87 articles found by EA Poorman
Date Story
2018-09-23 Slug Love’s Underside
So how is everyone doing? You all rested and healed up from the massive party known as Middle Waves 2018? Lots of local love on those stages, as well as plenty of big names that you already know I'm sure…
2018-09-11 Kill Surf City's Ever Notice How Everything's Stupid
Grey Gordon is a passionate dude when it comes to music. Not just punk music or indie music or metal music or hip hop. He's passionate about all of it. He's also the kind of artist that isn't afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve.
2018-08-18 The Snarks: Sleeping with the Snarks
Fort Wayne's Snarks should be a national treasure by now. In their four years of existence they've been consistently great when it comes to putting out frenetic shots of punk-inspired rock and roll.
2018-07-06 One More Revolution
You start a band so you can make some noise, annoy the neighbors, and maybe even impress a girl or two. As time moves on priorities change, you learn a few more chords, and the drummer can keep better time…
2018-05-31 Revisited: New Pale Swimmers
When I first arrived in Fort Wayne, Indiana there were a few names that always came up when talking about true blue local music talent: Orange Opera, Thunderhawk, and Vandolah. It was as if these bands arrived fully formed and ready to rule the Midwest, then the world.
2018-03-02 Casio-Centric
C. Ray Harvey and Jared Andrews are no strangers to the Fort Wayne music collective. Both have been putting out a steady stream of music in various projects for over 10 years now.
2018-02-03 Fort Wayne Rocks
I know you were pretty busy in 2017. There was a lot going on for all of us, really. Lots of internal and external crisis keeping our brains on full alert and giving us little time to sit down and relax a bit…
2017-10-06 New Horizons
Horizon Arcs make music that will at once sound familiar and entirely new. They're rock and roll, for sure, but each member brings something unique to the table. Classic rock, country, indie, progressive, and even polka (okay, maybe not polka) are evident in both their live shows and on their debut album Anybody Listening.
2017-09-14 Listen To The Black Metal Dudes
I've seen a few punk bands in my time, locally and otherwise. None of that pop punk stuff that saturated the world in the early to mid-2000s. But the real deal hardcore punk that I grew up with in the late 70s and early 80s.
2017-09-03 Something More Universal
It wasn't even a year ago that I sat down and talked to C. Ray Harvey about his new band Omaha, Alaska.
2017-08-03 Rock and Roll Saviors
If the end of Rodney Dangerfield's Back To School had continued on to his open house party I would imagine the band playing that party could very well have been Fort Wayne's Three Cities
2017-07-20 Strange magic
Belle & The Strange. You know 'em? Well, imagine if you will The Dead Weather, The Black Keys, Amy Winehouse, and 1920s German cabaret and you might get an idea of the voodoo they're summoning.
2017-07-08 Wave of Celebration
So in case you just moved to town from a place with no news or culture or you've been living in an underground bunker with no internet or TV south of town for years I'll recap what you should already know…
2017-05-23 Witchy Children
Can you feel it? It's the roaring warmth of summer coming just around the corner, folks. Temps in the 80s, balmy breeze blowing through the car window as you sit at the stop light waiting for the green to tell you to go, go, go.
2017-04-09 Hustlin'
The 80s get a bad rap at times. Sometimes that bad rap is deserved. Things like pegged pants, pet rocks, Monster Truck shows, and a good portion of 80s Saturday morning cartoons should never have existed. So let's put all of those out of our minds, shall we?
2017-03-22 Nightswimming
Mark Hutchins used to make the rounds as one of the premier Fort Wayne songwriters. He started making a name for himself in the band Vandolah, which to my recollection recorded one of the best local albums to grace the cd racks at Wooden Nickel Music called Please
2017-01-11 2016 : Music Rules The Fort
Despite it being a rough year in terms of… well, nearly everything, the year locally was pretty stellar.
2016-09-15 One song at a time
D Ferren has been making dusty, folksy music for a long time now. Starting back in 2002 with saint of life and the morning after cavalier, he made his name as one of the area's premier songwriters.
2016-09-02 Midwest Freakout
Heaven's Gateway Drugs has come a long way since the release of their last album, Apropos. Between that record's release in 2014 to now, the band was deconstructed and reconstructed.
