February 11 - The new issue of Playback is ready! Download your free copy at playbackmag.net. Music reviews of Cat Power, Vampire Weekend, Rufus Wainwright, more. Movie reviews of Eastern Promises, Zodiac, and tons more. Check out the Buyer’s Guide for mid-size LCD TVs and bookshelf speakers. Plus an interview with the Drive-By Truckers.

Download your copy for free here.

February 7 - Trained as a musician and partial to rock bands and eventually to synthesizers, Wayne Lytle yearned to bring music and computers together as a way to tap into a zany creative impulse that wouldn’t let him settle on just one or the other.

You’ll find him these days hard at work in a small independent studio in Ithaca, NY, housing a rendering farm of 30 or so personal computers.

Lytle rides herd over a growing corral of independently-minded animated instruments that have become a national hit primarily through the release of two DVDs that most folks just know affectionately as Animusic.

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February 6 - Whether with Hüsker Dü in the ’80s, Sugar in the ’90s, or on his own, Bob Mould has never been short on primal intensity or raw emotion. His surging rhythms, gut-punching hooks, and melodically distorted guitar currents loom as immeasurable influences.

Two decades removed from Hüsker Dü and more than a dozen years past Sugar, Bob Mould is continuing onward with striking solo efforts that embrace post-punk, rock, folk, pop, and electronic elements. The vocalist-guitarist has also stepped outside the music realm. After a stint during which he wrote wrestling scripts, he’s currently penning an advice column for Washington D.C.’s City Paper and deejaying dance parties.

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TAS: Let’s start with how you began designing loudspeakers.

Alon Wolf: I built my first Peerless kit when I was 12 years old. Like many other designers, I’ve always had an interest in technical things and in music, and that led to experimentation.

TAS: This was in Israel?

Alon Wolf : Yes. We at that time did not have the privilege of walking into an audio store and buying speakers—or just about any other luxury goods. I had a fairly modest upbringing, so if you wanted to have something decent to listen to, you had to build it yourself.

TAS: At that point, were you already a musician?

Alon Wolf : Yes. I started to play the violin when I was six years old. I was hoping that I could play music for the rest of my life, which is one reason I came to the United States. I thought that if I could make money fast enough, I could just go and do my art and not have to worry about anything else, but that didn’t quite work out [laughs].

TAS: You’ve taken an unconventional path in (more…)