Boston-based singer/songwirter Marissa Nadler has recently released her fourth studio album, Little Hells.I had the opporuntiy to speak with Marissa, here's how our conversation went:T.O. Snob: Thanks for doing this. You're coming to Toronto on April 21st, what can people expact from your show? Marissa Nadler: I thin a gentle, mellow, ethereal sound.T.O. Snob: I think Little Hells is probably your best album yet. Do you consciously set out to try to surpass what you've done before? MN: That's always the intention. As an artist you're always trying to grow and metamorphisis....

Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is to put words to music. I'm not talking about lyrics, I'm talking about journalism. With some artists, categorization comes easy. With a band as unique as Look Mexico, it's no walk in the park. And perhaps that's not just because the music is so unique--it's also heartfelt. This is a band that will enter into a crowd during a show or even play sitting down from stage. They'll take time with fans after shows. They'll even manage to worm their way into the heart of the oldest guy there. Just ask my dad. With Look Mexico there's no pretense and it's never us versus them. Instead we're all in this crazy thing together and this music is as much ours as it is theirs. ...

Forever there lingers, within each of us, that elusive chance to put it all together. To draw those strings tight in one hand and pull. To say just the right thing in that brief and unexpected flash of a moment before all is lost. These are the chances that Straw Dogs somehow cannot help but take, time and again. And never have the results been stronger, the outcome so consistently irresistible, than on the Dogs' latest record, Love and Then Hope. Due for release in February 2009, these new songs reach within us and above, stamping the band's unique brand of Americana firmly upon us and the music world for good.And it is good. Straw Dogs have always drawn impressive comparisons: the rock and groove of Ryan Adams...

I had the chance to speak with lead singers and songwriter Tony Dekker about the album and the band's current tour.Here's how it went down:T.O. Snob: Thanks for doing this. How's the tour going? Tony Dekker: It's been going really great so far. We've had a really great run across Canada.T.O. Snob: Glad to hear that. We can't wait to see you back here. TD: Yeah, I'm really excited for the Toronto show as well.T.O. Snob: Does it make it special being a hometown show? TD: I think so. It totally does. We're coming home after two months touring before we leave for Europe. It's at a special moment in the tour too where I think...

Started in May 2001 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL by drummer Matthew Gossman, INTO THE MOAT began as a one-man project. Drummer Matthew Gossman recorded all the instruments for several demo tracks and showed them to friends to complete the band. INTO THE MOAT was eventually pieced together composed of musicians between the ages 18 and 19. Once the lineup was complete, INTO THE MOAT, started playing countless shows and working on their live performances, which can only be described as intense and powerful - taking full command of the unsuspecting audience. Their style was refined in January of 2002 as then bassist, Kit Wray, moved onto guitar and assumed the main song writing responsibilities. The band released one EP on Lovelost Records in May 2003...

SOUL OF A MANJack Elliott is, in the truest sense of the term, a self-made man. As some people feel born into the wrong era -the wrong body or the wrong gender- Jack recognized himself having been given the wrong name and delivered into the wrong geographical location; and was so at a time in our nation's history -the early 1930s- when the differences between, say, urban and rural, northeast and southwest, were as vast and deeply poetic as they were practical. Young Jack Elliott -nee, Elliott Charles Adnopoz- seemed to divine this instinctively and, so, laid his given name to rest, summoned a new identity, fell into its service, and began to live the life that would make his newly avowed mythology...

When you hand over your money for a concert ticket, what are you really paying for: some idea of the performer you've gleaned from gazing longingly at album covers and compulsively clicking YouTube videos, or the performer as they choose to express themselves on that given day? Is the consumer entitled to a certain expectation of the performance - a satisfaction-guaranteed procession of "the hits"- or should the artist interpret the fan's investment as a vote of confidence, that the fan is willing to follow their every whim? In other words, is the customer really king, relegating the artist to the role of a court jester whose sole purpose is to entertain on demand? Or does the artist, elevated up on the stage and paid for the p...

The story of Sholi began when Payam Bavafa and Jonathon Bafus started playing and writing music with bassist Danny Milks while attending UC Davis. "Sholi was a nickname my dad gave my brother and me when we wrestled as kids. I wanted a Persian word that sounded nice in English, and Jon liked that one," Bavafa says.The trio played locally, releasing a three-song demo shortly before Bavafa relocated to San Francisco to work as an electrical engineer. Around this time, Bafus and Bavafa began playing with several different bass players, finally coming together with their old friend Eric Ruud. The band began playing new material live, often with the help of one of Ruud's previous bandmates, Greg Hagel on keyb...