2016-08-23 Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride
I used to pride myself on my hermit-like behavior. Invitations to go out and see this band or that show were waved off with a forceful "Nah. I'm good…"
2016-08-08 Trash Talk
I don't know what I think about Microwave Miracles' music. As guys to sit down and have a been with they seem like pretty good dudes. Affable and well spoken, with a decent sense of humor. But I'm a simple guy. It's hard for me to process humor in music. When the joke is delivered with such a straight face I'm not sure if I'm supposed to laugh or not.
2016-06-30 The New Normal
It wasn't that long ago when it was common place to expect new music from names like Hambrick, Hall, and Hutchins on a semi-regular basis in the Fort. You could hit up Wooden Nickel and find any number of Orange Opera, Thunderhawk, and Vandolah records just waiting to fill your ears with songs as good, if not better, than what you'd read about over at those uppity indie music sites.
2016-02-09 Back on track
There's nothing better than being with a group of friends you connect with on a musical level. Maybe you don't go have a beer or a cup of coffee after practice, but when you get in a room with instruments in hand things just click. Those creative juices flow and magic is made.
2015-08-06 Kerosec : Alternative To The Alternative
Kerosec are on a mission. They're on a mission to keep 90s alternative rock alive and well in the Fort.
2015-07-16 Three of a Perfect Pair : The Rise of Pink Balloon Band
Pink Balloon Band is a three-piece rock 'n roll band that pay homage to the kinds of rock songs that get stuck in your craw and won't leave you till you've hummed the damn thing out of your head all day.
2015-07-03 Inspirational Songs : The Music of Chris Darby
Chris Darby is one of the good ones. He's a singer/songwriter in the real sense. By in the real sense what I mean is that there's no hiding behind big productions and accompaniment of a full band.
2015-06-20 Plaxton and the Void: Keep on keepin’ on
Not to sit on their laurels, the guys in Warsaw, Indiana's Plaxton and the Void have dropped a couple fresh new tracks on our collective ears.
2015-06-05 Jafunkae: Rock 'N Funk 'N Soul
Jafunkae seem to know a bit about music. The Fort Wayne-based band of young dudes have come straight out of high school and are taking their love of classic rock, 60s soul, and a bit of island sway and blending it with some modern touches to give our ears a unique kind of feel good music.
2015-05-18 Rock 'N Roll Pilgrimage
Whenever I get a message from one of Fort Wayne's finest songwriters, Mr. Kevin Hambrick, I always get excited…
2015-05-04 Love & Sin
If your thing is hard rock and metal, look no further than Fort Wayne's Forever The Fallen. These guys have been hitting stages all over the city playing their own brand of intense, hard driving metal.
2015-04-21 Low down swing
So way back in 1995 I was this lowly cretin working a sad 9 to 5, chugging away at life and not really sure what I wanted to do with it all. Clock in and clock out. Eat and sleep…
2015-04-07 Riding the rainbow: a conversation with poet Steve Hann
Growing up in the Midwest there's a certain clangy, curmudgeonly bite that is born in you. It starts at birth and develops as hat sizes and waistlines get bigger. It's in your bones and and flows through your veins.
2015-03-19 Unapologetic: A band called F****** Panthers
There seems to be two ways to go when you grow up in a small town. The first is you stay pretty comfortable with the idea of living your life in the middle of a cornfield…
2015-03-05 Celebrating the songwriter
Back in 2012 Dwane Ferren put out one of my favorite local releases, For Glare & Gun. It was a mix of rusty Americana, jangly alternative, and even touches of gothic pop that showed he was leading the pack in singer/songwriters in the area.
2015-02-19 Metavari's Moonless Journey
Metavari are a group of friends and Fort Wayne, Indiana natives that make the kind of music you can simply get lost in. It has a dream-like quality to it that allows you to simply let the outside world disappear for a little while as you become enveloped in their hazy electric piano, synths, and subtle beats.
2015-02-05 "Well Managed Chaos"
It feels that there's a new wave of music rolling into the Fort. It's a mix of post-punk jangle, straight-up southern California punk, garage pop, and riot grrrl punch...and that's just one band.
2015-01-15 Getting in deep with Lost Lakes
It started a couple months ago when I heard this mournful and lilting track called "Shallow Talk.” Lost Lakes played a gig at the Brass Rail and posted a clip of them knocking it out of the ball park. I was impressed.
