Scott H. Biram is an American hollerer with a bunch of room to himself between David Allan Coe and Jack Oblivian . He likes Black Flag but sometimes he gets weird and reedy like Dock Boggs, and he decides here that he is probably not going to take shrooms again for a little bit. This interview by Sarah Bennett.

Joseph Smith was either a prophet of God or a charlatan. He was considered both a man chosen by Jehovah as a modern-day oracle who would lead humanity back to the One True Church and bring about Gods Kingdom on earth, and a philandering con man who abused the trust of his gullible followers by taking a second-rate novel and using it as the basis for his cult of personality. He was a charismatic leader who upon receiving his first Revelation in 1832, managed to spread a new brand of Christianity around the world in just a few short years. [...]

photos by Vincent Cornelli Beth Orton @ The Bell House At City Winery on Sunday night [January 17th], a stop on a small New York-and-Los Angeles solo tour as [ Beth Orton ] works on her next album, she put her back into it. She fingerpicked as loudly as a busker. She used all the angles of her voice: the muted, high-register fog; the glissando that really just separates into two wracked notes, a bit like what Mick Jagger used [...]

Last night - Sunday, January 10th - Fox celebrated the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons by airing a one hour documentary directed by Morgan Spurlock ( Super Size Me ) on the cultural impact of the series and the people who have helped make the series so successful. The show has literally been on for as long as long as a decent portion of Americans can remember. From its impressive list of guest stars to its often timely critique of politics and social values, The Simpsons has become more [...]

We Were Pirates is DC-area native, Mike Boggs A Christmas song for Christmas Day. We Were Pirates is DC-area native, Mike Boggs. His new record, "Cutting Ties" is available from the links below. Every instrument on "Cutting Ties" was performed and recorded entirely by Boggs in his home studio. The new songs are something of a departure from his earlier, quieter, more subdued style. "Cutting Ties" is louder, poppier, and catchier than the catchiest dog-catcher. [...]
THANKSGIVING DAY Ray Davies Other People's Lives V2 : 2006 [Buy It] THANKSGIVING DAY Johnny Dowd Wrong Side of Memphis Munich : 1998 [Buy It] THANKSGIVING Mary Gauthier Between Daylight and Dusk Lost Highway : 2007 [Buy It] THANKSGIVING Loudon Wainwright III Career Moves Virgin : 1993 [Buy It] [...]

With Thanksgiving now less than two weeks away, I figured it was about time to repost my tried and true recipe for brined and roasted turkey. So what if I ganked the original recipe from the amazing Alton Brown a few years ago. I've made enough delicious changes that it really feels like mine though. I'm still thinking about the possibility of cooking something else a little less traditional for Thanksgiving... something like a Bacon Explosion perhaps. (Yum!) And my mother's vegan pumpkin pie to balance it all out. Oh yeah! Here's the recipe: [...]

I know I promised the Notcraigcast last week, but it didn't happen I'm afraid. After last week's amazing Craigcast Neil and I were intending to introduce Craig to all sorts of modern music which we thought continued some of the traditions of the blues music he was describing to us, but circumstances have rather conspired against us unfortunately. Neil is off on tour with Meursault playing his songs, and Craig is off on tour with his liver, taking it around the watering holes of Edinburgh and giving it a good, hard kicking in each one. Consequently [...]

Hey readers, Swan Fungus here. I'm back in Los Angeles this week after an exciting 10-day homecoming trip to the east coast. Part of my trip (the first weekend, to be exact) was spent working as a dealer at the WFMU Record Fair for the LA-based store which currently employs me. I try my best to make trips to the New York/New Jersey area coincide with the record fair, because it affords me both the opportunity to attend the fair, and also to earn a few extra bucks for "working" even though I'm technically on vacation. This year was just [...]
Sorry I forgot to post this on Sunday! RULES for uninitiated noobs : With roughly 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I'll just throw songs at a wall (not literally) and see what sticks. This week includes a couple live cuts (Will Oldham, Yndi Halda), and a bunch of randomly selected tunes. The final track was recorded by [...]

