More than one music journalist has dubbed this art-rock trio a “supergroup . . . of sorts.” Basically, that’s just industry shorthand for “a side project featuring musicians from two or more obscure but critically admired bands that have never sniffed the Billboard Hot 100.” In other words, they ain’t…
Graffiti art has muscled its way into the mainstream. If you doubt it, just take a gander at one of Jon Gosselin’s designer-douche T-shirts, or check out the packaging of virtually any energy drink on the market. That shizzle is ubiquitizzle, yo. Still, graffiti art remains controversial, probably because it…
The self-styled “most hated band in the world” has a true friend in us. No, not “us” literally — we’d sooner listen to Feist — but “us” as in, the Valley of the Sun. The horror-core rap pioneers always draw well here, whether touring in league (their Dark Lotus supergroup…
Those Seattle indie-rockers sure are an incestuous bunch, ain’t they? Swapping singers here, sharing keyboardists there. Consider the tangled genealogy of this Emerald City folk-rock trio, founded two years ago by guitarist-bassist Derek Fudesco when his old band, the much-admired Pretty Girls Make Graves, dissolved at the seeming height of…
There’s a release party, and there’s a release party. If all goes according to plan, these Cleveland-based ’90s hip-hop harmonizers will have enjoyed both by year’s end. Yes, they will have celebrated the release of their long-awaited reunion album, The World’s Enemy, due in stores this November. And, yes, they…
The old book on Pink: Debbie Gibson with tattoos. The new book on Pink: Surprisingly durable pop madam. Granted, the two-time Grammy winner will never be revered like her idol, Janis Joplin, but she’s certainly made some solid, career-prolonging adjustments since her early days as an R&B puppet-rebel. In eight…
When Bill Murray made glorious lounge-mockery of the Star Wars theme on Saturday Night Live all those years ago, little did he know that the bit would inspire, if not one of the great all-time music acts, then one of the great all-time music shticks. Led by Sinatra-soundalike Richard Cheese…
Valley bluesman Bob Corritore is a self-contained synergistic event. He performs. He produces. He owns the live-music venue where he and his recording partner will hold their latest CD release party. He hosts the local blues radio show that will promote said CD. Short of taking over as managing editor…
When a white man writes and publishes a song with the N-word in the title, the racist label tends to, you know, stick. Tell it to David Allan Coe. For three decades, the 70-year-old country music bad boy has stubbornly disavowed any feelings of ill will toward blacks, despite authoring…
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Phoenix surf-rock trio Thee Jaguar Sharks should change their name, like, yesterday. You can dick with the definitive article all you want — it doesn’t mitigate the fact that there are at least three other working American bands named after the…
Not to get all up in your grill, William Safire-style, but there’s a real etymological crisis going with the word “keening.” It’s a noun that means “a wailing lament,” or the act of creating same, but many journalists — especially arts critics and the like — choose to brandish it…
Upon hearing The Voodoo Organist for the first time, you can’t help but think, “Yup, that’s a voodoo organist, all right.” Unlike his colleagues in The Killers, Vampire Weekend, The New Pornographers, et al., lead singer and songwriter Scott Wexton is not one for ironic misnomers. Yes, Wexton’s preferred instrument…
Americans who witnessed the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 surely reacted in a variety of ways. Some applauded the violence. Others abhorred it. But you can be certain not one of them turned to his or her neighbor and said: “This would make a totally sick dance song.” Ultimately, strangely,…
One thing is certain about Mesa’s only known ska-rock septet: They picked a hell of a fun name. Go on. Say “Captain Squeegee” to yourself a couple of times and try not to crack a smile. Try to deny the mental image of a wacky Halloween outfit or the latest…
It’ll take more than a sprained knee and a “low-grade malignant tumor” to keep Depeche Mode from spreading their time-tested brand of brooding synthpop across America this summer. Consider the band’s many personal tribulations: lead singer Dave Gahan’s heroin addiction, lead songwriter Martin Gore’s seizures, and lead wallflower Andy Fletcher’s…
Alas, Long Wong’s is long gone, but forgotten? Naw. You can still feel the place, every time “Hey Jealousy” resurfaces on throwback ’90s alternative radio, every time Roger Clyne leads a hot ‘n’ sweaty sing-along in his size-30 black Wranglers. This weekend, local music fans will get a double dose…
It’ll take more than a sprained knee and a “low-grade malignant tumor” to keep Depeche Mode from spreading their time-tested brand of brooding synthpop across America this summer. Consider the band’s many personal tribulations: lead singer Dave Gahan’s heroin addiction, lead songwriter Martin Gore’s seizures, and lead wallflower Andy Fletcher’s…
Like Baywatch, Balkan warfare and runaway Internet speculation, Lyle Lovett will always be indelibly linked to the 1990s. It was in the ’90s, after all, that the spindly country crooner won three of his four Grammy Awards, married Julia Roberts in history’s most egregious abuse of Funny-Looking-Musician Romantic Privilege, and…
Detroit’s automotive heyday is long gone, but the Rust Belt metropolis still leads the world in at least one manufactured good: scary-ass rap music. These are hardly unrelated phenomena. Which is to say it’s no coincidence that dirty, dispossessed Detroit — with its surreal, post-industrial poverty and malignant crime —…
To a classics scholar, Asteria is a mythical goddess who drowned herself in lieu of a non-consensual shtupping by the all-powerful Zeus. She’s a symbol of feminine power and defiance. To fans of Midwestern pop-punk, Asteria are five well-dressed 20-somethings with week-old stubble who sound a little like Hit the…
Like a brain-starved corpse from one of the classic zombie flicks he loves, Kepi Ghoulie has risen from the dead. Admittedly, the founding member of the Groovie Ghoulies is missing a familiar appendage or two; when the Ghoulies “family” filed for divorce two years ago, the horror-punk pioneer lost not…
No one will ever accuse dredg of under-thinking their shit. Formed in 1993, the darlings of California’s modern prog-rock movement have nurtured a reputation for trippy concept albums, feverish thematic forays, and bold multi-media exploration. Their 1998 self-released debut album, Lietmotif, was based on a short story about a world…
