Rather than present a quasi-factual, semi-amusing trajectory through origins of the word "underground" — complete with references to the Underground Railroad and the Weather Underground — I want to ...

The duo of Jean Smith and Dave Lester have revived Mecca Normal, their vocals-and-guitar indie-punk act that, since starting in 1984, has released discs on K Records, Matador, Sub Pop, and Kill Rock ...

Smarten Up & Get to the Point. It's good advice in any realm, but especially so in the tantrum-prone world of underground rock 'n' roll. It's also the name of the publishing arm of the two-person ...

For their tenth album, “The Family Swan,” Canadian avant-garde folk duo Mecca Normal allowed their new crop of songs to blossom and mature in front of fans before committing them to tape. “We used to ...

It wasn’t exactly “Two Thumbs Up,” but it was still great feedback. Vancouver, B.C., rock duo Mecca Normal were playing a show in L.A. last year, trying out new songs from their The Family Swan album.

This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today. Eight years ago, a Chicago musician, archivist and activist named Malachi Ritscher died after setting himself on fire to protest the war in ...

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Mecca Normal aren’t for everyone: David Lester’s guitar accompaniment doesn’t give you much of a buffer against the rough, quirky intimacy of Jean Smith’s theatrical poetry, which gets so nakedly ...

The word “experimental” is justifiably regarded with wariness by those who suspect it might just be a nice way of describing self-indulgent noodling. There’s a fair amount of that kind of ...

INDIE-ROCK Dance-punk still has a fringe, if the songs on Shoplifting’s “Body Stories” can be taken at face value. The Seattle band’s debut is all about choppy rhythms, edgy guitar sounds and cold ...

Jean Smith says she started painting watercolor portraits of herself in 1973, at age 13, as a way of shoring up her self-image against her emotionally abusive parents, who were artists themselves.