Andrew Lentz

Mike Thrasher, lead singerguitarist for the power trio Gwen Mars, has one of those names that‘s so over the top you just know he made it up. ”I get so much shit for that,“ the affably spaced-out singer says. ”But no, it’s my real name. If I could, I would......

Midway through a bite of tuna roll, Debbie Diamond sums up what separates her crew, the Januaries, from all the other female-fronted bands. ”I’m trying to bring the Hollywood bombshell back, but classy,“ says the half-Danish, half-Sephardic-Jewish lead singer. ”A lot of times when you get dumped by a lover,......

Photo by Kevin Estrada Downset vocalist Rey Oropeza has been hanging around a newsstand on Sunset Boulevard for the last hour, flipping through the pages of underground art zines, boning up on media culture with Juxtapoz. “That mag is bugged out,” he says. “We’re talking 50 tabs down the line......

VaGTaZo HALOTTKeMEKNaptanc (Neurot) Their name means ”galloping coroners,“ so these Hungarians do have a sense of humor. In fact, though, much of Vagtazo Halottkemek‘s sprawling tension-and-release noodle-poodle is funny because the players seem a bit too taken with their folksy goulash. In truth, Hungarian music -- pushed and pulled between......

“Faux-noir instrumental thriller” is one of those hyperbolic sales banners that has about as much impact these days as blurbs that read “Two Thumbs Way Up!!!” In fact, Xu Xu Fang hate the terms “noir,” “instrumental” and “spoken-word,” but let’s see you come up with accurate descriptors for a nine-piece......

Photo by Glen E. Friedman Despite their goth-o-glam war paint, violent onstage paroxysms and pulverizing blasts of sound, System of a Down do not think of themselves as a scary metal band. "What about Garth Brooks, man? That guy scares the hell out of me," says guitarist Daron Malakian from......

The era of MBAs and boardrooms in the music industry‘s upper ranks is giving way to a new paradigm: the musician as executive, the MC as finance director, the DJ as CEO. Want proof? Look at how Interscope Records made Limp Bizkit singer and publicity whore Fred Durst a veep......

SWITCHBLADE SYMPHONY: AN EERIE death-meditation festooned with autumnal reveries and songs of the hemlock? Not quite. While the latest incarnation of gothic bands is known as "dark wave," the San Francisco duo freely admit they're merely exploiting the surface of that scene -- it's a means, not an end. "I......