I wok up on time this morning! 8:30am, for chrissake. My commitment to this job-away-from-work is amazing! I showered, ate a fiber-enriched health breakfast treat my mom thought I would like, then left for the record fair. I picked up Ian and Jon outside of their apartments (they live across the street from one another, it's so cute). We got to the fair just as it was opening to the public at 10am. My boss was busily working the room, shopping for "deals". His ability to find valuable records at low prices amazes me. I found myself following him - [...]
![Shallows A.D. - Alien Nation - A Deep Waste Productions [Album Review]](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/1961521_lg.jpg)
Every reviewer dreads this e-mail (sent to me recently by a fellow reviewer): "Hey bud, I started a band! I'm sending you a copy, so be sure to review it ..." Better men have folded under the pressure. Me? I popped Alien Nation, which you can buy HERE , in like it wasn't curated by a fellow Skyscraper Magazine -- R.I.P. -- contributor (Matthew V to you) and rocked the-fuck out. Shallows A.D. possess a sound I just haven't been exposed to much lately. They play loud guitars [...]
"Good morning! What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for four hundred thousand..." @kosmo_wren Chris Ruffner, Kosmo Vinyl, 9:30 Club DJ For my contribution to TVD's Twitstock event, I've chosen songs that reflect the musical interests as seen on my twitter profile. So included are an example of a fav Soul Music deep cut, a Detroit Techno track, a interesting remix, and 3 minute pop gem. J. J. [...]
Osei Essed (of The Woes) [photo by Lippe] If you get a chance to talk with Osei Essed (frontman for the Brooklyn-based band The Woes ) and you ask him to describe the band's wildly eclectic sound, the first words out of his mouth will probably sound something like this: "Post-Apocalyptic traditional music". After experiencing The Woes live show earlier this year, I believe there's a great deal of truth in that description. Think Doc Boggs meets Tom Waits, think Woody Guthrie and Howlin' Wolf, think jug-band, ragtime, [...]
Mike Seeger, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who played an important role in the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s, died on Friday at his home in Lexington, Va. He was 75. Although a quieter voice on the national stage than his politically outspoken, older half-brother, Pete, Mike Seeger was a significant force in spreading the music of preindustrial America during an increasingly consumerist era. In 1958 he helped found the New Lost City Ramblers, whose repertory came from the 1920s and '30s, and in his career he recorded or produced dozens of albums of what he called [...]

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Lydia Peele's short fiction has earned comparisons to Alice Munro and Mary Gaitskill, but her voice is unique and strong in this eight-story debut collection of short stories, Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing . These are impressive stories of the past colliding with the present, and the emotional chaos that ensues. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book: "In this debut collection of [...]

Blind Blake: Bahamian Songs I saw Andy Kershaw in the red-faced flesh about six years ago at a Boggs gig where he turned up very refreshed and within one song was screaming advice at the band - "slow down; sing more clearly; sack the drummer" - before disappearing into the night in search of fresh supplies of tramp juice. I mention this only because a decade earlier, before he turned into The Brown Bottle, he [...]

I've been super excited about finally seeing We Were Pirates tomorrow at the Black Cat . We Were Pirates is Mike Boggs, a DC native who has moved from awkward indie pop into the realm of power pop. It's an improvement. He's playing with Mittenfields and Vox Pop. So, a little sharing: We Were Pirates - The Making of "Settle Down" on Vimeo . We Were Pirates - Settle Down [ highly rec'd! ] Previously: We [...]
We're planning a bit of an atypical week here at TVD in advance of a show we've been looking forward to for some time. On June 23rd, the Black Cat hosts a stellar triple bill with We Were Pirates, Voxpop, and Mittenfields and in lieu of our normal First Date feature this week, we're just gonna date 'em all. One a day, three-way style. First up: We Were Pirates! We Were Pirates is DC-area native, Mike Boggs. In 2007 [...]

Brooklyn duo The Hundred In The Hands begs the question - do we really need another duo from Brooklyn making catchy, hip dance/pop music? (Hint: yes) The band consists of Jason Friedman of The Boggs as well as Eleanor Everdell, who contributed vocals for TV On The Radio, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, etc., and so far they've only released one single, "Dressed In Dresden," but show incredible promise. I've heard their newer songs and I would be very surprised if they weren't the next big thing come [...]