Interviews

Oh god. I HAAAAAATE interviews. Ever since I FINALLY landed that one interview with that musician I had been begging for months (I will not bust him out, but I will tell you I hate him now) to let me interview him and it turned out horrible, I've hated musicians on a personal level. I understand you're your own marketing machine engine, whatever, but most of you musicians take yourselves waaaaay too seriously and you think people care. Well, people don't care about you. What people care about is supporting people who don't think they're all that and a bucket of porn. SYFFAL doesn't ask questions Rolling Stone asks because we don't fucking care. Rolling Stone has those questions if you want them. SYFFAL asks the things no one else will ask because no one else cares to actually say the...

Colour me geeked. I am fucking giddy and goofy-balled because of these Extinction A.D. Assholes. There recent EP/single tore the lid off of the adolescent angst and rage that was still swimming in my lower and most Christian extremities. I immediately had to buy a 40 of Ballentine and head out to walk the grounds of my former high school after dusk (which according to the signs is off-fucking-limits bro). Luckily when I was stopped by Donnie the night guard, he bought my story that I was looking for my dog (thanks to my quick thinking and his lack of knowledge I convinced him that the bondage leash I was carrying was a dog leash) and he saw me as an upstanding member of the community and decided to help me find the dog and never said shit even as I pulled out a second 40. My guess was...

Somebody recently asked me to explain how J. Roddy Walston and the Business sounded after I wouldn't shut up about one of their songs called I Don't Wanna Hear It. Usually I have to think about my explanations for a couple of minutes before I conjure up some half-baked description that involves 5 bands and multiple pro-creation metaphors. But with J. Roddy Walston and the Business it is easy: Fucking Rock n. Roll at it's roots.. Guitars. Bass. Drums. Piano. And swagger. The songs are well thought out, well written and contageous. What else do you need? The bands 6th album Essential Tremors is coming out in a couple of weeks and I was fortunate enough to virtually sit down with, J. Roddy Walston. We talked about ducks, women, buised vocal holes and much much more. Enjoy....

The other night I was out with an old friend of mine from my days in the NYC underground hip hop scene. This was a person I have discussed hip hop music with for almost two decades. We have watched the ups and downs of the genre, been part of both a burgeoning and a dying scene; what I am saying is that we have been around bruh. Bushes bro. After the usual small talk and catch ups, we got to talking about the plethora of new and exciting music that is out right now. If you aren’t aware, 2013 has been one of the best years for hip hop in at least 5 years. We were both pretty geeked about this development. When you have been listening to something as long as we have been listening to hip hop, you expect the ebbs and flows, you soldier through the down times and revel in the good times....

The thing I like most about writing for Syffal, other than the outlet it provides me to describe music with explicit sexual verbiage, is that we only write about music we absolutely love. We aren't critics and we aren't journalists. Thus, we don't comprehend 'being objective.' And 'puff piece' IS in our vocabulary. And if the music warrants it, we will literally puff the shit out of that figurative pole. So when it comes to Radiation City I'm all like: Puff, Puff, Breathe. Puff, Puff, Breathe. The EP they released last year, Cool Nightmare, was one of my favorites. Rad City was the only band to hit the trifecta in my year end lists; clinching spots amongst my best songs, best albums, and best new artists selections. To say that I love them would be an understatement. When I...

Remember that very awesome band MAKE OUT that I was drooling over about a year ago? ‘MEMBER? Well Leah Hennessey, the band's front woman, is about to Fuck up your shit mega hard tomorrow with a special project she is working on with Ryan Adams. Remember Ryan Adams? That feller whose music used to make me cry a bit when I got hella drunk and my life was in the shitter bro? ‘MEMBER? Well these adorable bags of fuckery formed a band called Pornography and are dropping an exclusive 7 inch for record store day title 7 Minutes in Heaven. So in that spirit I recently sat down with Leah Hennessey and hit her up with 7 questions (with some subquestions – stop being such a stickler bro, you ain’t my principal) so we can both pay our annual tribute to the seminal Stryper album 777: To Hell With The...

It's no secret now. We fucking love Father John Misty's new album Fear Fun. It's one of those albums where you can't pick out a favorite song because it changes weekly. Sometimes daily. Father John Misty is the moniker of Josh Tillman and I'd love to give you a description of his sound through comparison, via a game of "sloppy influence identification". but as you'll read below, that'd earn me a slap across the face. ... and he might shove something in my mouth. So, I won't go there. Josh is one of the most unique and eccentric people in music today. One of the few artists who is comfortable in his own skin and unafraid to speak his mind. What you see is what you get. Fear Fun is appealing because it is indicative of his personality; it has no inhibitions, it is honest,...

One of the first albums I ever repeatedly smoked pot to, was made by Blockhead. One of the first CDs I ever burned for a girl who I smoked pot with, was made by Blockhead. One of the first times I ever escaped from a pedofile's basement torture chamber wearing only my skivvies, using only my wits, was using a jedi technique I purchased at ninjatune.com, that oddly enough, was made by Blockhead. Yes, Blockhead. The irretrievably cognizant and sacrificially clandestine keeper of side saddle swagbags. Blockhead is the Yao to my Ming and the only living representative left of The Ceremonial Keepers of the Cha Cha Slide. I recently sat down at a local watering hole with Block and shared a Tawny Kittaen (which is Shirley Temple, but with a dash of Whitesnake in it). We discussed many things,...

Giant Gorilla Dog Thing is a hairy beast from the bowels of hell…or in this case Albany that make the kind of rap music that makes me equal parts jealous and wanting to punch out a store front window to steal a hooded sweatshirt and a black cherry blunt wrap. Their new mixtape Eric drops today and if you have been keeping up with the site then you already read our review of it, have downloaded it to your man pod and are now running around your neighborhood and behaving like they do in Albany, and by that I mean urinating in public. Seriously thought Giant Gorilla Dog Thing are talented as shit and more importantly they are awesome individuals. I love these fuckers to death. A true story about Giant Gorilla Dog Thing, or as I call them Dan and Mitch, a few summers back they asked me to...

When I was in college I had this fantasy of moving to a northeastern fishing village where everyone wore white woolen sweaters, pea-coats and navy colored skipper hats. The goal was to toil away in a mix of loose women and alcohol while working on the great American novel. Unfortunately I wasn't a good enough writer and I hate people who are American but way to into being Irish. However I do love the kind of music I imagine these swine to be into. It is rootsy and folksy and usually involves some sort of statement about the simple life and easy women with golden hearts. Lucky for me I moved to Brooklyn, immersed myself in indie music and realized their are more than enough fuckers dressing like bare knuckle boxers and making amazing music. Frank Turner comes to mind as well as Baltic...