As Aural loyalists will remember, we recently sat down for a long talk with the eternally lovely Shirley Manson on the occasion of Garbage’s self-funded return to music. She dropped so many nuggets that we had to break the thing up into three parts. Revisit the official SPIN Interview, then dive into Shirley’s Words of Wisdom, and check out her dissection of the entire Garbage catalog here.
Get yr mind outta the gutter, kids! We’re talking about camping out under the stars in Manchester, Tennessee. Former L.A. local Erika M. Anderson took SPIN on a guided tour of her band’s informal lodging for the festival. Did we say “guided tour”? We meant genuine Bonnaroo beer-and-bandminton party. Shot by the talented Ysa Pérez. Cameo by Jesse Turbo of Vurt Vile’s Violators.
WIXIW is a shoo-in for our top five albums of 2012, so it was a particular pleasure to visit the strange space where it was created — well, at least in part. There are a few tiers to this story, and a decent amount of subterfuge, but the stuff that keeps us guessing is the stuff that keeps us coming back. Furthermore, WIXIW happens to be the most accessible work in their catalog to date, so find out what osmosis and singing underwater has to do with it. Read at SPIN.
So we did this. In the same week that we hung out with Liars in their makeshift music bunker, we hightailed it to NRG in NoHo where we were greeted by walls lined with platinum packs from such luminaries as Hoobustank and Papa Roach, and–as it turned out–a couple of the nicest, most sincere dudes in the music biz. The men of Linkin Park are good men indeed. They follow golf and basketball, and geek over old stories about performing with Stone Temple Pilots or banging on Rick Rubin’s SP1200, and are excited to play you their new songs. Head on over to SPIN to find out what they’ve been up to. And here’s this:
Had the distinct pleasure of schooling these Aussies on their Spanish whilst visiting the legendary Sound Factory studio in Hollywood, where Temper Trap have just finished mixing their new album with producer Tony Hoffer. Read about it via SPIN, and revisit the band’s big breakthrough jam below.
There’s a ton more that I’m moving over from the old site (Aural Standards). Stay tuned.
Chris Writes Things 