INTERVIEWS
Twin Cities Heroes Hippo Campus Learn to Zen Out
In the months leading up to the pandemic, the typically carefree dudes in Twin Cities-based indie-rock outfit Hippo Campus hit their breaking point. They’d been touring for more than six years straight, with no more than two-month breaks between shows at any given time. “We were straight-up burnt out,” guitarist Nathan Stocker admits, noting how in addition to the stress of the road, the band was also undergoing managerial changes and “navigating individual and personal relationships issues just trying to maintain just our health and get back to the essence of the band.” As it turned out, “someone was clearly watching out for us,” lead singer Jake Luppen says, and while the pandemic was hardly anyone’s idea of an ideal situation, both Luppen and Stocker believe it was something of a blessi...
Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of Lavender Country
“People always ask me why I chose country music,” Lavender Country’s Patrick Haggerty says. “The truth is, there wasn’t any genre in 1973 that was ready to embrace a queer Marxist!” Lavender Country, his self-titled debut, was the first-ever country record by a gay artist. Selling only 1,000 records at the time, a copy now hangs in the Country Music Hall of Fame library. Almost five decades later, the long-awaited follow-up is due from New Jersey-based label Don Giovanni: Blackberry Rose. I’ve reached Haggerty by phone at his home in Seattle, late enough in the evening that we remark to each other our time to talk is limited: both of our respective partners are in the process of making dinner and eventually will demand we get off the phone and come and eat. Humble and affable during what t...
Beach House’s Descent Into Madness
“I hope I can actually sing and tears aren’t just streaming down my face,” Beach House‘s Victoria Legrand says with a giggle. Over Zoom from their headquarters in Baltimore, Legrand and bandmate Alex Scally appear relaxed and eager for things to return to normal. They haven’t played in front of a live audience in nearly three years. Now, with Beach House’s eighth album, Once Twice Melody, on the way, the duo has a double album’s worth of new material to perform. Legrand says the two of them are “the most prepared we’ve been for a long time to go out and play live.” “[Three years] is a long time in the music industry, which changes and accelerates so quickly. So these shows are gonna feel like, I wanna call it a time party.” “I just hope I don’t have a nervous breakdown from some combi...
Meet Peach PRC, The Internet’s New Favorite Pop Star
In between making TikToks about weird human behavior, living in blissful ignorance of astrology, and Ed Sheeran’s bizarre lyrical choices, Peach PRC is writing magnetic, fascinating, and incredibly catchy pop songs. The latest of these is “God Is A Freak,” which finds Peach investigating God’s so-called “omnipotence,” while pointing out how judgmental people in organized religion can be. And not only that, the song is hilarious, heartfelt, and a bit heavy all at once (“God is a bit of freak/ why’s he watching me getting railed on the couch/ staying pure for a wedding?/ He’s got fucked up priorities”). Peach has been reckoning with the logic and laws of God for a while in her TikTok videos, and “God Is A Freak” is certainly a dramatic statement of curiosity. But having come out as a lesbian...
Meet Peach PRC, The Internet’s New Favorite Pop Star
In between making TikToks about weird human behavior, living in blissful ignorance of astrology, and Ed Sheeran’s bizarre lyrical choices, Peach PRC is writing magnetic, fascinating, and incredibly catchy pop songs. The latest of these is “God Is A Freak,” which finds Peach investigating God’s so-called “omnipotence,” while pointing out how judgmental people in organized religion can be. And not only that, the song is hilarious, heartfelt, and a bit heavy all at once (“God is a bit of freak/ why’s he watching me getting railed on the couch/ staying pure for a wedding?/ He’s got fucked up priorities”). Peach has been reckoning with the logic and laws of God for a while in her TikTok videos, and “God Is A Freak” is certainly a dramatic statement of curiosity. But having come out as a lesbian...
The Saga of Shaq: DJ Diesel On Why He’s Among The Few to Thrive In Both Sports and Music
As a four-time NBA champion and three-time MVP, Shaquille O’Neal thrives in high stakes environments. Though the NBA Hall of Famer traded the court for the stage, rebranding himself as DJ Diesel in the process, O’Neal’s “go big or go home” attitude is as vigorous as ever. Over the last handful of years, Shaq’s Fun House has rightfully earned a reputation as a “must-see” event during Super Bowl Weekend. The very concept of bringing a full-size carnival and music festival experience to fruition for one night only would appear a daunting task for almost anyone, but it goes to show that when you start your day with some energizing drum & bass music, anything’s possible. This year’s edition of Shaq’s Fun House is am...
