The Menahan Street Band, after a set of backing soul singer Charles Bradley, took a moment to show off their own chops at the Rolling Stone Rock Room at SXSW. "Keep Coming Back" is a smooth funk track that offers a healthy helping of sax.
Check out their performance above.
The Menahan Street Band, after a set of backing soul singer Charles Bradley, took a moment to show off their own chops at the Rolling Stone Rock Room at SXSW. "Keep Coming Back" is a smooth funk track that offers a healthy helping of sax.
Check out their performance above.
99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative FilmAudrey Ewell and Aaron Aites, the team behind 99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, initially attempted to adopt a filmmaking model as decentralized as the Occupy movement itself. However, the pair soon discovered that the consensus decision process is as complicated for directing films as it is for orienting political movements.
"It just didn't work. We couldn't get anything done," Ewell tells Rolling Stone. "At least with the Occupiers, [they] were in one physical space together. We didn't even have that; we had an email list with hundreds of emails."
Photos: Occupy Wall Street
99 Percent, which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival, began to form after Ewell and Aites grew interested in the movement after the October arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge. "I was watching the live stream when they started to cattle them and started arresting them. I turned on the TV, and there was nothing," recalls Ewell. "There are like a thousand people being arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City in broad daylight and that's not news."
So the filmmakers, who previously made Until the Light Takes Us – a 2009 documentary on black metal – went to lower Manhattan and began shooting. ??"We had three rules when we started the film," Ewell says. "The first rule was that anybody was welcome and that meant any perspective, any skill level, any format. But we couldn't get anything done."
To move the process forward, the pair created an outline to add structure and adopted leadership positions. Many Occupiers were reportedly frustrated with this shift and left the project as a result, but Ewell explains that the decision felt necessary. "It was actually possible to make a movie this way, still having the collaborative process and many people's voices, but we had to do a 180 from where we started on consensus." The result was a national filmmaking network with four directors, five co-directors and more than 100 contributors divided regionally who regularly uploaded footage to a daisy-chain of hard-drives crisscrossing the country.
The documentary chronicles the movement with on-the-ground footage, protestor interviews and perspectives from commentators including Naomi Wolf and Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi. ??"We'd set up these maps basically of where people were and how much they'd shot at that point because we couldn't wait until the end to collect, so we were constantly swapping out hard drives," Ewell explains. Eventually, each director prepared a segment of the film and Ewell and Aites went back over their pre-edit.
"It felt very much like this parallel experiment really was paralleling the movement," Ewell says in retrospect. ??"[Occupy] was so intent on having their voices heard, but they took it to such an extreme. What we found was that you didn't have to give up, you didn't have to abandon hierarchy and structure. You could still have that and, in fact, that would facilitate more voices being heard because the structure would be there to create space for those voices."
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here
Lee Ranaldo performs in Washington, DC.Josh Sisk/For The Washington Post via Getty ImagesAfter making a surprise appearance at Zuccotti Park last year to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, former Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum will be a part of the self-described telethon "The People's Bailout" November 15th at New York's Le Poisson Rouge. He'll be joined by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, comedian Janeane Garofalo, The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead and more.
"The People's Bailout" seeks to raise $50,000 for Strike Debt, an organization affiliated with the Occupy movement. Rolling Jubilee will host the telethon's webcast, and tickets go on sale November 2nd at 10 a.m. EST. For more information, visit the event's page.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Lee Ranaldo performs in Washington, DC.Josh Sisk/For The Washington Post via Getty ImagesAfter making a surprise appearance at Zuccotti Park last year to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, former Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum will be a part of the self-described telethon "The People's Bailout" November 15th at New York's Le Poisson Rouge. He'll be joined by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, comedian Janeane Garofalo, The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead and more.
"The People's Bailout" seeks to raise $50,000 for Strike Debt, an organization affiliated with the Occupy movement. Rolling Jubilee will host the telethon's webcast, and tickets go on sale November 2nd at 10 a.m. EST. For more information, visit the event's page.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here
Steve Van Zandt performs in New Orleans.E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt may be forced to miss some upcoming gigs to film a second season of his television show, Lilyhammer. "I made commitments before the tour even existed," Van Zandt tells Rolling Stone. "We're still trying to figure it all out, and we won't know for another couple of months. Bruce and [manager] Jon Landau are very, very understanding about this and very supportive of my TV career. They're gonna try and bend things around as much as they can. And then, if they can't, if I gotta miss a few things, I'll miss a few things. We're gonna try not to, though."
Lilyhammer – a Norwegian show about a mobster forced to move to Norway – premiered in Europe in January of 2012. (It became available in America via Netflix the following month.) "It's been a huge, huge success in terms of a European production," Van Zandt says. "It's the first European production of any kind that's ever been aired on American television intact, without being remade. I guess there's been a few from England, like The Avengers or something, though – but it's been amazing to see how big a deal this has become."
