www.iamfauxpas.com

mike powell‘s weekly interview column for stylus magazine – hi! – is now officially must-read material. so many artist interviews in online mags read as the bland question-and-answer emails that most of them inevitably are, but not these. they are like little microstories, and i like the way he writes not just about what his subject says, but about the less tangible signals that he feels like he can pick up from them. ok i’m not talking like alison dubois.. from this week’s interview with “tobacco” from pittsburgh’s black moth super rainbow:

But it’s also that Tobacco’s touchy about his place in the Pittsburgh music scene, or any, for that matter. “When a band has been in the industry for a long time, it changes them. And when a band is in a music scene for a long time, it changes them. When you’re in the middle of something like that, when there are a lot of people around, you can be influenced from every direction. So, on purpose, we haven’t been a big part of the scene. But on the other side of the coin, we haven’t been welcome either.”

Before I spoke with Tobacco, I had talked to a friend from Pittsburgh.

“I’m talking to the guys from Black Moth Super Rainbow today.”

“I hear they’re assholes.”

“Huh.”

Tobacco isn’t. When I bring up whether or not he feels a part of the Pittsburgh scene, he starts—“We don’t. I mean, half of it’s because….” He stops himself. He sighs. I imagine him wringing his hands. When I ask him if he’d move away, he says yes without hesitation.

and he knows how to pick his subjects: aside from bmsr, in the last few months he’s covered kelley polar, battles, skeletons, juana molina, gui boratto, paavoharju and dan deacon. for gods sake someone GET THE MAN A PODCAST!

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also worth reading at stylus today – an interview with joe from hot chip. and i really enjoyed this review of josh pyke’s record, not because i want to read negative josh pyke reviews (though its true i’m not really a fan) but because its just great music writing, articulate and succinct, and, well, thought-provoking. long live stylus!