Call it the great inevitable. Alt-rock trends in the 21st century have, so far, stuck to a pretty tight schedule, reviving retro sounds right around the 20-year mark. So it makes perfect sense that the successor to all the recent post-punk and early-New Wave imitators would firmly plant us somewhere…
As a 17-year-old skateboarder up in Anchorage, Alaska, where I worked at the only skateboard shop in town, I was sprung on the skaterock that was the soundtrack of my crew’s four-wheeled adventures. Bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Agent Orange, and especially JFA (Jodie Foster’s Army) provided the extra energy we…
Whether you know what to expect or it’s your very first time, nothing can actually prepare you for South By Southwest. Battalions of bands take over Austin, Texas, and Shiner Bock flows like water. The whole music industry food chain — major and indie label reps, publicists, booking agents, and…
Listen, boys and girls: A long time ago — yes, before you or I or the Toronto music scene was even born — some very wrong people had a very bad idea. Children, these very wrong people reasoned, are small and silly. Let’s make small, silly music for them. And…
Fall Out Boy bassist and songwriter Pete Wentz can’t stand being limited by 4/4 time. He has aspirations of becoming the next Russell Simmons. “People didn’t just buy a Def Jam record,” he says. “People bought a culture.” The multitalented entrepreneur talks about the need to create a similar counterculture…
For years, the Wu-Tang Clan has epitomized hip-hop’s gritty underground, pushing the art form to another level with a street mentality and a plan to build an empire. As solo artists, its members have produced mixed results (lest we forget Method Man’s acting career), but consistency has been a strong…
Although Matisyahu has been around for a few years, the novelty factor is still high on his third album. After all, can you name another Orthodox Jewish dancehall star? But those who can handle a bespectacled, bearded, yarmulke-clad performer breaking it down, island stylee, will find that Youth quickly turns…
In a music industry where the dreck rises to the top of the charts and the cream gets tagged as “cult,” it’s comforting to see Sparks persevere over the decades in spite of a mostly indifferent American audience. Fronted by the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, the Los Angeles group…
There used to be a time when you could actually mention Dilated Peoples and Black Eyed Peas in the same sentence, given that they both came up in the subterranean Los Angeles hip-hop scene in the late ’90s and once shared a similar funk-soul sampling, old-school scratching and beatmaking, Golden…
While many of us have likely uttered at some point, “If I hear one more goddamned whiny emo song I’m gonna kill myself,” suicide really is no laughing matter, especially when it comes to our nation’s kids — it remains the third leading cause of death for those between the…
Local beat manipulators DJ Delikacy and DJ Xtra-E, of Foreign Affair at the Hidden House, are hosting an underground hip-hop blowout at the Hidden House (607 W. Osborn Rd.) this Monday, March 27, in association with the west side collective Modurn Languaj Asosiashun (whose members rhyme much better than they…
It’s called Art Detour, but hey — music’s art, too, and the annual creative confab taking place this weekend is as much about sounds as it is about sights. These days, no chitchat about the downtown arts community is complete without major props for the music scene, which has noticeably…
No band in indie rock today has a more badass name than this Austin quintet’s. Say it with relish: I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness. Makes you just wanna break up with somebody, doesn’t it? The badassness doesn’t stop at their name, either, like with that other noisy five-piece…
The Project enjoys bringing it back to the blunt-tokin’ old school days of “Bitches Ain’t Shit” gangsta rap circa nine-deuce, but with a twist, fusing together seemingly disparate elements of modern creative jazz, avant-classical, and metal with a funkdafied energy that rolls right alongside West Coast party hip-hop. The rollicking…
Thursday 23Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Brooklyn (hip-hop, Top 40) Barcelona: DJ Rob (dance) The Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) Deadbeats: EZ Thursdays with DJs Robin Lepel & Josh Nelson (house, techno) The Door:…
All hail Boogie Down Productions! Their track “The Bridge Is Over” cemented the diss record and rap feuds as a legitimate branch of the art form! From 3rd Bass to Kool Moe Dee to 50 Cent, a rapper’s best work will come in the form of a well-thrown bitch-slap. But…
It’s no surprise that a record called Destroyer’s Rubies (as opposed to, you know, just Rubies) is endlessly self-referential to Dan Bejar’s earlier works. As you read this, Bejar acolytes are furiously footnoting every mention of his old songs, albums and motifs, as if it would help divine meaning from…
An Angle’s Kris Anaya knows how to stick to a theme. The name of the latest disc by his “band” (a rotating lineup of pals and co-conspirators) is We Can Breathe Under Alcohol, and to make sure no one thinks the title was chosen at random, he kicks off “Green…
The cover of Kreator’s Live Kreation depicts a solemn ghoul playing the intestines of a bound, disemboweled victim with a bow. Album artwork doesn’t get much more aesthetically appropriate. Dating back more than two decades, this German quartet started out heavier than the burden on Atlas’ shoulders, and last year’s…
It’s been quite some time since the underground rave scene was thriving and everybody was out all night on the weekends, twisted up in cuddle puddles while bass thumps were rattling their spines. The days of PLUR — which we think stands for “Peace, Love, Understanding, Respect,” but then again…
On the very morning of this interview with Albert Hammond Jr., one of the two guitarists in The Strokes, there appeared in the New York Times a review of that band’s March 1 performance at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The Times’ music critic Kelefa Sanneh opened the…
Flogging Molly’s “Screaming at the Wailing Wall” may be the best real punk song in half a decade. A blazing rush often accompanies the best political rants, and “Screaming,” from the band’s latest album, Within a Mile of Home, is no exception. With nods to the Sex Pistols and The…