2014-12-18 Fort Wayne Spins
It's that time of year again. The end of the year, that is. That time of year when we reflect on everything that went down during the last 12 months. The good, the bad, the meh.
2014-12-04 Continuous Momentum: Thematic and their Endless Light
Yeah, I guess I'm a survivor of the 80s. I grew up and out of the decade of neon lights, pegged pants, and Punky Brewster. I was in awe of a talking Trans Am, Vietnam-era mercenaries that couldn't hit an elephant with an AK-47 if it was five feet in front of them, and cubes made by a Hungarian named Rubik.
2014-11-25 There and Back Again: Clint Roth and Big Jaw
Can you remember that first record that blew your socks off? You know which one I'm talking about. Clint Roth, in his own way, is making the kind of music that will someday fall into the hands of some kid living between "nowhere special" and "nothing doing" and will change that kid's perspective on life and open his eyes to the world of rock 'n roll.
2014-11-07 "What it's like to die"
Way back in April of 2013 Fort Wayne, Indiana's Heaven's Gateway Drugs dropped their full-length debut called You Are Heaven's Gateway Drugs. It was a psych-pop menagerie of both late 60s psych and garage rock and British Invasion pop with a modern twist.
2014-10-21 “Hold on hope”
So way back at the beginning of September Fort Wayne was all buzzing about the then just-released news that Guided By Voices was going to be donning the stage at C2G Music Hall.
2014-10-04 The Kids Are All Right: Spirits and the Melchizedek Children
There's a great, cavernous sound coming from down south. It's based in Atlanta, GA, but bellows to the far reaches of the universe. Simple, acoustic songs that swell into mammoth psychedelic swirls that will consume you if you open your minds and hearts to the concept.
2014-09-23 What is a Grey Gordon?
I was sitting in my office beginning to write this story when I suddenly flashed back to being a little kid and I was at my grandma and grandpa Poorman's house in Amish country…
2014-09-04 Plaxton and the Void are Still Alive
In the quaint little seaside town known as Warsaw, IN there lives a band called Plaxton and the Void. They're making some pretty epic music amongst the treasure trove of orthopedic takeovers, karaoke on Thursdays, and a church for every non-affiliated, non-denominational moderately conservative weekend warrior this side of Kosciusko county, USA
2014-08-16 Lovelines
It seems like The Brass Rail has been lining up some amazing shows this month. Hopefully you made it out to see The D-Rays, Dag and the Bulleit Boys,and the Whiskey Daredevils. It was a show for the ages. Well, the fun just keeps on churning. On August 30th One Lucky Guitar presents Lovelines: A Tribute To The Replacements, a fundraiser for The Slim Dunlap Fund which will be held at The Brass Rail.
2014-07-31 Rock shows: Local stages offer the goods
There's nothing better than a great night of rock n' roll. Hard working guys and gals offering up some original sounds at high volumes as you spill that well-earned beer down the front of your shirt
2014-07-03 Self-Titled: The Dead Records find their sound
The Dead Records make music that is hard to define. It's hard and heavy like a classic punk rock record; yet it has pop finesse all over it. Much like a great recipe -where you can taste so many familiar flavors, yet you can't put your finger on just exactly what's making it taste so damn good.
2014-07-03 Forever Into Space
Greg W. Locke is the kind of guy you want to know. Someone you could spend hours getting drunk with and espousing about art. He's the kind of creative and artistic soul that has long suffered the pain of the dreamer. No matter how impossible something may seem he doesn't back down…
2014-06-09 Sonic Youth's Best Decade...Or What I've Learned From Jim O'Rourke
When I was in high school Sonic Youth were this mythical band. They were one of those 120 Minutes bands that I couldn't relate to at all. In fact, there weren't too many 120 Minutes bands I could relate to.
2014-05-06 Brutal noise
A while back I stumbled upon this band called Black Mask. I'm not sure how, really. Possibly through some strange fever dream? A friend's recommendation?
2014-04-22 A Music Collective : The Music and Art of Von Strantz
When I first heard the musical collective known as Von Strantz I couldn't believe they were from the same general area where I'm from. But alas, they are from an area known as Michiana…
2014-04-03 Streetlamps for Spotlights: A Conversation with Jason Davis
Jason Davis has had a hand at helping to make some of the best local record releases Fort Wayne has seen(and heard.) Over the past few years Davis has been the owner/operator of Off The Cuff Sound, an all-analog recording studio located in the Fort.
