Monthly Archives: June 2012

I have only blacked-out once in my entire life. Getting wasted has only ever made me self-conscious; I become prone to clumsiness and stupidity, when I aspire to smart self-assuredness. So I rarely go beyond a good buzz. My first … Continue reading →

Playing music in a parade looks like fun, but while it is, it’s also hard, sometimes thankless work.OffBeat spoke with members of four nightclub bands who, during Mardi Gras, transform into street bands. Sue Ford fronts Mardi Gras’ first rock band, Pink … Continue reading →

For 20 years, the Soul Rebels have remained a modern face in brass band music. “We are trying our best to push the envelope,” says Lumar LeBlanc, snare drummer and Rebels cofounder along with bass drummer Derrick Moss, both late … Continue reading →

One-man-bands have always really impressed me. Until I met a man with no band: IMAGINE “the” BAND. The name perfectly describes the concept: wearing a too-tight wetsuit and headphones with “special education” printed across the top, Eric William Pierson (known as Egos Personos on stage, … Continue reading →

Over the years, brass-driven band the Magnetic Ear has marched so far from its point of origin that it’s a wonder bandleader saxophonist Martin Krusche doesn’t change the group’s name. “At first we were known as sort of a jazz freak-out band,” … Continue reading →

ABOVE: NOizeFest creator Keith “Deacon Johnson” Moore, inventor of JamBox Pyramid, at NOizeFest 2004.  NOizeFest 2012, our seventh in the yard, was a huge success. And as usual, it has a nice, mildly harrowing lead-in story. Weeks before NOizeFest 2012, … Continue reading →

At the last moment it was not announced that Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore would perform at the Dithyrambalina Music Box House on Piety Street in Bywater, New Orleans, in a duo with my friend and kindred guitar spirit Rob Cambre. The … Continue reading →