Nick Cannon Had ‘Baby Mama Drama’ After Kevin Hart’s Condom Vending Machine Prank
Nick Cannon is still on good terms with Kevin Hart, despite the comedian gifting him a vending machine full of condoms as a Valentine’s Day prank. While the joke provided a good laugh for both, The Masked Singer host recalled getting into a bit of hot water with the mothers of his children before Hart revealed himself as the prankster. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In an interview with Entertainment Tonight published Wednesday (Feb. 9), Cannon appeared alongside Hart and their Real Husbands of Hollywood co-stars, and took a brief moment to talk about their mutual pranks. “I still think me wrapping [Hart’s] face on my private plane is better than his sending me a vending machine full of condoms,” he said. “Vending machine full of condoms is a ...
Frank Turner Gets Back to Punk Rock on FTHC
It’s popular for artists to say these days that they don’t care about genre, but Frank Turner really doesn’t care about genre. We’re not talking about going from indie to alternative or something here, but a punk rocker (who’s often bridged the gap between folk, punk, and other forms of Englishman-with-an-acoustic-guitar) releasing an electro-pop album followed by a “history podcast” album. Yes, his most recent album in the “before times” of 2019, No Man’s Land, is based around famous women throughout history who had to battle against gender norms (“You can imagine how stoked my record label was about that one”). But now, the man who’s used a logo reading FTHC for years is finally releasing probably the closest thing to an actual hardcore album he’ll ever do under his own name — aptly titl...
Slash Discusses His New Solo Album, Fear Covers Album and That South Park Episode
Two years into Zoom becoming a mainstream method of communication, it’s clear that the assortment of books, artwork and knickknacks that decorate the shelves in the background of a video call say a lot about the person appearing in front of them. Sure, some folks opt for a shelf-free background, but unless you’re in a particularly enthralling room or have some very special art or posters as your backdrop, all that tells people is that you’re boring. Of course, there’s always the digital option of replacing your actual setting with something more interesting… if you’re a coward. As one might expect, Slash has a wide variety of tchotchkes on the shelves behind him in his preferred Zoom setup. The groupings of gifts, purchases, and other small acquisitions no doubt tell different parts of his...
Black Country, New Road Don’t Care If You Hate Their Ambitious New LP
“We knew that people weren’t going to like it,” says Black Country, New Road‘s Lewis Evans. “And [now] I know that people won’t like it.” It doesn’t read like a ringing endorsement of Ants From Up There, the recently issued second album from the British sextet. But the saxophonist correctly insists it’s the “best thing [they’ve] ever done” — a more mature song cycle that broadens the emotional range of 2021’s For the First Time. Where that acclaimed debut relied heavily on deadpan speak-sing snark and brooding post-punk riffs, Ants is often bright and opened-armed, landing somewhere between ornate art-rock and Arcade Fire-sized chamber-pop. They’ve always had style to spare — now they have heart. “One of the main aims of the second album was to explore, first of all, more ...
ATEEZ Are Just Getting Started
“Did you see the new Spider-Man: No Way Home?” asks Yunho, one of the eight members of ATEEZ. “His famous line is, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ We have more and more fans coming in, and we want to carry that responsibility well.” It’s a thoughtful — and fair — observation. Since the last time they were in America, ATEEZ have exploded. Three years ago, the eight-member group (Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Mingi, San, Yeosang, Wooyoung, and Jongho) played a venue in Los Angeles that held 1,500 people; on January 30th of this year, they appeared before a sold-out crowd at The Forum (capacity: 18,000). This change is an easy way to visibly quantify the group’s growth, but feels like too basic of a measure of the show ATEEZ puts on. The January 30th concert at The Forum ran over...
Bastille Wants You to Escape Into the Future
Though the ideas behind Bastille’s fourth album, Give Me the Future, were mostly conceptualized during the pre-pandemic time, it’s hard to deny the album’s parallels to the world as it’s developed over the last couple of years. At the time, the multi-platinum pop-rockers were fresh off the success of 2019’s Doom Days, and Bastille were ready to make an album about escapism — a topic many folks became all too familiar with during two years of various lockdowns and quarantines. “Initially, it was a slightly different idea,” frontman Dan Smith says, his warm voice sounding like the embrace of an old friend. “It was much more about dreaming more literally — maladaptive daydreaming and lucid dreaming. It was a bit about technology and about escapism via narratives — the narratives that we write...