K-os, born Kevin Brereton, is a genuine neo-crossover rap n' roller who's music, much like your Ipod, might speak to hipster club kidz, pop chart gazers, Canadian indie rockers, dirty south electronic rap renegades, or reggae rude boys simultaneously. As it should -his rhyme and crooning skills took root in arguably the most polyglot and multi-cultural city on the planet, Toronto. And he's quite vocal about his not belonging to any one genre - he belongs to them all. Says k-os: "I'm a historical opportunist who's grown up on everything from Dylan to Marley to KRS-One...I've never seen myself as just a hip hop artist".On Yes!, his 12 song deep fourth album, released in Canada on Nettwerk/Universal, the no...

"I like you so much better when you're naked/I like me so much better when you're naked" Like the Norse warrior maiden Freya, 24-year-old Norwegian rocker Ida (eee-da) Maria is a force of nature, a goddess of love, fertility and sexual desire who led the Valkyries into battle, a fearless fighter who, paradoxically, has a passion for romantic music and flowers. Mirroring the weather in the tiny university town of Nesna in Norway, where she grew up, Ida Maria is a raging storm one moment, a blinding ray of sunshine the next. That dichotomy is perfectly captured on Fortress Round My Heart, her debut album for Mercury Records, and a description of the armor she takes into war-the songs which form her defe...

Coming Clean at the Bathhouse Recorded in 2008's year of continental excess and governmental Spending Gone Wild, The Tragically Hip's latest album, We Are the Same, brings its listeners something beyond the unexpected: actual hope. Gord Downie's lyrics-backed by a band ripe with confidence and skill-tackle what we might assume had passed far under the bridge. Should a first listen be given to a person recently hatched from a time capsule, or a pod sent from beyond Mars, she might believe that our essential uniting tenet, faith in humanity, still exists. We are, indeed, the Same, and when this is recognized, a bit of that space between us all shrinks. We Are the Same isn't only...

T.O. Snob: First off thanks for taking the time to do this with us. You're playing CMW on March 13th, what do festivals like this mean to a band as they start out? MD: They can be incredibly beneficial. They bring so many people together in such a concentrated space. Events like this we have done over the past year have resulted in some really great opportunities and friendships. In the past they have led to collaborations with Woodpigeon and all night drinking binges with Okkervil River. It creates a giant network - it's like facebook but without the internet and constant status updates.T.O. Snob: When ...

With the current state of heavy music existing in what seems to be a vacuum, never straying far from the expected, Paria exists as a vehicle for those willing to take chances. At times oppressive, at others sublime, this foursome crosses the arbitrary boundaries created by the faint of heart in order to create a world ex nihilo intended to be explored by the listener and never simply heard. Background music this is not. In order to fully perceive the tapestry woven by Paria the listener must do his part in becoming an active participant through listening. After signing with Black Market Activities and performing alongside such bands as Everytime I Die, The Dillinger Escape Plan, As I Lay Dying, Animosity, and others Paria released their deb...

Crystal Antlers were once a band of chimneysweeps-doing door-to-door hustle with broom and top hat all across the same California suburbs responsible for Saccharine Trust and the Middle Class, and after a long day up on the roof they'd return to write songs that went spiraling into space. (Early favorites like "Parting Song For The Torn Sky" and "Until The Sun Dies, Part 2"-even then, they were always looking up!) They covered Mose Allison and Chocolate Watchband, had their van stolen and then returned because of their sheer karmic purity, and grew from a viciously untamed bar band to fringe-psych explorers of the first order. Their first full-length Tentacles presents their permanent line-up-singer/bass...

After two CDEP's, Chicago's The Poison Arrows return with their long-awaited debut album First Class, and Forever.  Guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Justin Sinkovich (ex Atombombpocketknife) first released a solo EP entitled Trailer Park as The Poison Arrows in 2004 on File Thirteen.  He, drummer Adam Reach, and bassist Patrick Morris (ex Don Caballero) then began playing together. While completing the overdubbing, editing, and mixing of their first EP Straight Into The Drift in their studio The Plaza, The Poison Arrows began to write songs together as a band. After a year had passed, far more than an album's worth of music materialized.The Poison Arrows then w...