The only problem for Van Zandt is that the series premiered months before Springsteen began a long tour with the E Street Band. When Van Zandt was on The Sopranos, the show reduced the onscreen presence of his character, Silvio Dante, during past E Street Band tours – but Lilyhammer stars Van Zandt, eliminating that option.
Van Zandt quit the E Street Band before their 1984 Born in the USA tour and was replaced by Nils Lofgren, who is still with the band and would likely have little trouble carrying the extra weight if need be.
The last Springsteen show formally on the books right now is on September 22nd in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but dates are already beginning to surface for another American leg this fall – and it may even keep going through 2013. "All that stuff is up in the air right now," says Van Zandt. "Until that gets decided and gets announced we can't really figure out what to do." Does Van Zandt hope the tour will continue in 2013? "Personally, I hope so," he says. "I'd like to see it go forever."
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Steve Van Zandt performs in New Orleans.E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt may be forced to miss some upcoming gigs to film a second season of his television show, Lilyhammer. "I made commitments before the tour even existed," Van Zandt tells Rolling Stone. "We're still trying to figure it all out, and we won't know for another couple of months. Bruce and [manager] Jon Landau are very, very understanding about this and very supportive of my TV career. They're gonna try and bend things around as much as they can. And then, if they can't, if I gotta miss a few things, I'll miss a few things. We're gonna try not to, though."
Lilyhammer – a Norwegian show about a mobster forced to move to Norway – premiered in Europe in January of 2012. (It became available in America via Netflix the following month.) "It's been a huge, huge success in terms of a European production," Van Zandt says. "It's the first European production of any kind that's ever been aired on American television intact, without being remade. I guess there's been a few from England, like The Avengers or something, though – but it's been amazing to see how big a deal this has become."
The only problem for Van Zandt is that the series premiered months before Springsteen began a long tour with the E Street Band. When Van Zandt was on The Sopranos, the show reduced the onscreen presence of his character, Silvio Dante, during past E Street Band tours – but Lilyhammer stars Van Zandt, eliminating that option.
Van Zandt quit the E Street Band before their 1984 Born in the USA tour and was replaced by Nils Lofgren, who is still with the band and would likely have little trouble carrying the extra weight if need be.
The last Springsteen show formally on the books right now is on September 22nd in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but dates are already beginning to surface for another American leg this fall – and it may even keep going through 2013. "All that stuff is up in the air right now," says Van Zandt. "Until that gets decided and gets announced we can't really figure out what to do." Does Van Zandt hope the tour will continue in 2013? "Personally, I hope so," he says. "I'd like to see it go forever."
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.The past month has been a time of frenzied activity for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. They taped two TV appearances, played special gigs at the Apollo Theater and SXSW, and launched a world tour in support of Springsteen's new LP, Wrecking Ball. Late last week, Rolling Stone chatted separately with E Street Band guitarists Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren about the new E Street Band and how they're carrying on after the loss of Clarence Clemons.
You guys almost always do rehearsal shows before launching a big tour. Why didn't those happen this time?
Nils: Previously, the rehearsal shows were kind of a last-minute thing. I think probably what happened is that we were putting our own show together, which inevitably heads towards rehearsal shows. But because of the new record, we made commitments. We did the Grammys, two nights on Jimmy Fallon and the Apollo Show. Next on the horizon was the SXSW show. All of a sudden it was like, "Gosh, we have five different shows to prepare." Bruce always takes the time to slant the shows to the occasion, and we had to get our own show up and we just ran out of time.
Steven: It was interesting to witness our own extremes with the Apollo Show and the SXSW show. We went from emphasizing soul music at the Apollo to flipping 180 degrees for a Woody Guthrie celebration at SXSW. It was quite interesting to have that reinforced and have it be totally integrated in the work – not doing either extreme as a sort of specialty, gimmicky show, but actually having those roots so firmly planted in the material – and to be reminded how wide and varied the identity of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band actually is at this point. It's some kind of example of Americana in all of its forms.
It was a pretty bold move to debut the new band and new show at the Apollo, considering it was being broadcast live.
Steven: To do our first show as a broadcast, that's real balls. I'm proud of us for pulling it off. It was pretty close to flawless, I have to say. Keep in mind, we have a brand new five-piece horn section. We're still working on horn parts. We're still working on vocal parts with the singers. We have a couple new people involved. I took it for granted, but they were probably a bit nervous. They did great, though.
We spent a lot of time thinking about this show and talking about it. The horn section was a good answer to the unanswerable: "How do you replace Clarence Clemons?" Well, you don't. It's real simple. The same way you replace Danny Federici. You don't. You have somebody else playing those parts, but you have to do something else, you have to morph it into a hybrid of what you were. It's not going to be the same.
How long ago did rehearsals begin?
