Issue Articles — BackTalk
Vampire Weekend
Picture the cliché college movie scenario: a professor asking you to look to the left and then the right before intoning “One of you will not make it through this […]
Les Blank
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Marcus Roberts
Pianist Marcus Roberts has been playing with bassist Roland Guerin and drummer Jason Marsalis (who also plays with Ellis Marsalis) for more than a decade, but it’s been eight years […]
