The essential hardcore sound makes us think of living in New Jersey — kind of like the shirt that says, “New Jersey: Only the strong survive.” But guess what? West Coasters are strong as well. Just ask Seattle’s Champion. Signed to the frequently impressive Bridge Nine Records (Death Before Dishonor,…
A confession: I like sad, introspective music by mopey boys who sing about their broken hearts, a.k.a. emo. At the same time, I also like to make fun of the stereotypical emo fashions and emo kids’ self-absorbed affected moodiness. I’m too grown-up to define myself by the music I listen…
7:41 a.m. Get a wake-up call from my 14-year-old nephew, Jeremy, who I’m taking to his very first Warped Tour. He asks to borrow my faded old Bad Brains tee shirt because his Bowling for Soup tee makes him “look like a noob.” 10:06 a.m. Traffic slows as we near…
Gabby La La is tap dancing. Tiny of frame, huge of talent, she tap dances onto the stage — it’s about performance and it’s about percussion. Gabby is hooking in to a growing audience, as if the sitar she plays, held like a Strat, is tapping the cosmic escalator and…
The cascading waves of sound that constitute the songs on Engineers’ self-titled debut contain lyrics, but they’re almost entirely beside the point. For almost 50 minutes, these Londoners deliver the aural equivalent of those overpriced Sharper Image relaxation chairs: soothing, tranquil, easy to mock — but hard to resist once…
It used to be that the most ironic thing in my music collection was my LP of A-Tom-ic Jones, with the swivel-hipped singer posing in front of a bloody red mushroom cloud while autographing “Best Wishes” — it’s a safe bet the previous owner wasn’t Japanese. Now comes this Battle…
It wasn’t a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup moment when this Brooklyn trio learned they could merge cool jazz, poetry and rap into a desirable package (The Last Poets, The Jungle Brother, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest can all arm-wrestle over first honors). But Digable Planets scored the…
Lots of indie bands get press from ‘zines and alternative rags, but when you get some love from the New Yorker, then you’ve got that rarefied air of intelligentsia’s critical acclaim. John Darnielle, former nurse and New Times music freelancer, received the highbrow treatment last month — when he was…
Technically speaking, Embrace is the egg to Coldplay’s chicken, yet given the frenzy over Chris Martin and the Three Other Guys, it wouldn’t be surprising if people also started calling U2, Pink Floyd, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “the next Coldplay.” Not the short-lived ’80s emo outfit fronted by Ian MacKaye,…
Sub Pop’s 2004 proper release of Rogue Wave’s Out of the Shadow (originally a limited release on Responsive Recordings in 2003) was one of the quieter ones of the year — strangely quiet, because it seemed destined to be a huge success. The delicate pop featured was both heartfelt and…
It’s getting to the point where it’s almost too hot to go out and dance, at least before the wee hours — it seems best to hide in the air-conditioning and drop some ambient beats while you chill with an icy vodka tonic. That is, unless you’ve got some seriously…
Having flown from dusty alt-country to the land of orchestral pop plenty with 1998’s Overcome by Happiness, Joe Pernice is no stranger to spontaneous relocation. On Discover a Lovelier You, however, the Holbrook, Massachusetts, songwriter just moves to a different room in the same apartment. In spots — notably the…
With a near-egalitarian gender split, a tendency toward horns (including trombone and tuba), and the wry ability to deliver phrases like “permanent malaise,” “kill you politely,” and “11 different reasons for fists and fights” while still claiming its twee pop turf, Architecture in Helsinki is the hands-down winner as 2005’s…
Thursday 23 Acme 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 AKA (gothic, industrial) Dos Gringos — Scottsdale: Block Party with DJ Sterling (all genres) Draft House: DJ Dave outta NYC (hip-hop) E-Lounge: DJ Domenica (high…
No disrespect for co-headliners J-Live and Vast Aire (of Cannibal Ox), but the star attraction and the recipient of any spare ice backstage has to be New York’s rap fixture C-Rayz Walz, who was the only three-time champion of the long-running EOW MC Challenge freestyle contest, and was even banned…
I’ve been having nightmares lately, populated by drug addicts, orphans, a woman with her mouth sewn up, and occasionally two skinny Afroed Chicano guys who whisper sinister things in Spanish. They didn’t go away even after I saw the band that’s causing them — the Mars Volta — play live…
Last year, in the dead of summer — you know, the time of year when the sidewalks are still too hot to touch at midnight, and the heat sucks the sweat right out of your pores — Robbers on High Street played the very first show of their West Coast…
If there were windows in Joe’s Grotto, they’d be steamed up tonight. Almost 400 people are packed into the small Phoenix club, fanning themselves with magazines and ordering extra ice with every drink. The crowd’s getting restless, jockeying for position near the stage and chatting away excitedly. Proprietor Joe Grotto…
Imagine the Children of the Corn doing acid with the Manson family while jamming out in a mossy pasture. Still here? Then you might be ready for Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice. Although they disavow their avant-garde status, their music is most definitely unclassifiable. Formed after the breakup of…
Aesop Rock’s legendary Greek namesake wrote fables with morals like “A man is known by the company he keeps.” And Aesop the MC (a.k.a. New Yorker Ian Bavitz) has borne out that bit of ancient wisdom: Since 2001’s acclaimed Labor Days, he’s been a mainstay of Def Jux, the underground…
This is an essential night out for fans of raffish, infectious, congenial and, yes, fun pop music. All the way from Oslo, you’ve got ’60s revivalists The Jessica Fletchers, sounding like some English, phonetically assembled band from Nuggets II, decked out with flutes and strings but still managing to pack…
There are a lot of ex-smokers in the world, judging by the testimonials on Amazon.com regarding Jesse Sykes’ husky voice (e.g., “makes me want to take up smoking again,” or how about “I found myself reaching for Dunhills that weren’t there”). It’s a wonder the surgeon general didn’t write the…