Nils: They've been off and on, but we got together in the second week of January. We had to address what was in front of us, which was a lot, and kind of take our time and experiment and let things evolve. There's so many changes. Certainly the biggest change of all is Clarence, which is a terrible loss. I've been in the band for 28 years, and I'm pretty sure it's accurate to say that the band has never gone on the road with three-and-a-half albums of new material. When Bruce put out the Darkness On The Edge of Town package, there were 23 unreleased songs and they never toured behind that. And then you had 11 new songs. All this material is really valid and great and we've never integrated it into our show, which is already hundreds of songs that we haven't presented in over two years. It was an abnormal amount of new material to disseminate. It's just a giant, beautiful jigsaw puzzle of music.
Steven: Usually we start rehearsals two weeks before the first show and kick around some ideas for the set, maybe do six rehearsals, period. Each tour has its own energy, and the writing is the script for the show. It's like a Broadway show or a movie. You have to start with the script, and that's always a new album for us. We've never been a nostalgia band. Every single time we go out, we're saying something new, something that's been on Bruce's mind in that period. In this case, instead of our usual five or six days, we did 10 or 12. We probably had 40 horn charts. That's a lot of work just to outline the charts, never mind tweak them and really get into the details of arranging, which, of course, I love to do, and Bruce is also really good at.
So that's going on, and we have to integrate this new album, adapt it – in this case, a little more adaptation, because it was a solo album. This is the first time this has ever happened, where he's touring with the E Street Band behind a solo album. But it's good, and we had the whole new album down in two days. Then you start kicking around ideas and doing older things. "My City of Ruins" ended up playing a major role in this show, really for the first time. It's always been an emotional song but sort of a specialty song, maybe an encore. This time it ended up playing a very, very different and central role.
This is the most difficult task ever. How do you address Clarence and Danny? How do you address that? You talk to ten different people and they're going to have ten different ideas. But it's really not easy. You're trying to do something that's very, very emotional, and at the same time, you don't want to make the show a funeral. You want to make sure the show is a celebration of life. It's a very delicate, very fine line to walk. And (Bruce) comes up with this rap – it's so fucking great, and so perfect. I'm awestruck. This guy still inspires me after 45 fucking years of doing this. I'm like, "Jesus Christ, that's so fucking good, so important." It's such an important moment in the show...It's probably the best start of a tour, I think ever, honestly.
I'm sure it was hard the first time you walked onstage without Clarence.
Nils: The first time that hit me the hardest was the Grammys. I'm standing there, and there's nobody to my right. It hit me hard. That's someone I'll miss the rest of my life, but I still love playing and it doesn't take away from the power of the songs of the band.
Steven: It's emotional for me to walk onstage without Clarence, and it always will be. I still honestly once in a while get that feeling with Danny. I look over there and say, "Oh yeah, Danny's no longer…" That's never going to change. So I think the more people onstage, the more that helps. The more the configuration is different, the more that eases your emotional pain. In other words, you're not trying to replace them, you're doing a different thing. Through the years, since we started playing in 1965, you do a lot of different things. I've been in horn bands. I've been in country bands. You go into 100 different configurations in your life. Now it feels like another one. It's almost like you're in a different band, in a sense, even though the core of the band is still there.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.The past month has been a time of frenzied activity for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. They taped two TV appearances, played special gigs at the Apollo Theater and SXSW, and launched a world tour in support of Springsteen's new LP, Wrecking Ball. Late last week, Rolling Stone chatted separately with E Street Band guitarists Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren about the new E Street Band and how they're carrying on after the loss of Clarence Clemons.
You guys almost always do rehearsal shows before launching a big tour. Why didn't those happen this time?
Nils: Previously, the rehearsal shows were kind of a last-minute thing. I think probably what happened is that we were putting our own show together, which inevitably heads towards rehearsal shows. But because of the new record, we made commitments. We did the Grammys, two nights on Jimmy Fallon and the Apollo Show. Next on the horizon was the SXSW show. All of a sudden it was like, "Gosh, we have five different shows to prepare." Bruce always takes the time to slant the shows to the occasion, and we had to get our own show up and we just ran out of time.
Steven: It was interesting to witness our own extremes with the Apollo Show and the SXSW show. We went from emphasizing soul music at the Apollo to flipping 180 degrees for a Woody Guthrie celebration at SXSW. It was quite interesting to have that reinforced and have it be totally integrated in the work – not doing either extreme as a sort of specialty, gimmicky show, but actually having those roots so firmly planted in the material – and to be reminded how wide and varied the identity of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band actually is at this point. It's some kind of example of Americana in all of its forms.
It was a pretty bold move to debut the new band and new show at the Apollo, considering it was being broadcast live.
Steven: To do our first show as a broadcast, that's real balls. I'm proud of us for pulling it off. It was pretty close to flawless, I have to say. Keep in mind, we have a brand new five-piece horn section. We're still working on horn parts. We're still working on vocal parts with the singers. We have a couple new people involved. I took it for granted, but they were probably a bit nervous. They did great, though.
