The heirs to the Replacements are hip-deep — Lucero, Drive-By Truckers, and Bottle Rockets leading the heap — but that shouldn’t dissuade you from parking your ass in front of Two Cow Garage. The Columbus, Ohio, trio is just a step behind that illustrious company, led by frontman Micah Schnabel’s…
Paul DeGeorge describes Harry and the Potters as an indie rock outreach program. He formed the band with his younger brother, Joe, when all the bands flaked on their DIY backyard show six years ago. The duo penned seven bouncy keyboard and guitar-driven indie pop songs in less than an…
It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for Franklin, Tennessee, punk-pop quintet Paramore. Signed to Fueled By Ramen in 2005, their debut All We Know Is Falling came out in the summer of that year, and they’ve been on the road pretty much ever since. Led by fetching red-haired teenage…
Reflecting the urban polyglot of its Los Angeles home, Ozomatli purveys a Latin dance party fueled by horns and covering a seamless expanse of hip-hop, jazz, rock, funk, and salsa. The vibrant sound is impressive live, and the band won a Grammy for its third album, 2004’s Street Signs. Like…
Introducing tonight’s bachelors in no particular order: One is a don in the Puerto Rican Costa Nostra. The second is a rap star who likes to call himself The Snowman. Our final bachelor is proud of his resemblance to his daddy and always rolls with cash money. Why should I…
They have the glacial majesty of Sigur Rós, the swelling symphonic bluster of the Moody Blues, and a subtle metallic bent. Aereogramme are an intriguing Scottish quartet that combine an eclectic mesh of guitars and electronics with a variety of tempos and tones. At times, they will spiral off into…
Do you want what’s in the box or what’s behind door No. 3? The latest episode in the radio payola version of Let’s Make a Deal is looking like a zonk. Then again, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s heroic crusade against payola — netting more than $35 million in…
Baltimore’s Page France crafts music for hypothetical, as-yet-unwritten John Hughes films. This is indie pop anxious with hope and possibility, led by singer/guitarist Michael Nau, who sometimes aches with a little vocal quake, like Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. Jangling, lilting guitars swoon and swoop like circling seagulls over perky arrangements,…
The “No Fear” tour is a tasty musical menagerie of acts at the forefront of their particular metal flavor. Metalcore representative Killswitch Engage combines a blitzkrieg bottom end that hunts with the springing fury of Pantera, labyrinthine Scandinavian metal melodicism, and agile yet sophisticated structures that showcase the band’s hooks…
Call him a poor man’s Dylan, or a wise man’s Clapton. Richard Thompson is perhaps the most underrated performer of his generation. For 40 years, first with Fairport Convention, then with ex-wife Linda Peters, and finally solo, Thompson has continued to produce terrific, thoughtful albums while others have fallen off…
Between Pelican and Sigur Rós lie Red Sparowes, whose epic instrumentals have the ability to pummel you, but instead lull you into submission with rich sonic washes as thick as oil and as deep as the ocean. Formed four years ago, the band features Isis guitarist Bryant Clifford Meyer, and…
The former Squirrel Nut Zippers vocalist trades in her cabaret for lounge on Dirty Little Secret, distancing herself from the old-fashioned jump blues and jazz swing of her old outfit. While Whalen’s wonderful voice would be winning in just about any band, David Sale’s rich, varied production transposes it into…
While Seattle’s Minus the Bear features winding, sometimes jarring guitar work that calls to mind D.C. post-core and math rock, the band’s tone is more in keeping with Built to Spill. Songs melt by with an easygoing fluidity that belies the dense swirl that often envelops them in a hazy,…
What do a couple of DJs from the land of milk and honey know about darkness? Quite a bit, it would appear from She Wants Revenge’s self-titled debut, which bubbles with the same debauched, white makeup/black lipstick vibe and downcast synth as British darkwave progenitors Joy Division, Bauhaus, and The…
OK Go scored right out of the box with its memorable shit-talking single “Get Over It,” which epitomized the band’s fun-loving, amped-up power-pop. Riding a mix of crashing post-punk guitars and bouncy New Wave rhythms, this is a party band with real skills, not unlike fellow Illinois natives Cheap Trick,…
The kind of group that exists just beneath the radar, sneaking onto mix tapes and performing as the unknown but charming opener for a wide range of better-known acts, Matt Pond PA has always written great melodies. Formed when the band’s titular head moved from New England to Pennsylvania, the…
Buddy Guy got his start in Baton Rouge during the ’50s before heading to Chicago, where he recorded with heavyweights such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Willie Dixon. Despite his fiery onstage guitar pyrotechnics, distinctive vocals, and the unparalleled respect of guitar gods such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and…
Singing in a fragile, angelic falsetto, at first blush singer-songwriter Jeff Hanson sounds like folkie Suzanne Vega. But listen closely to the Milwaukee native’s two albums for Kill Rock Stars and you’ll hear familiar echoes of fellow onetime KRS artist Elliott Smith. Like Smith, Hanson’s ambling folk at times borders…
Looks are deceiving. Listen and you’ll hear classic reggae bounce and the toasting rap style of Jamaican dancehall, but glance at the album cover and you’ll note that Matisyahu (born Mathew Miller) is a Hasidic Jew right down to the broadbrimmed black hat and full, untrimmed beard. After initially rebelling…
Like the Flaming Lips tripping with the Butthole Surfers and listening to Nick Drake albums, this Brooklyn quartet makes quirky, folk-inflected art rock, similar in mood to that of Devendra Banhart, who also got his start on Michael (The Swans, Angels of Light) Gira’s Young God Records. While many songs…
His dad, novelist Larry McMurtry, bought him his first guitar when he was 7, and his mother, an English professor, taught him how to play it, but even so, the acorn resides close to the tree. James McMurtry’s country-tinged roots rock is keyed to his facility with words, his insights…
Someday they’ll discover it’s not your environment at all, but a biochemical switch in the brain that determines whether you’re into stoner metal or the metal generally preferred by beer-swilling, hat-wearing types. If the members of Clutch do wear hats, they’re probably those trucker caps that say things like “John…
