Alan Pownall
The SIS Interview by Veronica Pulcini

We like this recent Band of the Week-er so much so that we decided to drop him a few questions via e-mail to talk about his burgeoning music career. Pownall has just dropped a 7", Clara, on the London indie stalwart Young and Lost Club (early home to White Lies, Johnny Flynn, and Bombay Bicycle Club) and he'll be working on his debut album later this year. Despite not knowing how he feels about Jack Johnson, he was able to fill in the blanks on our other queries.
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Here We Go Magic
The route Grizzly Bear used to eventually fork into Brian Wilson territory is where Here We Go Magic steps into the art-y, Afro-beat arena of Talking Heads and Rhythm of the Saints/Graceland-era Paul Simon. A groove is defined, usually with a percussive guitar passage or drum rhythm, and it remains the center of the song’s universe.
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The Low Anthem
The Low Anthem clearly adheres to tradition. Set at sea, on rails and in the cities and open plains of an America that’s been both forgotten and found as a hollow imposter, the Providence band’s debut for Nonesuch, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, is rooted deeply in Dust Bowl folk and steeped in commentary...
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Future Of The Left
t’s a comfort to me as an aging miscreant malcontent that this kind of sentiment still exists in music. Not everything has to be sloppy and rushed or even smeared in snot-nosed punk rock rawness. In the 1980s we had a number of very sad bands in the “joke-thrash” sub genre.
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Ladyfinger (ne)
It feels like Omaha is becoming the Seattle of a new era. It is inevitable that every musical movement, every renaissance be tied to a city; la ciudad de la rinascimento. The original renaissance movement was tied to Florence, this one to a former ferry crossing on the prairie.
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Drag Me To Hell
In my time as SIS film critic I’ve had to sit through several incarnations of legendary cult filmmakers trying to make a quick buck off of a watered down re-hash of their glory days. The most prominent example of this cult treason is George Lucas and his “revisions."
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Top Reality Moments
You gotta love watching pop youth adore Paris Hilton saying ridiculous phrases like “this house is the bomb dot com.” Oh wait… no you don’t. Among the really moronic moments that happened on the show over the premiere and second episode are the following...
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