We spent a lot of time thinking about this show and talking about it. The horn section was a good answer to the unanswerable: "How do you replace Clarence Clemons?" Well, you don't. It's real simple. The same way you replace Danny Federici. You don't. You have somebody else playing those parts, but you have to do something else, you have to morph it into a hybrid of what you were. It's not going to be the same.
How long ago did rehearsals begin?
Nils: They've been off and on, but we got together in the second week of January. We had to address what was in front of us, which was a lot, and kind of take our time and experiment and let things evolve. There's so many changes. Certainly the biggest change of all is Clarence, which is a terrible loss. I've been in the band for 28 years, and I'm pretty sure it's accurate to say that the band has never gone on the road with three-and-a-half albums of new material. When Bruce put out the Darkness On The Edge of Town package, there were 23 unreleased songs and they never toured behind that. And then you had 11 new songs. All this material is really valid and great and we've never integrated it into our show, which is already hundreds of songs that we haven't presented in over two years. It was an abnormal amount of new material to disseminate. It's just a giant, beautiful jigsaw puzzle of music.
Steven: Usually we start rehearsals two weeks before the first show and kick around some ideas for the set, maybe do six rehearsals, period. Each tour has its own energy, and the writing is the script for the show. It's like a Broadway show or a movie. You have to start with the script, and that's always a new album for us. We've never been a nostalgia band. Every single time we go out, we're saying something new, something that's been on Bruce's mind in that period. In this case, instead of our usual five or six days, we did 10 or 12. We probably had 40 horn charts. That's a lot of work just to outline the charts, never mind tweak them and really get into the details of arranging, which, of course, I love to do, and Bruce is also really good at.
So that's going on, and we have to integrate this new album, adapt it – in this case, a little more adaptation, because it was a solo album. This is the first time this has ever happened, where he's touring with the E Street Band behind a solo album. But it's good, and we had the whole new album down in two days. Then you start kicking around ideas and doing older things. "My City of Ruins" ended up playing a major role in this show, really for the first time. It's always been an emotional song but sort of a specialty song, maybe an encore. This time it ended up playing a very, very different and central role.
This is the most difficult task ever. How do you address Clarence and Danny? How do you address that? You talk to ten different people and they're going to have ten different ideas. But it's really not easy. You're trying to do something that's very, very emotional, and at the same time, you don't want to make the show a funeral. You want to make sure the show is a celebration of life. It's a very delicate, very fine line to walk. And (Bruce) comes up with this rap – it's so fucking great, and so perfect. I'm awestruck. This guy still inspires me after 45 fucking years of doing this. I'm like, "Jesus Christ, that's so fucking good, so important." It's such an important moment in the show...It's probably the best start of a tour, I think ever, honestly.
I'm sure it was hard the first time you walked onstage without Clarence.
Nils: The first time that hit me the hardest was the Grammys. I'm standing there, and there's nobody to my right. It hit me hard. That's someone I'll miss the rest of my life, but I still love playing and it doesn't take away from the power of the songs of the band.
Steven: It's emotional for me to walk onstage without Clarence, and it always will be. I still honestly once in a while get that feeling with Danny. I look over there and say, "Oh yeah, Danny's no longer…" That's never going to change. So I think the more people onstage, the more that helps. The more the configuration is different, the more that eases your emotional pain. In other words, you're not trying to replace them, you're doing a different thing. Through the years, since we started playing in 1965, you do a lot of different things. I've been in horn bands. I've been in country bands. You go into 100 different configurations in your life. Now it feels like another one. It's almost like you're in a different band, in a sense, even though the core of the band is still there.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Dan Pifer, Lo Faber and Aaron Maxwell perform at Irving Plaza in New York City. Following a decade of dormancy, God Street Wine are reuniting for the second time in three years for a run of shows in New York City this August, with additional possibilities being discussed.
Much ado was made about God Street Wine's 2010 reunion when they sold out New York's Gramercy Theatre in record time. But the victory was short-lived: following those two shows, the band performed just two more, aboard Jam Cruise in January 2011 (where they were joined by several notable guests, including the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir) before going back on "indefinite hiatus." With band members now scattered across the globe and dedicated to new careers, that came as no big surprise.
But now, just over a year later, God Street Wine are back again, this time for a three-night stand at the Gramercy. This round might even be a sign of things to come: additional tour dates may be on the horizon and, at the very least, occasional get-togethers seem likely.
Frontman Lo Faber says the 2010 reunion was as thrilling for the band as it was for their fans. "At the same time, and I'll only speak for myself here," Faber tells Rolling Stone, "I had a teeny bit of frustration by being bound by what GSW was doing 12 to 15 years ago. The thrill of doing what we used to do wore off a bit, and I started to wonder if we could actually do something new."
Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures
God Street Wine initially formed in 1988 and officially disbanded in 1999. During their heyday, they toured as part of the H.O.R.D.E. festival and performed on bills anchored by the Allman Brothers and Black Crowes. In their time, the Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish all opened for them.
When the band announced they were going on "indefinite hiatus" again following the 2011 Jam Cruise, Faber and guitarist Aaron Maxwell used their rekindled friendship and musical partnership as grounds to perform a series of intimate acoustic shows around New York.
"Both of us had a musical itch to scratch, triggered by the GSW reunion shows, that wouldn't go away," says Faber. "And the acoustic shows . . . were actually new and fresh, musically, in exactly the way I was looking for. They showed us that there are still a lot more musical possibilities for GSW still yet to be explored. We still have things to say up on that stage."
They'll get their chance when they return to the Gramercy for three consecutive nights beginning on August 16th.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Dan Pifer, Lo Faber and Aaron Maxwell perform at Irving Plaza in New York City. Following a decade of dormancy, God Street Wine are reuniting for the second time in three years for a run of shows in New York City this August, with additional possibilities being discussed.
Much ado was made about God Street Wine's 2010 reunion when they sold out New York's Gramercy Theatre in record time. But the victory was short-lived: following those two shows, the band performed just two more, aboard Jam Cruise in January 2011 (where they were joined by several notable guests, including the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir) before going back on "indefinite hiatus." With band members now scattered across the globe and dedicated to new careers, that came as no big surprise.
But now, just over a year later, God Street Wine are back again, this time for a three-night stand at the Gramercy. This round might even be a sign of things to come: additional tour dates may be on the horizon and, at the very least, occasional get-togethers seem likely.
Frontman Lo Faber says the 2010 reunion was as thrilling for the band as it was for their fans. "At the same time, and I'll only speak for myself here," Faber tells Rolling Stone, "I had a teeny bit of frustration by being bound by what GSW was doing 12 to 15 years ago. The thrill of doing what we used to do wore off a bit, and I started to wonder if we could actually do something new."
Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures
God Street Wine initially formed in 1988 and officially disbanded in 1999. During their heyday, they toured as part of the H.O.R.D.E. festival and performed on bills anchored by the Allman Brothers and Black Crowes. In their time, the Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish all opened for them.
When the band announced they were going on "indefinite hiatus" again following the 2011 Jam Cruise, Faber and guitarist Aaron Maxwell used their rekindled friendship and musical partnership as grounds to perform a series of intimate acoustic shows around New York.
"Both of us had a musical itch to scratch, triggered by the GSW reunion shows, that wouldn't go away," says Faber. "And the acoustic shows . . . were actually new and fresh, musically, in exactly the way I was looking for. They showed us that there are still a lot more musical possibilities for GSW still yet to be explored. We still have things to say up on that stage."
They'll get their chance when they return to the Gramercy for three consecutive nights beginning on August 16th.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here 
Click to listen to Danny Brown's 'She Wanna Party All The Time (K. Flay Remix)'
Contrary to her verse in "Free N Easy," K.Flay did not spend her trust fund just on coffee. That’s because the 26-year-old rapper and producer didn’t inherit any trust fund. "It was more just commentary on all these people who have no idea what to do with their money," she told Rolling Stone.
K. Flay didn’t set out to be a rapper. She started making music as an enjoyable extracurricular during her sophomore year at Stanford University. She now has a catalog that consists of a mixtape of mash-ups, an EP she wrote and produced in a basement, another three-volume mixtape and the just-released EP, Eyes Shut. K. Flay’s prolific, self-propelled efforts nabbed her a recording contract with RCA. Her debut album is expected sometime this summer.
"We Hate Everyone," the first single off Eyes Shut, was co-produced by The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett, and it’s this type of collaboration, unusual in rap, that epitomizes K. Flay’s indie style. Jamming in drums and guitar on top of bass-happy beats, her music is ultimately more indie electronic than hip-hop.
But even with all these loud layers, there is no overshadowing K. Flay’s quick fire rhymes, loaded with clever wordplay about suburban discontent and delivered in 20-something, angst-smeared smug. It’s this unique sonic concoction that explains why the rapper has been asked to open for such diverse artists as Snoop Dogg, Passion Pit and fellow genre-bender Theophilus London.
Although she lacks the trust fund to prove it, K. Flay (born Kristine Flaherty) grew up in an affluent suburb of Chicago and received two diplomas while at Stanford (psychology and sociology). Yes, K. Flay has absolutely zero street cred. But what may seem like a detriment for any up-and-coming rapper is not a chip on her shoulder. For it’s K. Flay’s brainy quirks, her angry girl-next-door delivery, her rebel chick charm that has propelled her forward.
But if comparisons can’t be avoided, K. Flay is more of an honorary Beastie Girl. Her remix of the Beastie Boys’ "Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win" featured guest vocals by Santigold.
