past articles

30 April 06

Hockey Night: Burger-Loving Dudes Who Can Turn Axe-Work Into Pageantry

By Sean Moeller Free Daytrotter Session Songs (Don’t miss this page!) Hockey Night lead singer Paul Sprangers doesn’t put much stock in the beginnings of his Minnesota-based band interesting many people. “It was just me doing four-track stuff and these guys helped me out. We also had a band in college called The Renegades. We just played spazz punk rock,” Sprangers said from his New York residence last week. “It doesn’t really make for good print.” It was just another of those recording projects that started with some stray hours here and there and gradually turned into one of those land-gouging, maniacal beasts that are run from in nightmares and do the best business when those nightmares are written into screenplays and the characters are involved with a lot of product tie-ins. Oh, but there’s nothing so glamorous about Hockey Night that there’s ever been a merchandising scheme forged on its behalf. They aren’t Buzz Lightyear or Ziggy Stardust or My Chemical Romance. They’re just a bunch of dudes – and you can read about these kinds of dudes all the time, I’m telling you – with wild appetites for burgers, pizza, beer and the most wickedly great, face-freezing guitar lines this side of the apocalypse or the pearly gates, whichever you might find most staggering and jaw-dropping.more...

24 April 06

Daytrotter Essay Question Contest: George Saunders

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24 April 06

Boris Yeltsin essay winner

Contest Winner: Andrew Heilman Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin entered this world on February 1st, 1931.  A rather pouty child, Boris was often shunned by his parents and roughed about by his peers.  This early neglect bred what would become a great driving force full of determination for Boris.  Growing up, Yeltsin was very fond of Jim Henson’s “The Muppet Babies.”  Anyone can tell why his parents were concerned with his sexuality early on, as many times young Yeltsin was found alone in his closet sitting on the face of his plush Gonzo doll, begging for him to sneeze.  Concerned with his odd behavior, his parents enrolled him in Sverdlovsk’s Young Boys Fun Activities and Sports Club.  While in attendance, he learned to master many competitive sports such as volleyball, gymnastics, skiing, boxing and wrestling. more...

23 April 06

Erin McKeown: Packing More Punch In Her Pinkie Than A Bar Fight

By Sean Moeller Free Daytrotter Session Songs (Don’t miss this page!) There must be a trick, an illusion to what actually happens when Massachusetts singer/songwriter Erin McKeown plugs her guitar into an amplifier and thumps a microphone to test its juice. In those instances – that time between the plugging and the thumping, really, there have to be some things that cosmically reconfigure to explain for what comes next in procession. Something has to be happening under wraps or behind the scenes to help rationalize the spark and boisterous energy that hangs onto every one of her strums and every one of her lyrics. The 28-year-old, who carries enough elegant swagger in her stories of wishful thoughts and hopeful dreams to include her name in the hat with the best working writers of similar ilk – Laura Veirs, Devendra Banhart, Neko Case and Josh Barren and Chris Ziter of The Essex Green. Taking time out from recording her upcoming album of old-time standards, McKeown checks in with Daytrotter, while a Boston Red Sox broadcast crackles in the background.more...