rodriguez

On Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation to participate in a press conference (via phone) with David Byrne, Elvis Costello and E Street Band consigliere Steven Van Zandt--three Bonnaroo artists who I'd probably fellate if only they'd ask. Byrne, Costello and Van Zandt each, in succession, did 30 minutes of Q & A (all questions Bonnaroo-specific) with music writers across the country.

As any one of my Scene co-workers will tell you, I have an attention span that's shocking in its brevity. However, an hour and a half of David Byrne talking about avant garde dancers and cycling, Elvis Costello telling any one of his career anecdotes and making fun of Korn, or Van Zandt anatomizing Bruce Springsteen's set list changes are subjects that can pique my interest for a an extended period of time. I was fortunate enough to get questions in to both Byrne and Van Zandt, despite reserving my best world-colliding "gem" for Costello. I was going to ask him if he was planning on inviting Springsteen onstage during his Bonnaroo set to join him in singing "Temptation"--a song he wrote about meeting Bruce backstage at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1978. Sigh. I would love nothing more than to post the entire transcript of the interview. However, it's 57 pages long. In the event that the good folks over at Big Hassle Entertainment--the publicity agency that handles Bonnaroo--post one on their site I will update this post to include a link. Until then, I'll include my brief moments with Byrne and Little Steven. Read on after the jump.

For those of you who have an appetite for beer, hot wings and destruction, you're in luck. Guns 'n' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, with his resurrected band Loaded, will be appearing tomorrow night at the Cannery Ballroom as part of 102.9 The Buzz's "free beer and hot wings hootenany." I had the opportunity to interview Duff (via email, questions subject to management approval) this week, and while he didn't answer questions about the recent release of Chinese Democracy, the probability of a real Guns 'n' Roses reunion or whether or not he was the inspiration for Homer Simpon's beer of choice, he did talk about blogging, the financial crisis and jamming with John Rich. Loaded's new record Sick is in stores now.

Nashville Cream: After a 7-year hiatus, what made you decide to resurrect Loaded?

Duff McKagan: Well, Loaded didnt plan on taking 7 years in between records! Velvet Revolver just kind of happened out of the blue. Loaded is NOT a side-project or part-time band. We are here to stay!

NC: After riding shotgun with Axl Rose and Scott Weiland, how does it feel to front your own band?

DM: Singing and fronting a band has been something I have done off and on since my early punk days in Seattle. I had a record in '93 called Believe in Me and then was in a band (Neurotic Outsiders) with Steve Jones from the [Sex] Pistols in '95.

Bootsy and Lundy: The Wonder Twins of product endorsement. Anna turned into a bucket of water shortly after this was taken

Have you ever had one of those nights where you go out to the bar, get really drunk, then go home and start cleaning your house? I went to Funky Good Time last night and had this overwhelming need to wash dishes when I got home, even though I was three (if not four) sheets to the wind. Obviously I wasn't following the my usual "never do drunk what you wouldn't do sober" maxim.

One thing that I love to do--drunk or sober--is get my groove on to Charles Walker and the Dynamites' deep, deep funk. The boys are bringing new tunes to the Mercy Lounge on Saturday and bandleader Bill "Leo Black" Elder was kind enough to chat with me about future plans, giant crowds and juicy, juicy gossip. Peep it after the jump.

Michael Lerner is a one-man band called Telekinesis, and he recorded an album for Merge which he titled by adding an exclamation point to his band name. The album, which is enjoyable to listen to, was produced by Death Cab for Cutie guitarist (and erstwhile producer) Chris Walla. The reason I ask Lerner about Japan is because he supposedly really loves Japan, even though he's never been there. Which is basically the opposite of how I feel about Cool Springs. The reason I ask him about sandwiches is because I love a good sandwich.

Anyway, go ahead and listen to the song "Coast of Carolina," preferably at a loud volume.

Then go see Telekinesis play at The End on Monday, 23rd with Say Hi (formerly known as Say Hi to Your Mom).

Remember when we told you about author/record industry expert/Rolling Stone contributor Steve Knopper's appearance on NPR's Fresh Air? Shortly thereafter I shot Knopper an email, and he was kind enough to send along some musings about the plight of the record industry, especially as it pertains to Music City. Here's a snippet:

It seems that the RIAA/major labels have smelled the coffee and realized that suing customers and pushing draconian digital rights management merely serve to annoy the public and do nothing to dent the piracy numbers...I'd say labels are not as scared and oblivious as they used to be.

Does Knopper think the RIAA is a pack of out-of-touch knuckleheads? See his full answers after the jump.

Yesterday I was given the opportunity to interview the incredibly gracious and enthusiastic Wanda Jackson. While it seemed as if she would've been happy to keep talking for hours, the 20 minutes that I kept her on the phone was the maximum amount of her time that I could justify taking for a web-only interview. In that time we touched on her new generation of fans, her memories of Nashville, her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, her thoughts on Britney and Miley and of course her time under the stewardship of Elvis Presley.