K. Flay’s new career track makes her dual college degree almost futile, but she still advised against dropping out of college.
"A college degree is not essential," she said, "but if you’re already in college and if it’s at all possible, you should definitely try to finish. In college you have a very supportive community right there, and it can give you opportunities to try out new things."
What K. Flay does take from traditional rap roots is the autobiographical sentiments in her lyrics. Though happy-go-lucky in person, K. Flay’s songs reveal a more complex artist frustrated with youth apathy and parental disapproval.
"It’s very introspective," K. Flay said. "But I don’t know if it’s that dark. It’s all stuff that I’ve gone through, or stuff my friends have gone through. We all seem to be ok now."
Never tongue-tied, K. Flay does stick her tongue in her cheek sometimes. She raps about silly things, too, like an Elle Fanning poster her roommate had when she lived in San Francisco. And as for the veracity behind partying with "the old-school cast of Felicity" – a verse in "Party," her smart men’s Ke$ha ode to debauchery? "That is still an unfulfilled dream of mine," she confessed.
Speaking of partying, listen to the above exclusive K. Flay remix of "Party All the Time" by Fool’s Gold artist Danny Brown.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Click to listen to Danny Brown's 'She Wanna Party All The Time (K. Flay Remix)'
Contrary to her verse in "Free N Easy," K.Flay did not spend her trust fund just on coffee. That’s because the 26-year-old rapper and producer didn’t inherit any trust fund. "It was more just commentary on all these people who have no idea what to do with their money," she told Rolling Stone.
K. Flay didn’t set out to be a rapper. She started making music as an enjoyable extracurricular during her sophomore year at Stanford University. She now has a catalog that consists of a mixtape of mash-ups, an EP she wrote and produced in a basement, another three-volume mixtape and the just-released EP, Eyes Shut. K. Flay’s prolific, self-propelled efforts nabbed her a recording contract with RCA. Her debut album is expected sometime this summer.
"We Hate Everyone," the first single off Eyes Shut, was co-produced by The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett, and it’s this type of collaboration, unusual in rap, that epitomizes K. Flay’s indie style. Jamming in drums and guitar on top of bass-happy beats, her music is ultimately more indie electronic than hip-hop.
But even with all these loud layers, there is no overshadowing K. Flay’s quick fire rhymes, loaded with clever wordplay about suburban discontent and delivered in 20-something, angst-smeared smug. It’s this unique sonic concoction that explains why the rapper has been asked to open for such diverse artists as Snoop Dogg, Passion Pit and fellow genre-bender Theophilus London.
Although she lacks the trust fund to prove it, K. Flay (born Kristine Flaherty) grew up in an affluent suburb of Chicago and received two diplomas while at Stanford (psychology and sociology). Yes, K. Flay has absolutely zero street cred. But what may seem like a detriment for any up-and-coming rapper is not a chip on her shoulder. For it’s K. Flay’s brainy quirks, her angry girl-next-door delivery, her rebel chick charm that has propelled her forward.
But if comparisons can’t be avoided, K. Flay is more of an honorary Beastie Girl. Her remix of the Beastie Boys’ "Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win" featured guest vocals by Santigold.
K. Flay’s new career track makes her dual college degree almost futile, but she still advised against dropping out of college.
"A college degree is not essential," she said, "but if you’re already in college and if it’s at all possible, you should definitely try to finish. In college you have a very supportive community right there, and it can give you opportunities to try out new things."
What K. Flay does take from traditional rap roots is the autobiographical sentiments in her lyrics. Though happy-go-lucky in person, K. Flay’s songs reveal a more complex artist frustrated with youth apathy and parental disapproval.
"It’s very introspective," K. Flay said. "But I don’t know if it’s that dark. It’s all stuff that I’ve gone through, or stuff my friends have gone through. We all seem to be ok now."
Never tongue-tied, K. Flay does stick her tongue in her cheek sometimes. She raps about silly things, too, like an Elle Fanning poster her roommate had when she lived in San Francisco. And as for the veracity behind partying with "the old-school cast of Felicity" – a verse in "Party," her smart men’s Ke$ha ode to debauchery? "That is still an unfulfilled dream of mine," she confessed.
Speaking of partying, listen to the above exclusive K. Flay remix of "Party All the Time" by Fool’s Gold artist Danny Brown.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Steven Van Zandt and his wife Maureen arrive at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.By the end of a more than three-hour telecast dominated by Adele's deserved triumph and the shock over the loss of Whitney Houston, it was almost easy to forget that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the night with the impassioned live debut of their new single, "We Take Care Of Our Own," which was a highlight for many.
"We just wanted to come see the Boss," Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons told Rolling Stone when asked why the band took a break from recording their new album to come to the Grammys.