T.O. Snob: Thanks for taking the time to do this with us.You're playing CMW on March 12th will this be your first time in Toronto? Courtney- Actually we've never played in Canada before. We're very excited. I've been there once before and I can't wait to get back. Benjamin- We love Canada and the Canadian people.T.O. Snob: When you do a festival like CMW or SXSW do you get a chance to check out any of the other bands? C- We always try to find the time. SXSW last year we ended up playing something like 5 or 6 times and running from one side of Austin to the other so it was a bummer. B- Definitely, we love checking out bands, meeting people, and inviting people to New York to play.T.O. Snob: Your album...

Fugazi is a band from Washington, D.C. They played their first show on September 3, 1987 and since then they have released seven albums and toured the world extensively covering all fifty United States, Europe, Australia, South America, Japan and many points in between. The band is self managed and release all their material through Dischord Records.The band maintains a policy of affordable access to their work through low record and ticket prices and all concerts are all-ages. In addition to their recorded output, Fugazi has released a documentary film/video called "Instrument" in collaboration with independent filmmaker, Jem Cohen. A soundtrack ("Instrument Film Soundtrack") was released in c...

Honey Claws are one of the most eclectic and hard to pidgeonhole groups in the electronic sphere. You should really check out their album if you haven't yet (review here).Here's my conversation with Thomas, Jon and Traey of Honey Claws: T.O. Snob: First off, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us. You just released a new EP, what should fans expect from it? Thomas and Jon: its pretty indie, good melodies some great timeless tunes. Traey: I also think the songwriting has evolved. Jon's pacing the songs a little differently.T.O. Snob: What inspires a Honey Claws so...

Don't be thrown by the title. Life And Times, the ninth solo album from Bob Mould, is not autobiographical. That these ten ruminations on the fragility of relationships resound so powerfully speaks to Mould's abilities as a writer and performer, but the source material wasn't torn from his diary. "These are things that happen to all of us," he clarifies. Diehard fans craving inside dirt must wait for the 2010 publication of Mould's memoir; Life And Times is aimed at a broader audience.Nor is Life And Times some sprawling Dickensian epic. Featuring ten selections, and a running time just over 36 minutes, the album is deliberately concise, shorn of musical or lyrical flab. "There were a coupl...

With driving rhythms, soaring guitars, textural keyboards and powerful vocal melodies, The Hundred Days pushes indie/alternative in new directions. Drawing from a variety of influences (post punk, alternative, britpop), the band hits hard with a sound that has been compared to The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and Radiohead. The band showcases their pop writing abilities with both sophistication and urgency. As a moody, dynamic indie rock band, The Hundred Days aims to please but keeps you guessing.For their latest material, The Hundred Days teamed up with the production team behind The Killers Hot Fuss album, producer Jeff Saltzman (The Killers, The Sounds), and mixing engineer Mark Needham (The Killers, Cake). The band i...

Abbott Hayes is a indie/pop rock band from Tupper Lake, NY (try finding that on the map!). The band has gone through many changes since their last release. Abbott Hayes has certainly found their sound, and is in the process of putting the final touches on their debut full length album titled "I'm Giving Myself Away". Abbott Hayes has been out of the spotlight for some time, and plans on barging back into the world of music and taking over by storm. The band has had a few successful tours under their belt and plans on touring in the near future. The band has also been one of two unsigned bands featured on the Main Disc of the Drive Thru Records/Purevolume Compilation "Bands You Should Know and Love" which included Fallout...

Based in St. John's, Newfoundland, Hey Rosetta! is comprised of Tim Baker (vocals/piano/guitar), Adam Hogan (guitar), Josh Ward (bass/vocals), Phil Maloney (drums), Erin Aurich (violin), and Romesh Thavanathan (cello).  Recorded in the dead of winter in two East Coast harbour towns with producer and singer-songwrite...

In nature, the "Dear Enemy" effect occurs when powerful rivals agree to cooperate for the greater good rather than slug it out. That phenomenon happens all too rarely in the ultra-competitive music world, but great things can happen when it does, and Atlanta's Dear Enemy is proof.Dear Enemy formed in early 2005 from the ashes of some of Atlanta's best-known local groups. They were motivated by a single desire: to completely eliminate egos and distractions, and make the hardest, most direct music they can, with the broadest possible appeal.Dear Enemy has shared the stage with such national acts as Three Days Grace, Chevelle, Dark New Day, Red, Nonpoint, Egypt Central, City Sleeps. Hoobastank, Hurt, Burn S...

