Documentary filmmaker Les Blank has spent much of his life in Louisiana, whether attending university here at Tulane, working as second camera shooting Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, or capturing communities outside of the American mainstream that had music at their hearts. He shot a series of films on Cajun, Creole and zydeco including 1973’s Dry [...]
Galactic’s Ben Ellman and Robert Mercurio
When Galactic and Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet parted ways in 2004, there were whispers of concern about what the band would become without a vocalist. Rather than replace DeClouet, they recorded From the Corner to the Block, a hip-hop-oriented album that showed Galactic to be harder and more contemporary than their previous albums had suggested. “Second [...]
BackTalk with B.G.
Throughout the late ’90s the Hot Boys set Louisiana and the rest of the nation on fire. Standout members such as Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, and Lil Wayne would all experience major success, but B.G. helped cement the group with the mega-hits “Bling Bling” and “Get Your Shine On”. Since departing from Cash Money Records several [...]
Harry Shearer
It’s easy for New Orleanians to be skeptical under the best of circumstances, and even more so where celebrities are concerned, but Harry Shearer and Judith Owen don’t just have a condo here; they’re connected to the city. Owen records here, and Shearer is outspoken in his criticism of the government— Bush and Obama administrations—in [...]
Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne
It takes a rare talent to make a hit out of a song that tells the listener “everyone you know / will die,” but “Do You Realize” changed the Flaming Lips’ profile in 2002. Really though, it and the album it came from, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, were the natural follow-ups to 1999’s The [...]
Lenny Kravitz
He has worked with Mick Jagger, Curtis Mayfield, Michael Jackson and more. He’s soon to appear in the movie Precious with Mariah Carey. He’s in Paris for this interview, and his recent Tweets include photos of himself with ambassadors from India and report that he owns the jumpsuit that James Brown wore in Zaire before [...]
Jordan Hirsch of Sweet Home New Orleans
Sweet Home New Orleans metamorphosed from the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund, a non-profit relief organization that sprang to life within 72 hours of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. It has coordinated the efforts and resources of non-profit agencies and those who wish to give, and used them to assist members of the city’s music community [...]
Paul Meany of Mutemath
“It literally took an armistice to finish our record,” Mutemath’s Paul Meany says to explain the title of the band’s new album. The process of making Armistice—the second album for Warner Brothers—turned into an ordeal when the band settled into a house near Carrollton to record it and discovered no one was happy with the [...]
Gabriel Roth of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
When Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings play one of the Superlounges on the Friday of Essence Music Festival, it will be their third show in New Orleans in a year—unusual for a non-local act, particularly one on the verge of major prominence. They’re also possibly the first non-local act to play all three major festivals—Voodoo, [...]
