April 24, 2018
Published in Relix Magazine.
“We were either going to break up or make our best record.”
That’s how Eric Slick, drummer and percussionist for longtime Philadelphia-based indie-rock act Dr. Dog, sums up his band’s state of affairs going into their recent recording sessions a day before they debut their new material on NPR’s Live from Here. Dr. Dog did not dissolve—that much of the story is a giveaway.
And Critical Equation, the band’s 10th official release, is a deliciously psychedelic slice of vintage rock-and-roll with a fast-beating pop hea...
July 25, 2016
Published in Relix Magazine, July 25, 2016
When Kevin Morby moved from Kansas City to New York City at the age of 18, he was a high-school dropout who had $600 to his name and knew exactly one person in a metropolis of eight million. And as he tells it nearly a decade later, “It was the most vivid and magical time in my life.” Such is Morby’s world—in which any door could be the right one, so you might as well make a choice, walk on through and see what happens. “The whole thing could’ve gone miserably wrong,” he says, “But it just went incredibl...
July 26, 2015
Published in Relix Magazine, July 21, 2015
Ben Kaufmann opened his eyes at 6:40 A.M. on April 20 to the sound of his son’s voice, calling him to come “play trains.” He got out of bed in his Northern California home and made breakfast for his family. Then, the two converged on the train set. After hitting the road hard in early 2015 with his group of jamgrass pioneers Yonder Mountain String Band, everything was finally in its right place.
“It was the same breakfast, the same place, the same little voice,” says Kaufmann. “But my appreciation of th...
November 13, 2014
Published in Relix Magazine November 12, 2014
The rush of noise swirling around the eight members of SOJA has never been louder. After more than a decade of steady climbing, the Virginia reggae crew released their guest-packed fifth album in August, then immediately flew off for a Hawaiian took a moment to catch their breath and launched a month-long tear through Europe. They’re in the middle of another year logging hundreds of shows and playing increasingly bigger venues to increasingly wider audiences. Their Facebook page has more than 3.5 mill...