Smooth-voiced R&B singer Eijay (pronounced A-J) is a rare breed — in his credits, he thanks “the haters for breaking into my studio and stealing my equipment. I really needed that reality check. Peace!!” His CD Embryonic Soul is a strong mix of Dre-ish grooves and old-school slow jams, occasionally…
Hi, this is Michael Sweet from Stryper. I’m either rockin’ a stage or deep in prayer right now, so leave your name and a brief message and I’ll call you back. [beep] Yeah, hi, Michael, it’s Jesus Christ. Sorry not to have ever gotten back to you, but I’ve been…
For every hundred bedroom guitar heroes, there’s a Bryce Avary, the kind of driven kid who doesn’t just dream it. Avary recorded an EP at 18, setting the stage for his terrific self-recorded and -produced debut, Calendar Days, which generated enormous buzz for the then-20-year-old. Channeling the pop impulses of…
The Format is what would happen if a congested Cat Stevens fronted an ’80s-influenced, synthed-up Beatles tribute band, and wrote lyrics as creatively true as “Snails see the benefits, the beauty in every inch of life” (“Snails”). Named as an inside jab at the recording industry’s habit of churning out…
Thursday 10Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Fire…
1. Matisyahu, Live at Stubbs (Or Music) 2. Depeche Mode, Playing the Angel (Reprise) 3. Children of Bodom, Are You Dead Yet? (Fontana Int’l) 4. Death Cab for Cutie, Plans (Atlantic) 5. Bloodhound Gang, Hefty Fine (Geffen) 6. Nickelback, All the Right Reasons (Roadrunner) 7. Black Eyed Peas, Monkey Business…
I have a theory that excessive sobriety and serious relationships can easily hamper an artist’s potential. I know it’s true with me; the focus I’ll put into a relationship with a girl doesn’t often leave me with as much creative inspiration. My favorite records and books are inspired by loneliness,…
“I’ve got to tell you something. I’ve always said I would give my left nut for heavy metal, and now I really am.” Patrick Flannery says this barely above a whisper, but follows the statement with a hearty laugh. Today, the 43-year-old singer, who’s been a veteran of the Valley’s…
In a second coming that rivals only Christ himself, the cantankerous punk band Dead Kennedys have rereleased Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables — Special 25th Anniversary Edition (Manifesto Records), and are touring, albeit minus former mouthpiece Jello Biafra. But are the resurrected Kennedys just a bunch of anachronistic sellouts, or…
You know the feeling in the air when the barometer and temperature drop as a big storm blows in? It’s like that around Jean Grae these days. Not that she’s suddenly materialized like a cold front. Grae got her start in 1997 with Natural Resource, when she was 16. She…
Here are a few interesting facts about San Francisco’s John Vanderslice: 1. He eats a vegetarian burrito every single day; he’s been doing so for more than eight years. 2. He once wrote a song called “Bill Gates Must Die,” then punk’d numerous national media outlets by crafting an amusing…
Everyone from Alec Baldwin and Eddie Vedder to film director Robert Altman threatened to leave the country if George W. Bush was elected, but only got as far as backpedaling. But Emily Haines and James Shaw of the neo-New Wave band Metric actually vamoosed to Canada on the eve of…
“Frances, Frances Bean . . . what are you doing up here, sweetie?” “I was just going through Daddy’s tapes, Mom. I wanna pick a song for the new album, too!” “Okay, honey, but we’ve only got room for three unreleased tracks, all right? The other 19 are coming from…
Using the B-word when describing a new young band can be the kiss of death, but the sonic palette Happy Bullets use on The Vice and Virtue Ministry brings to mind a psychedelic-era Beatles album as produced by Ray Davies and recorded on an indie rock budget. Strong melodies, lush…
Broken Social Scene didn’t have much to prove in 2002, but the ragtag Toronto indie-rock collective’s messy, gorgeous You Forgot It in People changed all that. Buzz and anticipation might be foreign concepts now, but the band’s third proper full-length sure doesn’t sound aware of it. The same loose aesthetic…
It’s probably bad form to mention CD artwork before the music, sort of like extolling the virtues of a blind date’s winning personality, but the dramatic Jason Oda graphics beg first-paragraph acknowledgement for totally syncing up to the emo-melancholia housed within this Gilbert band’s powerful debut. There’s a slacker goddess…
The more things change, the more they stay the same: Just when you thought local hip-hop/rock/reggae outfit Cousins of the Wize was in the ‘Nix’s history books, here they are celebrating their eighth anniversary, a major milestone for any local outfit. With DJ Needles holding down the turntables, Jah Sonora…
Some grand faiths have their own Adversaries (like, say, Pharaohs and Pharisees) to scourge the faithful. But for those of us who hold music on high, there is but one many-faced demon — named not Legion, but Record Company. As digital music leads us to the promised land, we must…
“Welcome back to The Insider, I’m Pat O’Brien! Thanks to The O.C. , indie rock is hotter than ever! And nowhere is it more sizzling than in, get this, Nebraska, where upstart Saddle Creek Records is home to several acts on the verge of stardom. One of them is a…
The buzz from this year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Southern California was about the second coming — no, wait, make that the third coming — of Bauhaus, which stole much of the spotlight. Bauhaus — Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, Kevin Haskins, and David J. — was first around…
The recent success of Mae is proof positive that nice guys don’t have to finish last. In fact, they can get the girl and manage to open for Weezer. Not bad for a quintet of good ol’ boys from Norfolk, Virginia, who are currently preaching the gospel of spiritual piano…
You don’t exactly picture Joan Jett writing free-verse poetry in black horn-rimmed glasses. So emo-ish album title aside, it’s no surprise that The Vacancies play just the kind of unpretentious rawk you’d expect Jett to champion with her label Blackheart. A Beat Missing or a Silence Added, the Cleveland quartet’s…
