Category 2000s

Kathleen Edwards was born in Ottawa but spent part of her youth in Korea and Switzerland with her diplomat father. She grew up playing classical violin and enjoying the music of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Edwards skipped college to…

Nebraskan-born singer-songwriter Josh Rouse grew up inspired by British bands like The Smiths and The Cure. His music reflects the homespun feeling of the American Midwest and the introverted yet poppy sound of the bands that influenced him. He also…

Vanessa Carlton is best known for the 2002 hit ‘A Thousand Miles’ and singing backing vocals on the Counting Crows’ cover of Joni Mitchell‘s ‘Big Yellow Taxi’. Her debut album Be Not Nobody was successful, but she’s struggled for sales…

Caroline Polachek formed Chairlift with her college boyfriend Aaron Pfenning. The pair initially planned to make music for haunted houses. Instead they were disappointingly conventional – recording an EP. In 2006 they moved to Brooklyn and recorded their debut album,…

Ray LaMontagne worked in a shoe factory in Maine. One morning he was woken by his alarm at 4 am for work. The alarm clock’s radio served up Stephen Stills’ ‘Treetop Flyer’. At that instant, LaMontagne decided to become a…

Allan Carl Newman is best known as the driving force behind Vancouver’s indie-pop supergroup The New Pornographers. Newman started a solo career because fellow New Pornographer Neko Case was working on her own solo material, and the band didn’t want…

Miranda Lambert was born in Longview, Texas. Her parents were private detectives and then ran a shelter for abused women – both of these experiences feed into Lambert’s songwriting. Lambert’s father played in a country-rock band and taught Lambert how…

For a band, there are essentially two different career trajectories for a recording career. Like Radiohead or The Beatles, you can start your career with a promising album and work your way up to your masterpiece. Or, like Montreal’s Arcade…

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam was born in London but spent most of her childhood in Sri Lanka, where her father was a Tamil activist. She originally planned a career in the visual arts but pivoted to a music career after she…

One of the most consistently fascinating musicians to emerge in the 21st century, Sufjan Stevens is nominally an alt-folk artist, with his hushed, vulnerable vocals and predominance of acoustic instruments. But that’s underselling his talents – he’s also a sophisticated…

Vocalist Craig Finn and guitarist Tab Kubler started their careers with the indie-rock band Lifter Puller. They formed The Hold Steady after watching The Band‘s The Last Waltz. But unlike The Band, The Hold Steady aren’t rooted in traditional music…

Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams moved from Mississippi to Tennessee at the age of 13. She met Josh and Zac Farro in a program for home-schooled students. Drummer Zac Farro was in his early teens when they formed Paramore in…

Transatlantic are a progressive rock supergroup, plucking members from other successful neo-prog acts. Bassist Pete Trewavas has been a member of Marillion since 1982, while drummer Mike Portnoy is a former member of Dream Theater. Guitarist Roine Stolt comes from…

When Jenny Lewis released her first solo album in 2006, it was her third high-profile career. She’d already enjoyed success as a child actor in the 1980s, appearing in movies like 1989’s The Wizard. She wound down her acting career…

James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem blurred the lines between electronic and rock music in the 21st century. Murphy’s original career plan was to become a sound engineer or a drummer, but took on a front-man role after the band he was…

Canadian indie pop band The New Pornographers took their name from a 1966 Japanese anthropological film, The Pornographers. The term supergroup has always felt a little misleading for this conglomerate of musicians. Most of the members were only known within…

Iceland’s most famous post-rock band  is named after the sister of singer/guitarist Jónsi Birgisson, who was born on the same day as the band was formed in Reykjavík in 1994. The group combine Jonsi’s high pitched, gorgeous voice with pretty…

There are many examples in popular music of stripping away the superfluity and getting back to basics. But it doesn’t get much more basic than Detroit’s The White Stripes. Dispensing even with a bass player, the purported brother and sister…

The band most likely to win a Scrabble tournament, The Decemberists hail from Portland, Oregon, and are notable for flaunting their extensive vocabulary in song. Despite their American heritage, they’re staunch Anglophiles; many of their early songs are set in Victorian…

This page collects miscellaneous reviews for artists who don’t have their own page. Coldplay | David Gray | The Mendoza Line | Andy Thornton | Steve Wynn Coldplay Parachutes 2000, 5.5/10As Radiohead retreated from conventional songwriting into more experimental realms,…