2014-03-25 Music in her blood
Once in a while you come across a singer that just has "it". Lexi Pifer has "it". What does she have? Luck of the Irish? The winning lottery ticket? No, no, and no. What she has is the gift of song.
2014-02-11 "Just a hardcore kid"
Grey Gordon is an interesting cat. Not only does he play some pretty great guitar in the emo/hardcore band The Wickerwolves, he's also a hell of a singer/songwriter in his own right.
2014-01-23 Wolves at the door
I hear a name like The Wickerwolves and you know what comes to mind? A bunch of old men in a rec room weaving baskets as therapy for arthritis when the Glucosamine Chondroitin doesn't kick in. But in this case, I'd be sorely mistaken…
2014-01-14 99 Pink Balloons
If you saw Ian Skeans, you wouldn't assume much about the guy. He seems to be just a regular bloke, just doing his time and putting in his hours at a 9 to 5er like the rest of us. His 9 to 5 is 9pm to 5am, but that little detail is irrelevant…
2013-12-19 The most wonderful time of the year
It seems like it was only yesterday that we were arguing about who was going to go outside and take Christmas lights down in sub-zero temps, carry box after box of ornaments and decorative Santas back downstairs to their place of slumber…
2013-12-08 Seeing black circles
It's usually this time of year when I really start to think about my obsession. It's not something I'm necessarily proud of, but it's not something I'm ashamed of either.
2013-11-19 Music on his mind
"Push pins are the only thing keeping me awake now. Constellations on my leg, glowing red, bleeding thin. Row the boat to the golden shore and you'll find me bleeding like a sun trapped inside a song for everyone." Words from a guy name Mark Hutchins…
2013-10-31 Catching up with D Farren
Back in 2012 Fort Wayne saw a plethora of great local releases. TIMBER!!!(RIP), House Of Bread(RIP), Vandolah, and Jason Davis all released great albums that proved to my ears Fort Wayne is more than just mega churches and strip malls (and strip clubs.
2013-10-03 Bruised and Battered
Madison, Wisconsin's The Hussy play a kind of fractured garage rock that will rattle your brain and body, leave you lying on the floor stunned and bruised and all you can think is "I want more."
2013-09-22 All You Need To Know: A Conversation With Medicine's Brad Laner
I know at some point in our lives we think that we've heard it all. That we are musically omnicient and there is nothing that hasn't passed our ears and our firm, pointed judgement.
2013-09-06 New colors, new sounds, and a band called ex-wife
Out of mere happenstance I came across the New Brunswick, New Jersey band ex wife. Dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk, all thrown into a musical stew that is a feast for the ears.
2013-08-15 Going up the country
Have you ever sat watching the famous Woodstock Festival from 1969 and wondered how incredible that would've been? Or how about Woodstock 1999 and wish that could have been erased from human existence? For me, I'd love the music (of the former) but could do without three days of naked hippies and toddlers and all that nasty brown acid…
2013-08-01 Ohio rocks the Fort
I've gotta admit, I've been a little bummed lately. Maybe it's because summer is going by way too fast. It could be because my book isn't getting published...again. But I think what's really bugging me is the fact that two of my favorite local bands have said goodbye to Fort Wayne stages for good.
2013-07-03 Kickstart my art
Last time we checked in with Huntington, Indiana's one and only James and the Drifters, the boys were out and about spreading the gospel of their then new album Before The Dawn: The Otter Lake Sessions.
2013-06-20 Controller: Breaking the Mold
One listen to Fort Wayne's Controller and you know right off that they mean business. There's no gimmicks or labels. There's no fronts being put on, and there's sure as hell isn't a "concept" behind their songs…
2013-06-06 Lost in an ocean of sound
Once in a while it happens. Once in a blue moon your favorite local band do good and make a great rock n' roll album. Whether you live in Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, or Indianapolis, sometimes in your own Midwest town that local group of 9 to 5ers you watch on local stages happen to put out a record that pushes all your buttons.
