I had just arrived at my hotel in Sulaimani, a city in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq, when some of the hotel’s permanent residents invited me to a cookout. They were Americans too, teachers at a nearby university. Though this was not the cultural exposure I was looking for, I’ve found saying “yes” as often as possible while traveling to be a good rule of thumb. You never can predict where it’ll lead you. Cut to me sitting on the roof of our hotel in a two-person garden swing watching Roger, a jocular, 6’4” dead ringer for Michael McDonald, flip patties on a smoking grill....
Dust off the kilt and throw away your underwear for the first annual Akron Irish Cultural Festival at Lock 3, held September 16 and 17 and hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The celebration of the halfway mark to St. Patrick's Day promises to be two days jam packed brews, Irish food and vendors and, of course, both traditional Irish music and plenty of rock. Headlining the fest is Chicago-based Red Rebel County (RRC) who has been packing clubs and festivals all over the Midwest for the past two and a half years with a blend of Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys and traditional Irish t...
The Dead Records are young, intense and seriously rocking. Composed of Aaron Taylor (vocals, guitar), Chad Briner (guitar), Will Magley (bass) and Sean Richardson (drums), Fort Wayne, Ind.-based The Dead Records sound like a cross between The Gaslight Anthem and The Hold Steady. They’ll be playing the Buzzbin First Friday Concert on July 1 with Maid Myriad. We talked to Richardson, who gave us the lowdown on what moves these earnest guys. The Dead Records is an interesting name. What’s the story behind it? The name of the band came from the belief that with the increase in digital te...
Phish's contemplative, solitary bassist discusses his new album, upcoming nation-wide tour and respecting the muse. Fresh off the latest tour with Phish, bassist Mike Gordon is taking his solo act cross-country for a November tour, promoting his newest album, Moss, released October 19th. After spending the lion's share of the past 26 years with Phish and, among other projects, cutting two albums with legendary guitarist Leo Kottke as well as releasing his third solo album, Gordon has a reputation as a bassist with many faces. His thoughtful, methodical yet spontaneous approach ...
By Julia Kazar Two and a half years ago when Casey Calvert died from an accidental overdose of pain medication, Hawthorne Heights, his Ohio based band had two choices; let this be the end of their music careers, or confront the situation head on and not let it be the end of their band. They chose the second option. The first album Hawthorne Heights released after the tragedy, Fragile Future, mostly dealt with what the band was going through at the time. Noticeably the album didn’t feature any “unclean” vocals, which had previously been provided by Calvert. This lack of unclean vo...
