Taryn Manning: Shooting Star

By Amanda Brumfield
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

At the ripe old age of 29, Taryn Manning already has a resume of mind- blowing proportions. She has made countless television appereances on shows like The Practice, NYPD Blue, Boston Public and Get Real.

She has starred in numerous major motion pictures including Crazy/Beautiful, White Oleander, A Lot Like Love, Crossroads, 8 Mile, Cold Mountain, and Hustle and Flow.
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Thomas Dolby: Future World

By Jon Armstrong

I knew that whatever music I would be attracted to and ultimately attempt to make myself would be changed after I heard Thomas Dolby’s first hit, “She Blinded Me With Science” in 1982. I didn’t know it then, but Dolby played on some of the biggest songs of the early 1980s, lending his talent and sound to Def Leppard’s Pyromania, synthesizer work on Foreigner’s mega-smash, 4, (can anyone who was alive and young during that album’s run forget the synth line to “Waiting for a Girl Like You”?) and as David Bowie’s keyboardist for Bowie’s band at Live Aid in 1985, contributing to the goosebump inducing rendition of Hereos.

Aside from helping to define the synthpop era, Dolby is a real renaissance man. His work as a producer, technologist and entrepreneur hasn’t stopped for over 25 years. Like most of the keyboardists from his era, Dolby is linked to technology and music deeply.

Dolby also produced one of my favorite albums of the 1980s, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen (also referred to in the U.S. as Two Wheels Good). When that album came out, I was living in England and the sounds of those songs forever remind me of rain, great chords, peculiar melodies and coming of age.
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Icon: Marc Maron Shows His Soft(ish) Side

By Amanda Brumfield
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

Marc Maron’s is the third and final interview that Pop- Rock Candy Mountain conducted in support of the Stand Uppity Tour. He called us from a bus stop in Fargo, North Dakota- very country and western of him- to tell us about his adventures on the road with Andy Kindler and Eugene Mirman.
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Stand Uppity: Eugene Mirman

By Amanda Brumfield
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

If you are a frequenter of the Interweb then you probably already know that these days, Eugene Mirman is everywhere, and that my friends, is a very good thing.
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ICON: Joe Jack Talcum- Like Shaft in Greenland

By Amanda Brumfield
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

The Dead Milkmen,a much beloved satirical punk band, released their first official album “Big Lizard in My Backyard” in 1985 and gathered a strong cult following with the single, “Bitchin’ Camaro”. In 1988 they released their most commercially successful album, “Beelzebubba”, which was comprised of a plethora of brilliant, catchy, instantly lovable songs like “Stuart”, “Bad Party”, Smokin’ Banana Peels”, and of course, “Punk Rock Girl”.

Before the Dead Milkmen were an actual band, they were a creation that existed only in the head of a kid from Philly named Joe Jack Talcum. That kid would one day become the guitarist and singer for his imaginary band and he and his Dead Milkmen would, over the years, accumulate a mass of adoring and loyal fans.
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Hard ‘N Phirm: It Takes Two, Baby.

By Amanda Brumfield
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

Hard ‘N Phirm is comprised of long-time friends Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman, two of the most original, creative and musically gifted comedians performing today. They just finished writing, “a large chunk” of the soundtrack for Rob Zombie’s new movie, “Superbeasto”, and have been writing songs for the website Super Deluxe.

Pop-Rock Candy Mountain spoke with Chris and Mike about their music, their friendship, their privates and most importantly, their mastery of the Melodica.
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