But for the E Street Band it was a bittersweet occasion. Lost in all of the other discussion surrounding the show was the fact this marked the first full E Street Band performance without Clarence Clemons. Springsteen played several guest appearances over the last year, at both benefit shows, and with friends like Bob Seger and Sting, but the band hadn't been together on stage since November of 2009, almost two years prior to the passing last June of the "Big Man."
When asked on the red carpet before the show if this was also a solemn occasion Steve Van Zandt told Rolling Stone, "Oh absolutely. But all you can do is carry on as a tribute to him and Danny [Federici]."
The obvious mixed emotions of the night aside, Van Zandt was excited to come out of the Underground Garage he calls his radio home and see the other performances. "It’s so different from my radio world that’s its own format in a parallel universe, so once in a while it’s nice to come back to the mainstream to see what’s going on in the real world," he said. "I enjoy it when I see it, I don’t really live in that world, but I enjoy it when I visit."
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Steven Van Zandt and his wife Maureen arrive at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.By the end of a more than three-hour telecast dominated by Adele's deserved triumph and the shock over the loss of Whitney Houston, it was almost easy to forget that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the night with the impassioned live debut of their new single, "We Take Care Of Our Own," which was a highlight for many.
"We just wanted to come see the Boss," Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons told Rolling Stone when asked why the band took a break from recording their new album to come to the Grammys.
But for the E Street Band it was a bittersweet occasion. Lost in all of the other discussion surrounding the show was the fact this marked the first full E Street Band performance without Clarence Clemons. Springsteen played several guest appearances over the last year, at both benefit shows, and with friends like Bob Seger and Sting, but the band hadn't been together on stage since November of 2009, almost two years prior to the passing last June of the "Big Man."
When asked on the red carpet before the show if this was also a solemn occasion Steve Van Zandt told Rolling Stone, "Oh absolutely. But all you can do is carry on as a tribute to him and Danny [Federici]."
The obvious mixed emotions of the night aside, Van Zandt was excited to come out of the Underground Garage he calls his radio home and see the other performances. "It’s so different from my radio world that’s its own format in a parallel universe, so once in a while it’s nice to come back to the mainstream to see what’s going on in the real world," he said. "I enjoy it when I see it, I don’t really live in that world, but I enjoy it when I visit."
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Jake Clemons performs at The Classic Rock and Roll Party a Tribute to Clarence Clemons at Hard Rock Live! in Hollywood, Florida.Bruce Springsteen has announced that Jake Clemons - the nephew of former E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons - will be taking over some of his late uncle's sax dutues on the forthcoming "Wrecking Ball" Tour. Ed Manion, an original member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (and a member of Springsteen's Session Band), will also play saxophone on the tour, although it's not yet clear how they'll divide the parts. They will perform alongside trombonist Clark Gayton and trumpeters Curt Ramm and Barry Danielian. Back-up singers Cindy Mizelle and Curtis King will also be joining the band for the tour, which launches March 9th at the Apollo Theater.
Jake Clemons is an accomplished saxophone player who has guested with the E Street Band on numerous occasions and has also performed with the Swell Season and Nancy Atlas. In 1992, he played the sax alongside his uncle at Bill Clinton's inauguration.
This is not the first time that a young family member of the E Street Band filled in for their relative. Max Weinberg's 18-year-old son Jay performed with the group on their 2009 tour when Max's Conan O'Brien duties took him away from the tour.
In July Jake wrote about his uncle's death on his blog. "It's a strange new world without Clarence," he wrote. "He has given so much through the years, and now we are left with a gaping Big Man sized hole in the universe. Yet, as his gift continues to inspire, and as well all continue to process the vast changes of our reality, I again turn to music. It's what I have. It's what he gave me from the first moment of seeing him on stage. It's what he's left me with now, and the closeness and the love he and I shared will always remain captured in a moment through pursed lips on a metal mouthpiece."
Here is video of Jake performing the Bruce Springsteen classic "Drive All Night" with The Swell Season.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Jake Clemons performs at The Classic Rock and Roll Party a Tribute to Clarence Clemons at Hard Rock Live! in Hollywood, Florida.Bruce Springsteen has announced that Jake Clemons - the nephew of former E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons - will be taking over some of his late uncle's sax dutues on the forthcoming "Wrecking Ball" Tour. Ed Manion, an original member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (and a member of Springsteen's Session Band), will also play saxophone on the tour, although it's not yet clear how they'll divide the parts. They will perform alongside trombonist Clark Gayton and trumpeters Curt Ramm and Barry Danielian. Back-up singers Cindy Mizelle and Curtis King will also be joining the band for the tour, which launches March 9th at the Apollo Theater.
Jake Clemons is an accomplished saxophone player who has guested with the E Street Band on numerous occasions and has also performed with the Swell Season and Nancy Atlas. In 1992, he played the sax alongside his uncle at Bill Clinton's inauguration.
