Search Results for "Paul Lukas"

Singer/guitarist Matt Sweeney first came to light with the New Jersey punk band Skunk, whose two records feature sophomoric album titles with juvenile lyrics and aimless vocals to match, although both are stylistically diverse and Laid shows real progress toward a fully realized sound. When Skunk dissolved, Sweeney served a stint in the New York…

An accomplished painter, singer, songwriter, violinist and guitarist, New Zealand’s Alastair Galbraith has brought all those talents to bear on a diverse body of work dating back to the mid-’80s. He has led the exceptional groups Plagal Grind and the Rip, recorded extensively under his own name, and collaborated with the Dead C’s Bruce Russell…

In New Zealand, where bands routinely break up, trade members and then form anew in order to requalify for state-sponsored funding grants, the Able Tasmans managed to stay the course for over a decade. The group — whose moniker is a pun based on the name of 17th-century Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who discovered New…

Pell Mell has often been compared to such early rock instrumental figures as Link Wray and Duane Eddy, even though the band’s shimmering keyboards and guitar sound owes little stylistic allegiance to such supposed forebears. In one respect, however, the comparison is apt: while most modern- or prog-rock instrumental groups favor abstract composition over articulated…

The Duplex Planet, one of the best and longest-running fanzines in America, features transcripts of the sad, funny, brilliant, inane, remarkable, irrelevant and ingenious things said by the elderly residents of Boston’s now-defunct Duplex Nursing Home during interviews and conversations with editor David Greenberger. It’s a fantastic concept that consistently yields revelatory results, providing a…

By the time some indie bands finally catch the attention of major labels, it’s often too late — they’ve already used up their best material and shot their creative wad. Such, happily, has not been the case with New Zealand’s Verlaines. Following a series of promising but inconsistent import and indie albums the group inked…

In a rock era that seems to have lost sight of the distinction between playfully childlike and willfully childish, this band from Denver is a refreshing change of pace. As the Apples, the guitar-pop group’s self-titled debut EP — six songs pressed on apple-green vinyl — comes stuffed to the gills with amusing stickers and…

Hamish Kilgour was always the most unassuming member of New Zealand’s Clean, which may help explain why his latest band, the Mad Scene, has received less attention than his brother David’s solo outings or Robert Scott’s Bats. In any event, the Mad Scene, which also includes Lisa Siegel on guitar and vocals and, in its…

Over the course of his career, which has already yielded a shelf full of records, Chicago singer/guitarist Sam Prekop has drawn from enough disparate sources to make himself admirably difficult to pin down. Is he a folkie with jazz influences? A jazzbo with a jones for Caribbean music? An art-rocker with country leanings? The labels,…

From Ringo on down, rock protocol has decreed that drummers’ solo projects, regardless of merit, are not to be taken seriously. Little else can explain the cold shoulder given to Brick Layer Cake, the brilliant vehicle for Todd Trainer. He is best known as the manic drummer for such Midwestern powerhouses as Breaking Circus, Rifle…

If David Kilgour had done nothing more than co-lead the brilliant New Zealand pop band the Clean, his legacy would already have been assured. Throw in his collaboration with brother (and fellow Clean-mate) Hamish in the underrated Great Unwashed, his brief stewardship of the short-lived but excellent group Stephen and his membership in the great…

Pittsburgh’s Wimp Factor 14 first made waves with a series of excellent early-’90s singles — the first of which, “Train Song” (each copy packaged with a genuine train-flattened penny), was among 1991’s 7-inch best. On those records, the group mixes basic strum-pop with interesting instrumental touches (melodica, toy ukulele, zither, plastic bucket drums, etc.) to…