Do artists need vocals and lyrics to demand audience attention in a place like the Bay Area, where there are new musicians popping up left and right? Eric Kuhn and Robin Landy, better known as instrumental duo Silian Rail, have found the answer to that question to be a resounding “no.” Read more »

Breathe Owl Breathe, the ethereal, off-folk-band from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, is on tour promoting its recent project, The Listeners/These Train Tracks — a children’s book with accompanying two-song record. Fans familiar with the band will not be surprised to hear it made a book for kids, or that the two stories are surreal and odd. The Listeners is about a mole and an ostrich – one blind, the other only technically a bird –  that find each other in the darkness and form a band. Read more »

Mark Sultan is an embattled crusader for true rock'n'roll. Though in prose, he'll have you believe that it must be destroyed – to save it from itself. Read more »

Back in 2010, when the members of Wild Flag initially started playing music with one another, whether a band would be forged or not wasn’t altogether clear. Carrie Brownstein, Rebecca Cole, and Janet Weiss (all from Portland, Ore.) had been writing the score for art documentary !Women Art Revolution when they tapped Mary Timony, who lived in Washington D.C., to record vocals. One project naturally led to the other. Read more »