This is not the first time that a young family member of the E Street Band filled in for their relative. Max Weinberg's 18-year-old son Jay performed with the group on their 2009 tour when Max's Conan O'Brien duties took him away from the tour.
In July Jake wrote about his uncle's death on his blog. "It's a strange new world without Clarence," he wrote. "He has given so much through the years, and now we are left with a gaping Big Man sized hole in the universe. Yet, as his gift continues to inspire, and as well all continue to process the vast changes of our reality, I again turn to music. It's what I have. It's what he gave me from the first moment of seeing him on stage. It's what he's left me with now, and the closeness and the love he and I shared will always remain captured in a moment through pursed lips on a metal mouthpiece."
Here is video of Jake performing the Bruce Springsteen classic "Drive All Night" with The Swell Season.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Bruce Springsteen performs during the Light of Day concert series at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey.Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform a special concert at New York's Apollo Theater on March 9th to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of satellite radio. The show, which is being held just three days after the release of Springsteen's new album, Wrecking Ball, will air live on SiriusXM's all-Springsteen channel E Street Radio. According to a press release, SiriusXM subscribers will have the opportunity to win tickets to the event through email and on-air promotions.
"We are proud and excited to celebrate ten years of satellite radio with one of the most enduring superstars of popular music, and true friends of SiriusXM, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band," said President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein in a statement. "Bruce's music, now more than ever, reflects the attitudes and controversies, and the personal and national conversations of our time." The Apollo show, he said, offers subscribers a unique opportunity to hear Springsteen and his band "in one of the most intimate and historic settings in the world."
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off a world tour March 18th in Atlanta, Georgia. Springsteen has yet to announce how the group will deal with the absence of the late Clarence Clemons, though Bruce's longtime friend Southside Johnny recently dropped a pretty big hint. "He’s stealing my saxophone players to replace Clarence," Southside recently told The Record. "We steal from each other’s bands occasionally.”
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Bruce Springsteen performs during the Light of Day concert series at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey.Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform a special concert at New York's Apollo Theater on March 9th to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of satellite radio. The show, which is being held just three days after the release of Springsteen's new album, Wrecking Ball, will air live on SiriusXM's all-Springsteen channel E Street Radio. According to a press release, SiriusXM subscribers will have the opportunity to win tickets to the event through email and on-air promotions.
"We are proud and excited to celebrate ten years of satellite radio with one of the most enduring superstars of popular music, and true friends of SiriusXM, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band," said President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein in a statement. "Bruce's music, now more than ever, reflects the attitudes and controversies, and the personal and national conversations of our time." The Apollo show, he said, offers subscribers a unique opportunity to hear Springsteen and his band "in one of the most intimate and historic settings in the world."
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off a world tour March 18th in Atlanta, Georgia. Springsteen has yet to announce how the group will deal with the absence of the late Clarence Clemons, though Bruce's longtime friend Southside Johnny recently dropped a pretty big hint. "He’s stealing my saxophone players to replace Clarence," Southside recently told The Record. "We steal from each other’s bands occasionally.”
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here Bonnie Raitt performs during the MUSE Benefit Concert for Japan Relief at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.By the time Bonnie Raitt entered producer Joe Henry's studio in late 2010, she'd been through what she calls "a heavy time." Her parents had passed away in quick succession, and she took a long break from music to help care for her brother Steve, who died of brain cancer in April 2009. "I hadn't had time to process it all," she says. "I wanted to get off that treadmill."
To ease her way back into music, she took up Henry's offer to record at his basement studio in South Pasadena, California. Working with top-tier players such as guitarist Bill Frisell, they quickly cut four of the tunes – including killer, bluesy takes on Bob Dylan's "Million Miles" and "Standing in the Doorway" – for Slipstream, Raitt's first album since 2005 (due April 10th). "The sessions were so inspiring that I fell back in love with music and got my appetite for it back again," she says. "It was healing."
"Her voice has lost none of its power," Henry adds. "But it has extra smoke and nuance and life experience in there."
Raitt recorded the other eight songs on Slipstream with her longtime touring band, including a reggae-tinged cover of Gerry Rafferty's "Right Down the Line" and a funked-up spin on Randall Bramblett's "Used to Rule the World." "To me, that song is about the Occupy movement," Raitt says of the latter. "It's about the kind of hubris America has had, as if there are no consequences."
Raitt, who parted ways with Capitol in 2006, will release the album on her newly formed Redwing Records. "I've been wanting to do my own label for a long time," she says. One key benefit of recording without a major label? More of Raitt's trademark slide guitar. "We let the guitar jams go," she says. "That's something I haven't really done in the past. We left in the solos we would have normally cut out for singles. We just went for it."
Related
• Bonnie Raitt Readies First Album in Seven Years
• The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Bonnie Raitt
• The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: Bonnie Raitt
This story is from the February 2nd, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here
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