Even though I wasn’t there in person, I have to thank Popmatters music scribe Jennifer Kelly for putting me right in the thick of things at the SXSW music festival this week in Austin, Texas. I especially enjoyed her detailed reporting and pictures during Julie Doiron’s set as she tells how the elements factored into [...]
Popmatters Now Hear This! Interview: Chicago Beatmaker, Producer Radius
February 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This interview originally appeared in Popmatters. For Chicago-native beat-maker/producer Ramon Norwood (aka Radius), the city’s neighborhoods are more than just secondary landscape to his music-making. The nine neighborhoods and two interlude roadway tracks are the music, a vividly real sonic canvas he used on his debut album, Neighborhood Suicide, expressing all aspects of the [...]
Live Music Fan Attempts Great Experiment
December 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment
The Love of Live Music Lingers Into the "Weekend"
November 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment
This is something new for Live Exhaust and something I hope to do more whenever the opportunity presents itself. And though this in not an mp3 music blog in the truest sense, I’d like to share a music video and short story with you. Earlier this morning, I traveled through an unexpected intersection between a [...]
Popmatters Interview: Shugo Tokumaru
September 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment
This interview originally appeared in Popmatters. Landing in Chicago for his debut U.S. performance, Japanese singer-songwriter Shugo Tokumaru started the Saturday night show at the Empty Bottle before a sold out crowd deploying an acoustic version of “Parachute,” a song busting at the seams with blissful sunshine and a perfect lead single from Exithis third [...]
Popmatters Interview: Blues Traveler at Lollapalooza 2008
September 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment
This interview originally appeared in Popmatters. Over the last 20 years Blues Traveler has gone from underground jam-band stalwarts to mainstream multi-platinum success including a Grammy for 1994’s single “Run Around”. In that two decade span, they’ve also founded a festival (H.O.A.R.D.), weathered the death of a band mate and battled other personal issues while [...]
Festival Riffin' You Should Read
July 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Popmatters Interview: Mr. J. Medeiros
December 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment
This interview originally appeared in Popmatters. Ever since his days growing up in Rhode Island during the birth of hip-hop in the early ‘80s, Mr. J. Medeiros remembers blasting the classic beats of Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash from his Fisher Price radio. Next came his complete submersion into hip-hop culture as a [...]
Popmatters Interview: Plan B
August 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment
This article originally appeared in Popmatters. UK acoustic guitar slinger/cinematic rapper Ben Drew (aka Plan B) traces the planting of the seed for what you hear on his debut record Who Needs Actions When You Got Words to the desire to be real about the world he grew up in and plainly tell it like [...]
More Than One Story Out There: Popmatters Interview with Henry Rollins
July 7, 2007 By Leave a Comment
This interview originally appeared in Popmatters. When talking with Henry Rollins, anything is fair game and you better be ready to keep up. The former Black Flag frontman has made a living out of continually reinventing himself. He’s overcome a challenging childhood, was a driving force for one of hardcore punk rock’s seminal bands, and [...]
