Mums The Word | en

The Sword are an American heavy metal band from Austin, Texas. Formed in 2003, the band is composed of vocalist and guitarist John D. Cronise, guitarist Kyle Shutt, bassist Bryan Richie, and drummer Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III. Originally signed to New York-based independent label Kemado Records, the group released its debut album Age of Winters, which was largely written by Cronise before the band's formation, in 2006. The follow-up, Gods of the Earth, was released two years later, and gave the group its first entry on the US Billboard 200 chart. In 2010 the band released Warp Riders, a concept...

I. The Word is an instrumental/Sacred steel/gospel blues jam band. The supergroup included well-known musicians: Robert Randolph (pedal steel guitar), John Medeski (keyboards), and all three members of North Mississippi Allstars - Luther Dickinson (electric guitar), Cody Dickinson (drums, washboard), and Chris Chew (bass guitar). The Word developed from a mutual affection for gospel music and the Sacred Steel tradition shared by Medeski and members of the North Mississippi Allstars, both having discovered the phenomenon through a series of albums published by Arhoolie Records in the 1990s and early 2000s. Chris Chew and Luther Dickinson were particularly fond of a...

The very definition of “cult favorites,” the Chrysanthemums (known since the mid-’90s as Chrys&themums) are the sort of group who inspire loyalty among a small band of admirers while remaining entirely below the radar of the public at large. Their music, a mixture of British Invasion-inspired pop, experimental eccentricity, and psychedelic flourishes, is just slightly too odd for wide mainstream acceptance, but few bands walk the knife’s edge between accessibility and impenetrability so well. The Chrysanthemums started in 1986, when the British fanzine Outlet printed articles on guitarist/songwriter Alan Jenkins’ lo-fi psychedelic pop band the Deep Freeze Mice and classically-trained...