If you needed someone to tell you which indie band you should be listening to, you’d be hard pressed to find a better arbiter of taste than Debbie Harry. Talk about indie cred! In addition to being a prolifically amazing musician, style icon and singing one of the first popular rap songs, according to a new article in New York Magazine Harry isn’t familiar with the word hipster. That might be her most stunning accomplishment.

In the article she also mentions a few of her favorite bands. One of the indie bands Debbie likes so much she’s starting hanging out with them is Heloise and the Savoir Faire. While I think they are awesome, you don’t have to take my word for it–you can take Debbie’s! Or you can just see them at the Marathon, as they are a UI-Approved, Must-See CMJ Marathon Artist. In this video they discuss how they met Debs.

Make sure to come back to blog.UncensoredInterview.com during the Marathon itself for Poingly’s man-on-the-scene coverage, and to check in with CMJ.com for Uncensored Interview clips filmed during the Marathon.

Sure, a lot of bands have a guitarist, a singer, a drummer and/or a bassist. And a few indie bands are changing it up–harpists, accordionists, even ukelele players have cropped up in recent years. But how many Uncensored Interview-Approved, Must-See CMJ Marathon Artists are dedicated to the lofty kazoo?  Only one. One awesome one. See The Two Man Gentlemen Band extoll the virtues of this maligned instrument before you check out their sweet kazoo solos at CMJ:

Make sure to come back to blog.UncensoredInterview.com during the Marathon itself for Poingly’s man-on-the-scene coverage, and to check in with CMJ.com for Uncensored Interview clips filmed during the Marathon.

Taking Poingly’s lead, I am also going to confess some guilty pleasures. Although no one can outdo the Dave Matthews Band, I, like Bodies of Water, love me some Venga Boys:

In fact, any poppy Euro house is totally my guilty pleasure. I grew up in Chicago, a city with more Polish people than anywhere except Warsaw. They love this stuff. Because of this experience I know some of the more popular DJs of Euro house and I can correctly order a Żywiec beer.

My second guilty pleasure is the Bee Gees. I love the early, non-disco Bee Gees specifically. And if you play some of those songs to people they think you are playing an obscure Beatles song. They are awesome, and their hairy, hairy chests are just a bonus.

I am not particularly guilty about either of these, though they are somewhat embarrassing. There are two I feel kind of guilty about.

(KEEP READING CONFESSIONS)

There are bands whose interviews only pop if you know and love their music. If there is one band for who that is not true, one band whose persona is riveting and compelling even without knowing their music, it is the Gay Blades. You may not agree with what they have to say (In fact, I’d be surprised if you did agree 100 percent), but you will definitely be amused, interested, angered or at least thought-provoked when you listen to them. And on top of that their music’s great too!

In true Gay Blades style, their videos are uniting the people. While America is currently pretty equally divided between political candidates, there is one political opinion that the majority of Americans can agree on: the hatred of George W. Bush. This clip of the Gay Blades asks the political question you may never thought of, but you won’t be able to forget:

So, I like country music, especially the more gospel-inspired old tymey music. But a major problem with liking this music (for me) is that it’s mainly about one guy. Jesus. And I am not Christian. But I am hard pressed to not sing along to fire and brimstone song about how the time is coming when the sinner must die. It’s kind of like white rich frat boys singing “Straight Out of Compton…”

I guess.  

This is why it warmed my heart that the Two Man Gentlemen Band, who take the old tyme to heart, wish they had written a gospel song. A gospel song about how the flu epidemic is really God smiting you.  

(See God smite here!)

In case you aren’t chosen, we’re coming up on the heels of the Jewish New Year. Unlike in other arty fields, like being a writer or comedian, rock music isn’t a field known for its Jews. I mean, of course there’s Bob Dylan, but a lot of rock stars are hiding their Judaism with stage names. Some rockin’ Jews who you might have thought were goyim:

• Neil Diamond
• Paula Abdul
• Babydaddy of the Scissor Sisters (aka Scott Hoffman)
• Ike Turner
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Scott Ian of Anthrax (aka Scott Ian Rosenfeld)
• Lenny Kravitz
• Joey Ramone (aka Jeffrey Ross Hyman)
• Princess Superstar (aka Concetta Kirschner)
• Pink (aka Alecia Beth Moore)

Around this time every year Beloit College releases an email about the things incoming college class of the current year have always known or never known. Generally, I find the list to be an oversimplified generalization, but every year there are one or two which hit home about the ever-widening age gap between me and college students (this year: “There has always been Pearl Jam.”)

Nothing, though, has made me feel quite so old as Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s discussion of what music must have been like before the Internet. People must have like, listened to the radio and stuff!

Couple that video with the fact that you remember a time before Boris Yeltsin was the leader of Russia, and you want to cry in the corner for your misspent youth.

In addition to making me feel old though, SSLYBY make a good point. For a long time there seemed to be a gap between the music lovers who first bought music on vinyl and all the rest of us, but it seems to be shrinking. A lot of people who were far too young to grow up in the heyday of vinyl still own record players. In fact, I have seen advertisements around New York for a DJ who only uses Victrolas. But the jump from physical to digital is more extreme than just different kinds of media, because, as SSLYBY get at, it’s about accessibility, not technology. Back in the day, if you were the kid who could find a Dead Kennedys tape, you were a god. Now, you could download it almost instantaneously. (more…)