As you might recall, I posted yesterday asking if any of you out in cyberspace had questions for Miss Jackson. I was for real, and I ended up fitting in Heather's question about being forced to cover up her spaghetti straps at the Grand Ole Opry and Glenn's question about her appearance in a New York Times crossword puzzle. I thank both Heather and Glenn for their participation. Take a look after the jump!

You can pick up a copy of this week's paper or click here to read my sidebar on Silver Jews' final show in McMinnville this weekend. And you know, if Berman is truly planning on disbanding the Jews, he'll likely have a lot of spare time on his hands. Gold has suggested getting the man a Cream login and having him contribute for us. Hey, he's gotta exercise those writing chops somewhere, right?

OK. So Berman isn't likely to start contributing to this blog. But he did give me a wealth of quotes--far too many to squeeze into a 500-word sidebar--so why not run them here and make believe the Poet Laureate of Nashville Rock has joined our modest team of bloggers? Here's a little taste of what Berman has to say about the excesses of the music industry:

There is something about participating in the music economy that makes me uneasy. You see it a lot in Nashville, Supply down on its knees begging, whoring for Demand, but I didn't ever expect it to infect what was once called "underground music," the vague world I've been working in for fifteen years.

Berman bares the tattered remains of his weary soul after the jump.

So I trudge over to the Ryman on Sunday night to check out floppy-haired pop sensations the Jonas Brothers (cue tween screaming) for The Spin, and I'm not going to lie: I was kind of stoked. Rock chick that I am, there's still a warm spot in my mostly cold heart for their kind of upbeat feel-goodery. I meet up with their tour dude to grab my ticket and seat, only to be suddenly confronted with the opportunity to run around the corner and do some quickie interviews with Special Country Guest Stars. Say what? There are multiple special guests? Will Miley be there?!? Ushered down a blocked-off alleyway flanked by giant suited men (I can only assume failed secret service trainees), I soon find myself in BBQ heaven surrounded by various bizness professionals and pop Christian/country luminaries. Who was there, you ask?

It's happened to all of us: You're at a show, watching the band, or at least sort of listening out of one ear while you drink. You're minding your own business, looking good. Then an egregious, unapologetic ass grab goes down right there in front of you. It's usually some gross dude with his hand on his girl's ass (or a couple fingers tucked into the back pocket), but the street definitely runs both ways. Gross Street. And you're like, "What's with the ass grab, you ass grabber?"

What are "Nashville's most unique duo" up to these days, vis-a-vis what it is they do and how it is that they roll? Go ahead and check out the Q&A with Jensen Sportag over at We Like It Indie.

"It's OK to suck live," Elvis says at one point. "I started buying classic rock from K-mart," Austin says at another. Doritos. Drambuie. Max Tundra. Prettiest girl in 4th grade.

Did you download the new Jensen Sportag EP Sergio yet? It's free if you can get ye to gaywerewolf.com. Go here to get a password if you don't already have it.

Deerhoof, "Fresh Born"

Deerhoof play tomorrow night (Oct. 30) at Mercy Lounge w/Experimental Dental School & Flying. For my feature in this week's Scene I talked to drummer Greg Saunier about the band's new album, the presidential election and the delicious smell of delicious bacon.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to chat with Old 97's bassist Murry Hammond. It was a huge thrill, as I'm a longtime fan (especially of the early stuff—"Hitchhike to Rhome" was the name of my college radio show) and he was a pure pleasure to converse with. Gotta love that lazy Texas drawl.

Hammond was surprisingly candid about frontman Rhett Miller's not-so-successful solo ambitions and also took some time to talk about life in a band that has members scattered to the four winds, how L.A. is similar to Nashville and why you shouldn't miss their live show tonight at Mercy Lounge. Check out the short version here, or the very long version after the jump.

Stewart performs stand-up this Friday night at The Ryman, and for this week's paper, Jack Silverman conducted an interview with the reluctant anchorman, which includes questions like this:

Scene: Does having Colbert come on after you, since he is obvious parody, allow you to be a little more serious? Or is he more of the Dr. Phil to your Oprah?

Stewart: I guess he's more of a Judge Joe Brown to my [Marilyn] Milian. I don't know...our shows are of the same genetic material. I think they both exist on their own, but hopefully together they complete a nice picture [laughs]. You know what's sad? You're clearly far more thoughtful about this than I am. I'm like, “Geez, you know, I never thought of that.” I've been sitting up here playing Minesweeper.

They're Nashville's most recognizable underage rock band--or at least they were before Paramore came along. Either way, they've got a new record coming out today that packs way more of a groin punch than Paramore's G-rated mall punk ever will. I interviewed the band last week for an upcoming feature in next week's Scene, and wouldn't let them leave without giving me the Five Finger Discount first.