Vincent Gallo has done a lot of weird stuff in his day. The on-screen fellatio, the hexing of Roger Ebert, the marketing of his own reproductive fluids — these are just a few of Gallo’s performance-weirdness masterworks. So the actor-director-screenwriter-painter-musician-model (and part-time astronaut-obstetrician?) had something of a reputation to uphold…
We all agree that Nat King Cole’s 1951 version of “Unforgettable” is a wonderful piece of music. Timeless. Velvety. A real soul-warming hymn of devotion. Can we also agree that the song is more overused than Michelle Duggar’s uterus? Kenny Rogers recently covered it. So did Jackie Chan. And let’s…
If you listen to one of Tim Kasher’s breathless indie-rock ballads and think to yourself “That reminds me a little of Bright Eyes,” well, no shit. Like Bright Eyes chief emoter Coner Oberst, Kasher grew up in Omaha and attended Catholic boys school while honing his musical chops. Later, he…
Granola-rific folk siren Joanna Newsom is one of indie music’s few commercially successful singer-harpists. “Few” in this case being interchangeable with “otherwise nonexistent.” The California-bred performer fell in love with the instrument at age 4 and never looked back. (Okay, yes, she briefly dated an oboe in high school and…
Granola-rific folk siren Joanna Newsom is one of indie music’s few commercially successful singer-harpists. “Few” in this case being interchangeable with “otherwise nonexistent.” The California-bred performer fell in love with the instrument at age 4 and never looked back. (Okay, yes, she briefly dated an oboe in high school and…
It’s always been easy to mistake Gov’t Mule for a travel-size version of the Allman Brothers Band. Formed in 1994 by ABB regulars Warren Haynes and Allen Woody, Gov’t Mule featured some of the same personnel as its larger, more famous cousin and hails from the same Southern blues-rock sound…
Hating Nickelback is reflexive for many of us. It’s become one of those comforting mass-culture validations, like praising the Dalai Lama or distrusting people with Hotmail accounts. This groupthink methodology has an obvious flaw: The conclusions, though potentially valid, are also quite empty. I’ve never actually listened to a Nickelback…
You can’t keep a good pseudo-metal band down. So it goes with the Deftones, whose new album, Diamond Eyes, follows a disastrous mid-career detour that nearly derailed their shit permanently. It all started in 2008, when founding bassist Chi Cheng suffered massive brain damage in a car wreck, rendering him…
Eric Sean Nally has a big voice – like, Freddie Mercury on poppers big. He also has a mild theatrical streak, having been known to eat smoldering cigarettes on stage, and sing while hanging upside down like a bat. For these reasons, Nally and his Foxy Shazam band mates have…
You can’t keep a good pseudo-metal band down. So it goes with the Deftones, whose new album, Diamond Eyes, follows a disastrous mid-career detour that nearly derailed their shit permanently. It all started in 2008, when founding bassist Chi Cheng suffered massive brain damage in a car wreck, rendering him…
Eric Sean Nally has a big voice — like, Freddie-Mercury-on-poppers big. He also has a mild theatrical streak, having been known to eat smoldering cigarettes on stage, and sing while hanging upside down like a bat. For these reasons, Nally and his Foxy Shazam band mates have elicited comparisons to…
No outlaw-country music singer has labored harder to prove his outlaw bona fides than David Allan Coe. A few years ago, the Akron, Ohio, native led a Dallas TV crew through the Ohio prison where he was incarcerated in the 1960s, showing them the spot where he supposedly killed a…
“I don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more.” — Arcade Fire, “Windowsill” For argument’s sake, let’s call Arcade Fire “the greatest Canadian rock band/act of all time.” Many rock fans will object, and with great conviction. They’ll rebut with the unquestionably great Neil Young. They’ll point to the…
Rick Springfield isn’t just a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and the guy who played Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital — he’s also a miracle of preservation rivaling that amber-encased mosquito in Jurassic Park. Now 61 years old, Springfield still has the hair, the looks, and the fit matinee-idol physique of the…
If you watch the music video for Matt & Kim’s indie-dance hit “Daylight” but know nothing else about the band, here’s exactly what you’ll think: “Good gracious. Those are very happy-looking people.” Frolicking through their Brooklyn ‘hood, humorously crammed into refrigerators, dumpsters, and other uncomfortable spaces while — wait for…
Crave critical consensus? Just take a look at the reviews for The Brutalist Bricks, the sixth and latest album from Washington, D.C.-based gentleman-punkers Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Ted and Rx got 31/2 out of 5 stars from three leading national periodicals, and a 7.9 from a certain infernal online…
RatatatSeptember 25, 2010The Venue ScottsdaleWhen does an electronic rock concert make a person feel like Danny Glover’s irritable geezer cop in Lethal Weapon? The answer: When the concert in question is Saturday’s all-ages Ratatat show at the Venue of Scottsdale, and the person in question is older than some of…
What’s the most significant thing you’ve ever accomplished on your laptop? Paid off a credit card? Logged a seven-letter word on Scrabulous? Constructed your first-rate Evite? Hey, no judgments – that shit’s great. It just doesn’t have the staying power of Ratatat, the 2004 self-titled debut disc that guitarist Mike…
Calling a band a “jam band” can be just as stigmatizing as calling them a “Christian act” — a sizable, devoted minority of the music-listening population will see it as a real virtue, while the rest of us silently utter a prayer of malediction, à la Max von Sydow in…
What’s the most significant thing you’ve ever accomplished on your laptop? Paid off a credit card? Logged a seven-letter word on Scrabulous? Constructed your first-rate Evite? Hey, no judgments — that shit’s great. It just doesn’t have the staying power of Ratatat, the 2004 self-titled debut disc that guitarist Mike…
After yanking back a 16-ounce can of sugary, guarana-infused Rockstar, whatcha gonna listen to? Sufjan Stevens? The Decemberists? Negatory, bro-ham! You’ll want exactly what this energy-drink-sponsored alt-metal tour brings to the table: Blast beats, scream-o vocals and high-decibel thrash showmanship. Now in its third year, Rockstar’s answer to Ozzfest (conceived…
After yanking back a 16-ounce can of sugary, guarana-infused Rockstar, whatcha gonna listen to? Sufjan Stevens? The Decemberists? Negatory, bro-ham! You’ll want exactly what this energy-drink-sponsored alt-metal tour brings to the table: blast beats, screamo vocals, and high-decibel thrash showmanship. Now in its third year, Rockstar’s answer to Ozzfest (conceived…