2013-05-16 Elephants in Mud: Bear hunting and space echo rock n’ roll
Elephants in Mud have been around in some form or the other for nearly 10 years —  a lot longer than this music journalist thought. I wasn't aware of these indie/dub rockers till just a couple years ago…
2013-05-02 Juke joint saviors
Sometimes in this line of work you just have to shut and let the music — or in this case music maker and Slow Pokes front man Zach Kerschner — do the talking. Take it away, Zach.
2013-04-18 Front and Center
Sam Fogarino is known mostly as the drummer and metronomic time keeper for New York City's Interpol.
2013-04-04 Born Under a Bad Sign
We Are Hex have a sound all their own. It's a cross between blues, psychedelia, and a bloodletting. Think The Kills, Dead Weather, and Siouxie Sioux thrown into the same cauldron and boiled until their collective essence floats on top of the bubbling sludge.
2013-03-14 The lost art of rock n' roll
Fort Wayne by way of North Manchester indie rock band The Dead Records play music that owes a debt to both 90s alternative and classic punk rock. There really isn't a label that would describe them to the fullest…
2013-02-28 The international Language
One sound that's crept out of my speakers as of late is from the South Korean band Language of Shapes. There's is a mix of world music, folk, pop, and in the bands' words "psychedelic folk for the endtimes".
2013-02-14 Shane Page: The Life & Times of a Midwest Artist
The urge to create is a disease. I don't care if your means to feed the addiction is a guitar, a paintbrush, pencils, or Photoshop. For some, if they're not creating, they're dying inside.
2013-01-31 Midwest stories
Plaxton and the Void hail from Warsaw, Indiana. They make music that feels more cinematic and melodramatic than that Midwestern stop between Ohio and Illinois would seem to offer.
2013-01-17 Taking the fall
I'm of the opinion that the best way to connect to an artist is to see them live. It's one thing to be in the comfort of your living room, bedroom, basement, etc... and fall in love with music. But it's a completely different vibe to be up close and personal with a musician and see them sing and play.
2013-01-07 Post Americana
It's not easy being green. Just ask Kermit. You know what else isn't easy? Being an indie folk family band from the Midwest.
2012-12-20 Indie rock rules the Fort
With so many talented young turks putting out such great local noise this year, you'd think it'd be damn near impossible to narrow a “list” of some sort down to just a handful of bands. Well, yes and no…
2012-12-06 On their way
There's a group of dusty raconteurs that call Huntington their home, trying to put Huntington on the map for something other than being the hometown to Dusty Fahrnow, Dan Quayle, and Mick Mars.
2012-11-15 21st Century Freak Out
Past the sunny dispositions and indie rock flair, the synth-laden tones of dream pop, the folksy, rustic Americana that whisps past our ears, and even the angular, jagged riffs of post punk, there lies an alley not brightly lit…
2012-11-01 D Ferren: Rusted Melodies
Earlier in the year I was going through a rough patch. Jobs weren't hitting the inbox like they used to. Some ghosts from the past began haunting me once again, and the headaches that make everything seem fuzzy and jagged were keeping me up all night.
2012-10-18 Rock n' roll Sasquatch
Every great once in a while you come across a singer/songwriter that just gets it. He or she knows all the tricks. They've written the songs that make you hum along.
2012-10-04 Bludgeon with finesse
Sometimes I enjoy a good aural assault. Old school headbanging. No mid-song interludes with acoustic touches, string sections and a singer doing his best “When The Children Cry” schtick before the band kicks it back in for the big finish. No. For me, my money's on the band that commits to sheer adrenaline from the time the needle hits the vinyl till side 2 flips me the bird and punches me in the neck on the way out the door.
2012-09-20 The Ghosts of Vandolah
When I first arrived in this area I made it known to the few people that I was interested in hearing some local bands. There were a few names mentioned: Instigator, Harry Balls, The Brighton Papers and Miss Fancy Pants. None of them were worth the air used to push those names out of one’s mouth. But there was one band that struck a chord…
2012-09-06 Turn On Your Radio
I'm of a certain age that when I grew up the radio was a vital part of my life. Whether listening to classic rock on Rock 104 WXKE "The Real Rocker"; the top 40 pop spewed out by 97.3 WMEE; or Metal Shop on Niles, MI 95.3 WAOR every Friday night, I was never truly alone.
 
 
FWR Archive | Contact Us | Advertise | Add Fort Wayne Reader news to your website |
©2006 Fort Wayne Reader. All rights Reserved.