FOREWORD: Would you believe the only time I’d get to experience former Stranglers front man Hugh Cornwell in concert, he’d come up sick. He told me that was the first time sickness prevented him from playing. Anyway, this ’99 phone interview with the ‘70s punk legend proved he was still full of piss and vinegar.

Although vocalist/ guitarist Hugh Cornwell’s former band, the Stranglers, dabbled with aggressive melodic pop more often than pure punk, their ‘76 debut, Rattus Norvegicus, was…

FOREWORD: Out of Berkshire, England, came prog-rock revivalists, Cooper Temple Clause. Though less known in America since forming ‘round ’98, these prescient Brits knew how to effectively make lengthy jams that rocked out and rarely meandered. Their instrumentation, light years beyond unseasoned indie rockers, caused a minor revival of technical guitar efficiency and acrobatic playing a la Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. After this ’04 interview, they belatedly released ‘06s lesser Make This Your Own on a stagnant

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FOREWORD: I was lucky enough to be liked by CBGB head honcho, Hilly Kristal. I doubt he’d remember my name if he were still alive. But he knew my face.

When Kristal opened CB’s 313 Gallery next door around ‘92, he hosted Smug Magazine’s 1st anniversary party, where I met and got stoned with Steve Bloom, editor of High Times – which led to a 20-years-plus writing gig at the glorious pro-marijuana publication. Months afterwards, Kristal cleaned out CBGB’s cement-floored…

Foreword: I was very excited and anxious to meet fascinatingly gloom-obsessed artist, Nick Cave, in ’04. He had been leader of radical post-punk denizens, the Birthday Party, in the ‘80s, receiving further critical acclaim fronting the Bad Seeds thereafter. With his son playing compute games in an adjoining room, Cave and I had a demure conversation. It was a low key and quaintly informative session. After this interview, Cave gained wider audience acceptance under the guise of Grinderman, whose eponymous

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FOREWORD: I should note that Capitol Years brainchild, Shai Halperin, is the brother of semi-famous pop critic and celebrity hound, Shirley Halperin – a good friend of mine who let me write for her ‘90s underground rock zine, Smug Magazine (and whose husband, Thom Monahan, produced Shai’s band). While Shirley went on to co-write informative marijuana chronology, “Pot Culture” with ex-High Times editor, Steve Bloom, brother Shai continued to live the indie rock ‘n roll lifestyle. Despite not having a

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FOREWORD: Environmentally friendly, politically-charged Aussie, John Butler, is a post-hippie jam band freak whose ’04 album, Sunrise Over Sea, enlarged his overseas audience to the point where he headlined small US clubs and opened for O.A.R. at Manhattan’s spacious Hammerstein Theatre. Though he has since cut off his trademark dreadlocks, Butler’s Trio remains active on the grassroots level, releasing ‘08s funkier Grand National to good reviews.

Concocting a tasty stew mingling plaintive Celtic-Gypsy folk, crude backwoods acoustical leanings, rustic Blues,…

FOREWORD: I got to know the Burning Brides pretty well during 2001 to 2003. I had originally interviewed Dimitri for Aquarian Weekly and thereafter met them at a show and invited them to sleepover following a sold out Mercury Lounge gig. I also took Dimitri and his now-wife Melanie out for pizza in their old hometown of Philly with my wife and kids. The following piece never ran in High Times so it’s being posted here in front of the

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Talk about meeting one of your favorite artists and then getting to hang with him before and after a sweat-drenched sold out gig. That’s what happened in 2003 when I visited Chicago to do a brewpub tour and catch Peter Shelley’s lifelong punk-pop outfit, the Buzzcocks, across the street from historic Wrigley Field. One of the friendliest and least conceded artists I’ve encountered, Shelley had just signed with indie icon, Merge Records, and released an enjoyable eponymous Buzzcocks disc he…

FOREWORD: Dual Calexico front men Joey Burns and John Convertino continue to release sundry albums, singles, and EP’s when not backing up other musicians as respectable sidemen. Mixing Spaghetti Western with Mexicali blues in an unfettered way, Calexico have refined their approach and now garner minor mainstream attention. After this ’03 interview, they released ‘06s more straight-ahead Garden Ruin, their most successful chart record. But I prefer ‘08s marvelously campestral Carried To Dust, featuring Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam and

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FOREWORD: There’s been a lot of indie rock guitarists who’ve tried emulating then reconfiguring Neil Young’s wiry electrical tone. One of the best and most efficient is Doug Martsch, head honcho of Built To Spill. Perfect From Now On (done in its entirety during an ’08 tour) became their certified masterpiece and the band has toured relentlessly since then, slowed down only temporarily in ’06 due to drummer Andy Capps untimely death. After a folk-blues-styled ’02 solo debut, Now You

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FOREWORD: Though I spoke to fleet-fingered guitarist Joby Ford in ‘06, the Bronx front man, singer-lyricist Matt Caughthran, seems to call the shots. The L.A.-based unit quickly became one of the best live bands on the circuit, releasing another respectable eponymous album in ’08 and, believe it or not, an ‘09 mariachi long-player, under similar moniker, El Bronx.

Growing up amongst the aging hippies and brawny jocks of Grand Junction, Colorado, athletic guitarist Joby Ford studied Classical piano before attending…

FOREWORD: This piece was written a few years before I actually got to see British Sea Power live at Bowery Ballroom, where they put on one helluva show. Their excellent ’08 disc, Do You Like Rock Music?, found the boys displaying a more straightforward, but no less appealing, rock sound.

From the south coast of England, Brighton’s precocious British Sea Power harbor stormy melodic outbursts weathering colossal crescendo cascades, contrasting coastal climactic countenances against pacific stanzaic streambeds. Lead singer Yan…