The Breeders are nothing if not comprehensive. To mark the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album ‘Last Splash,’ the band is releasing ‘LSXX,’ a hefty package compiling ‘Last Splash,’ four EPs from the same era, a live show recorded in Sweden and a disc of demos, rarities and previously unreleased session tracks.
Maybe it’s just the effects of a cold gray winter in London, but Foals guitarist Jimmy Smith mentions warmth more than once when he gets on the phone with Diffuser.fm to talk about the band’s new album, ‘Holy Fire.’
In the first installment of our interview with Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips, the multi-instrumentalist spoke at length about the band's 2013 Super Bowl commercial, explaining that it was a "painless experience" destined to endear him to his in-laws. Toward the end, he hinted that the song in the Hyundai spot, 'Sun Blows Up Today,' sounds little like the material on the band's forthcoming album 'The Terror,' due out April 7.
In part two of our Q&A, Drozd elaborates on the Lips' new music -- a "bleak and hopeless" collection of "minor-key single-note drone things" he hopes will strike listeners as "something different."
After writing Frightened Rabbit’s first three albums largely by himself, bandleader Scott Hutchison was keen for his bandmates to play a much larger role in making the band’s latest, ‘Pedestrian Verse.’
Although Beyoncé is the big-name performer at this year’s Super Bowl, the Flaming Lips will be part of the action, too, thanks to the band’s appearance in a commercial for Hyundai.
The Oklahoma City rockers wrote a classic-sounding new song, ‘Sun Blows Up Today,’ for the spot, which includes footage of the band performing in unusual places, and their confetti-spewing tour bus.
“It was a really painless experience,” Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd tells Diffuser.fm.
Four years is the longest time Biffy Clyro have taken between albums, but then ‘Opposites’ is the Scottish band’s most ambitious project yet, and such things don’t happen overnight. The trio’s latest is a 20-song double album, split between moody songs reflecting on things that are out of our hands and more uplifting tunes looking toward the future.
“Life is kind of full of ups and downs, there’s always two ways of looking at things,” bassist James Johnston tells Diffuser.fm.
Biffy Clyro toured extensively behind their 2009 album ‘Only Revolution,’ and when the group finally came off the road, frontman Simon Neil had a burst of creativity, resulting in dozens of songs for the musicians to chose from — including collaborations with old friends and new. Here, Johnston talks about working with Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell and film composer Clint Mansell and reveals the shortcomings of the Scottish mariachi scene.
Like many touring musicians, Diamond Rings mastermind John O’Reagan has mixed feelings about life on the road.
Graham Parker isn’t ready to quit his day job as a rock ’n’ roller, but he’s pleased as can be about appearing in Judd Apatow’s new movie ‘This Is 40.’ Even better, Parker is featured with the Rumour, his ’70s band, which reunited after a 30-year break to back Parker on last year’s ‘Three Chords Good.’
Rock ’n’ roll can never die, Neil Young says, but that doesn’t mean Jeff the Brotherhood want eternal life. In what may be one of the most level-headed assessments a rocker has ever made of his own career, singer and guitarist Jake Orrall says he can see a day when he and his brother, drummer Jamin, will decide they’ve had enough.
While it’s true that . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is a band, singer Conrad Keely envisions the group as an outlet for more than music. He’s also a visual artist, and a special edition of the band’s new album, ‘Lost Songs,’ includes two chapters from a fantasy novel he’s writing.
