Beware the anthrax-laced bubblegum-pop of Cheese on Bread. Musically, the kooky New York fivesome is tangy, upbeat, and innocuous — sort of a more sugary version of The Cardigans, with singer-lyricists Sara FitzSimmons and Dan Fishback chirping happily over a sunny montage of zydeco, country, synth-pop, and Beach Boys-style compositions…
Most bands go into immediate brain death when their lead singer fatally overdoses on heroin, cocaine, or any combination thereof. From Sublime to the Blues Brothers, the case history is extensive. Not Alice in Chains. It took 14 years, but the seminal Seattle grunge band is finally back with a…
Dave Mason hasn’t had the illustrious solo career of former Traffic band-mate Steve Winwood. No platinum-selling albums, no Grammys, no sold-out shows with Clapton at the Garden. But as American-sounding, 60-something British blues-rockers go, he’s a distinctly cooler cat. After penning Traffic’s best-known song, “Feelin’ Alright,” in the late ’60s,…
In Southern California, a place of seemingly limitless sub-regionalism and cultural density, it seems as though every city, county, and housing development has served as the epicenter of some well-documented “movement” in commercial music. From Silver Lake’s anti-folk revolution in the ’90s to Orange County’s ongoing pop-punk apocalypse to South…
Denver-based synth-buddies David Schmitt and Kyle Even are very young, very tattooed, and very loud. Their brand of buzzing, densely layered electronica is sometimes classified as screamo — which in this case means it sounds like someone took a death-metal band, replaced their guitars with Korg X50 synthesizers, and let…
Few of us get creamed by a speeding 18-wheeler and live to tell about it. Even fewer of us take that near-death experience and use it to fuel our signature brand of devilish lo-fi blues-punk. But, hey, that’s Scott H. Biram for you — a down ‘n’ dirty East Texan…
Tribute bands are like high-tech silicone sex dolls — it looks like the real thing, feels like it, hopefully even sounds like it. But who’s kidding who? That ain’t Gwen Stefani. Still, it’s fun to pretend sometimes, no? Take Badfish, a collection of former University of Rhode Island computer science…
Just as future generations will confuse Nickelback with the likes of Staind, Candlebox, and Breaking Benjamin, today’s coming-of-age music fan cannot be expected to reliably distinguish among Styx, REO Speedwagon, Journey, and other still-touring remnants of the early-’80s arena-rock scene. Especially since they all seem to perform at the same…
Country-noir singer Jesse Sykes looks like Lara Flynn Boyle and sounds like a cross between Marianne Faithful and Adam Sandler’s Operaman. Her smoky, strained, eerily spectral voice is seemingly poised between genders — like a dude doing a falsetto. Not that we’re complaining. Paired with guitarist Phil Wandscher (formerly of…
Death metal is the most divisive force in the world today. Yes, even more divisive than Palestine, or Europe’s proton-dividing Large Hadron Collider. To fans, death metal’s blast beats and growling vocals are awesomeness incarnate. To others, it sounds like a long, amplified belch. We suggest the latter group steer…
Country-noir singer Jesse Sykes looks like Lara Flynn Boyle and sounds like a cross between Marianne Faithful and Adam Sandler’s Operaman. Her smoky, strained, eerily spectral voice is seemingly poised between genders – like a dude doing a falsetto. Not that we’re complaining. Paired with guitarist Phil Wandscher (formerly of…
It makes sense that Stephen Lynch grew up to be America’s most unconventional young recording star. After all, when a guy’s father and mother are an ex-priest and ex-nun, respectively, it should surprise no one when he takes an enormous shit on convention. To clarify: Lynch is a musician who…
Talentless poseurs? Hardly. In fact, these Vegas-based Prince and the Revolution impersonators are exquisite poseurs — a tribute band so meticulous and lovingly choreographed that they rated an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, where effete sidekick/bandleader/dude Paul Shaffer deemed their performance “fabulous.” Unquestionably, the source of the band’s…
Still feeling the brutal, toxic side effects of New Year’s Eve? There’s only one antidote for your suffering: punk rock! In all, five bands composed primarily of angry-sounding, undernourished-looking young men will rock Scottsdale’s The Rogue, including local acts Sharp Sticks, Die Like Dogs, and Good Men. A fourth Valley…
When bassist Kyle Rose Stokes joined The Love Me Nots, a Phoenix-based garage act, last May, it meant more than simply acquainting herself with the band’s cache of high-energy surf-rock stompers — it meant submitting herself to a full-on, Sally Jessy Raphael-style extreme makeover. “In my natural state, I’m a…
Let’s hear it for gender diversity in the workplace. After tearing up Valley gin joints for the better part of two decades in mainly all-female bands, blueswomen Rochelle Raya and Nancy Dalessandro have relaxed their ladies-only policy and launched a new group with some help from the less-fair sex. Not…
Wayne Coats and Nicholas Villa are Phoenix-based musical confederates whose surnames happen to sound really classy together — suggesting, perhaps, a high-end home furnishings boutique or a Jean Renoir flick. As it turns out, they make damn handsome music, too. The pair, which once formed half of the Mesa-based folk…
Tastemakers are split over these Long Beach, California-based psych-rockers and their debut long-play, Tentacles. Some reviewers and bloggers insist that the album picks up precisely where the band’s self-released, untitled EP (2008) left off — namely, in a state of feverish musical ass-kicking. Others suggest that the speedier Tentacles backtracks…
“You people aren’t making Christianity any better,” no-nonsense TV dad Hank Hill tells a young Christian-rock enthusiast in a landmark episode of King of the Hill. “You’re just making rock ‘n’ roll worse.” Hallelujah. Sort of. As someone who holds Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible in higher esteem than the King…
You know you’re getting old when you hear some smooooooth jazz on the radio and think to yourself, “Wow. This would sound fantastic at my next dinner party.” Listening to keyboardist-composer David Garfield is kind of like that. One minute, you’re marveling at his clean West Coast texturing and slick…
The other day I was perusing the all-knowing “Just for You” feature on iTunes and heeded its advice to check out Band of Skulls, the new British blues-rock threesome touring in support of its debut album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey. I liked what I heard. Yeah, they sound a…
You can’t blame Pete Yorn for wanting to cut an album with Scarlett Johansson. After all, the Match Point actress is freakin’ hot. Still, that doesn’t mitigate the fact that Yorn cut an album with Scarlett Johansson. What’s the big deal? Well, imagine if Michael Chabon agreed to co-author a…
