Priestbird — not to be confused with Priestess, Judas Priest, or “Freebird” — can be confused with Tarantula A.D. That’s the name under which the New York trio crafted its unique, enticing blend of classical music, freak-folk, punk, psychedelia, prog-rock, and metal before changing their moniker in recent months. Why…
Nearly four years after forming, Tempe hardcore/trashrock quartet Casket Life has no money, no booking agent, and no record label. But they’re still having a blast — touring the country, getting drunk, and writing great songs that end up sounding somewhere between Sick of It All and the Murder City…
Albert Hammond Jr. is The Strokes’ Ron Wood, or maybe its Izzy Stradlin, or . . . y’know, the guy who’s content to bash out a few chords and look cool while leaving the bulk of the flashy soloing and histrionics to someone else, but who’s usually the band’s secret…
After six or so years on Jade Tree Records, the Richmond, Virginia, melodic hardcore quintet Strike Anywhere — which formed in 1999 from the ashes of Inquisition — jumped ship to Fat Wreck Chords for 2006’s Dead FM, their third full-length. Makes sense, really, as SA’s primary influences (Avail, Sick…
You want The Truth? Can you handle The Truth? SoCal emo-metalcore sextet Bleeding Through’s third album hits like a falling anvil to the cranium: Ferocious blast-beats, crushing riffs galloping straight out of the Slayer/Biohazard playbook, and vocalist Brandan Schieppati’s evil demon-roar (and his occasional, requisite Mike Patton-esque crooning) are the…
Based on polls conducted last week, here are some of the reasons Americans chose The Elected this year: 1) They ran a positive, intelligent, feel-good, idea-filled campaign with their second album, Sun, Sun, Sun; 2) They’re uniters, not dividers — the quartet’s message of country-tinged indie- and chamber-rock appealed to…
The lineup for the hip-hop/R&B-flavored “Up Close and Personal” extravaganza is everything the Arizona Diamondbacks weren’t this year — young, hungry, and well able to bash out the hits. Juelz Santana is the 23-year-old, Harlem-born rapper who first rose to prominence a few years ago as a member of Cam’Ron’s…
Shane MacGowan’s continued existence on the planet is nothing short of a miracle that would test the resolve of even the most determined atheist. I’ve personally witnessed the notorious Pogues front man — who’ll turn 49 on Christmas Day — ingest an incomprehensible amount of booze and illicit substances, then…
While you can credit (or blame) The Pixies for kicking off this whole reunion thing of the past couple of years, it’s nice to see the trend extending beyond just graying college-rock outfits (and a few ’70s arena-rock groups, too). Now back from the band graveyard is Nitzer Ebb, the…
A little more than 10 years ago, I actually proposed to my girlfriend at a Southern Culture on the Skids New Year’s Eve show in New Jersey. Why not, I figured — there was the onstage limbo contest, the fried chicken the band threw into the crowd, SCotS’ kitschy slow-dance…
Is Mary J. Blige still the reigning queen of hip-hop soul? It was looking iffy a few years ago, when she released her lukewarm Love & Life, an awkward attempt to reconcile her usual gritty themes of abusive relationships and ghetto drama with an increasingly happy personal life — newly…
Remarkably lovely U.K. trio The Clientele, whose sound primarily falls somewhere between the bright psych-pop of late-’60s Britain and the lush jangle-chime of L.A.’s ’80s Paisley Underground scene, pulls off the rare, swell trick of reminding you of literally dozens of artists — the late Arthur Lee, Dream Syndicate, Mercury…
Hello, Dan Quayle here. As the 44th Vice President of the United States of America, I all but coined the phrase “family values” back in 1992, when I famously criticized Murphy Brown for having a child out of wedlock. Sure, it was a fictional character, and yes, I was roundly…
Had Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (yeah, truncating it, Cher/Madonna-style, was probably a good idea) — the 29-year-old, Colombian-born singer who’s been making albums (mostly sung in Spanish) since she was 15 — broken through in the U.S. at the height of the late ’90s, Ricky Martin-led Latin-pop explosion, she’d be…
Poor Ben Harper. No matter where he goes, no matter what new songs he brings, he always gets slapped with either the “poor man’s Lenny Kravitz” or the “thinking man’s Lenny Kravitz” tag (depending on the graciousness of the critic). Of course, that’s probably what Harper deserves for so similarly…
Second only to the fabled Sports Illustrated cover jinx is the curse of Winona Ryder, whereby most musicians who date the actress — Dave Pirner, Adam Duritz, Evan Dando, etc. — subsequently watch their careers crumble. Perhaps Jersey singer-songwriter and former Winona boy-toy Pete Yorn can buck that trend. His…
“We ain’t no Harajuku Girls/We just straight-up rock ‘n’ roll,” Puffy AmiYumi sings on “Call Me What You Like,” the opening track from their eighth studio album. The song primarily expresses the female Japanese duo’s desire to be taken seriously as “rockers” — a tall order given the kiddy-fluff nature…
Singer/guitarist Nathan “Naybob” Shineywater and singer/Rhodes pianist Rachael “Raybob” Hughes form the core of anodyne groovers Brightblack Morning Light, whose new, self-titled Matador Records debut fuses the spaced-out shoegazer-gospel of Spiritualized, the mellow country-rock of Acetone, and the heavenly vocal harmonies of Mojave 3 together to create a stunningly hypnotic…
When not causing a dance-rock ruckus with his bass-drums duo Death From Above 1979, mustachioed four-stringer Jesse Keeler likes to team up with pal Al-P to form the equally Canadian, increasingly prolific, vowel-challenged production team MSTRKRFT. Over the past year, the pair has crafted remixes for such luminaries as Annie,…
The classic Sabbath/Led Zep/Motörhead style of metal is like one of cooking’s essential “mother sauces” — add just a few ingredients to that basic combination of cranked guitars, power drumming, and howled lyrics and you get all kinds of new flavors. Incorporate some mechanized beats and samples and you’ll have…
This year’s Ozzfest — the 11th annual orgy of leather, tattoos, long hair, beer, boobs, pit surfing, devil horns, heat exhaustion, and metal/hard rock of all varieties — is particularly notable for two reasons: For the first time in the tour’s history, namesake Ozzy Osbourne won’t be headlining the main…
It’s interesting, yet not all that surprising, to learn that when not working with the bicoastal, avant-garde duo Young People, singer Katie Eastburn is a dancer and choreographer. The band’s brooding third album bears aesthetics similar to a modern dance performance. Its minimalist piano, percussion, bass, and very sporadic guitar…