Taproot is a four-piece nu metal group from Ann Arbor, Michigan, that has toured with bands such as Korn, Deftones, Staind, P.O.D., Disturbed, Chevelle, and Linkin Park.Taproot: HistoryThe beginnings (1998-1999)In 1998, Taproot sent their demo to Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. Impressed with their material, he offered to get them a recording contract through Interscope Records. However, after extended negotiations, Taproot looked elsewhere, where they finally landed a lucrative record deal with Atlantic Records. Durst heavily cursed the band on vocalist Stephen Richards' answering machine. He also put some blame on System of a Down, who assisted Taproot in securi...

It's no joke-Philly bred NYC transplant Joe DeRosa may be one of America's most in-demand stand up comics, but with partner James Pinkstone he's rocking hard and serious as Funeral intheMirror. They performed tracks from their debut collection at CD release parties at Ochi's Lounge in New York and The M Room in Philadelphia.Comedy fans familiar with DeRosa from his thousands of performances across the U.S. and appearances on "Comedy Central Presents," HBO, NBC, Fox News' "Red Eye" and "The Opie and Anthony Show" on XM/Sirius might be surprised to learn that the multi-talented performer originally pursued a career in music before finding his niche as a funnyman. Ironically, he found his pathway back to...

This Philadelphia band's first album on A&M, entitled The Reds, is a ferocious attack, total and relentless. It's textures are dense with electronic chaos brought to the edge of madness, then resolved into piercing clarity. The album showed the band's most impressive achievement -- a sound that blends Rick Shaffer's guitar and Bruce Cohen's keyboards into an interestingly textured drone, short guitar and keyboard figures, rising then disappearing back into the drone, while Shaffer's voice provides the punch and definition for the overall sound. The album was supported with live appearances with such diverse acts as The Police, Joe Jackson, The Psychedelic Furs, and Public Image.The Reds was followed by an A...

Master of the catchy chorus Ben Lee has his new album, Rebirth Of Venus, coming out on Feb. 10th (read my review here).Recently I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with Lee about the new album and music in general. I'd like to give a shout out to my brother, Bean Counter (a massive Ben Lee fan), for helping to come up with the questions for Ben.T.O. Snob: First off thanks for taking the time to do this for us. You have your new album, Rebirth Of Venus comes out on February 10th. What can your fans expect from the new record? Ben Lee: ITS PRETTY ECLECTIC AND COLLAGE STYLE POP. BIG CHORUSES AND LOTS OF HOPE MIXED WITH SOME CHAOS AND CORDUROY. T.O. Snob: You've been at this music game for what must seem a lifetim...

Canadian singer/songwriter Emm Gryner has a new album coming out in February. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Gryner about her album. Here's our conversation:T.O. Snob: Thank you very much for agreeing to speak with us. We're big fans of Emm Gryner here at Snob's Music. You have your new studio album Goddess coming out in February. What should fans expect from Goddess? Emm Gryner: Probably the most personal album i've ever made. There were a few songs I wrote recently that I thought were poppier or more catchy and I just left them off because they had no place intruding on the moody, subzero landscape of this album. T.O. Snob: What goes into the songwriting process for you? E.G.:I write about wha...

Yesterday I announced Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumb Line as my best album of 2008. Well recently the band's bassist Mathieu Santos took the time to do a Q&A with us.Here's our conversation with Mathieu of Ra Ra Riot.TO Snob: Off the bat I'd like to congratulate you on making a stellar album. On Snob's Music we have named The Rhumb Line as the best album of 2008. I'd also like to apologize because I'm sure you've answered these questions or similar ones hundreds of times before. So Syracuse, NY. It's not usually mentioned among the musical hotspots in North America. What is the music scene like there? Who are your favorite artists to come out of the city?  MS: Outside of the university, which has every kind of band i...

Recently I had the pleasure of doing a question and answer session with one of the hippest cats in music today: Franz Nicolay. Not only is Franz an integral part of indie rock heavyweights The Hold Steady, but he also has his debut solo album, Major General, coming out on January 13th.Here's my conversation with Franz. T.O. Snob: First I'd like to congratulate you on an incredible 2008 with The Hold Steady. At Snob's Music we named Stay Positive our #3 album of the year and "Sequestered In Memphis" the #2 song. Franz Nicolay: Thanks, I'll be sure to take every bit of credit for that!T.O. Snob: My wife loves you by the way. FN: Please don't hold it against me...T.O. Snob: I'll try not to. You've go...