There’s something admirable in Darius Rucker’s mission to prove he’s more than the Dylan of the frat-boy generation. After years as the darker-skinned front man of the otherwise vanilla party band Hootie and the Blowfish, Rucker is branching out. With the release of his solo debut, Back to Then, he’s…
The electronica market is fairly glutted with attempts at Brazilian soul, and almost all of them are as skimpy as an Ipanema bikini. Relying on a scrap of melodics and a thin rhythmic string, these endeavors are usually way too polite to do justice to the exuberant complexity of real…
Ask anyone, of any age, to name the first album she or he purchased, and you can bet the disc mentioned will be cool: a classic that’s truly stood the test of time. And do you know why? Because people lie. Okay, maybe some of them are telling the truth;…
On its 2000 debut, Coldplay sounded like a band that took Radiohead’s “Knives Out” a bit too literally, slicing and dicing that group’s sound to bits, trimming away all the ambition in favor of sheer digestibility. Ironically, it only made Coldplay that much harder to swallow — especially with a…
It’s been four years since Girls Against Boys released Freak*on*ica, a weird hardwiring of indie-punk abrasion and big-budget techno. While that album polarized the band’s fan base, its new release, You Can’t Fight What You Can’t See, returns GvsB to the post-Killing Joke/Scratch Acid school from which it was graduated…
You’re always told to be nice to the people you meet on the way up, but you can’t expect the same etiquette to be returned in the world of punk rock. Take the closing night of the Vans Warped Tour, which saw a stand-off between the not-so-good folks of Pontiac,…
Nothing confusing about “real” — you either are or you aren’t. It’s like art or porn or funny — you know it when you see it, and you know it when you don’t. Like millionaire rappers talking about life on the street, for example. There’s something very unreal about that,…
Anyone who pays the slightest attention to popular music knows that punk rock hasn’t been the typical nihilist’s soundtrack of choice for many years, so don’t bother stopping the presses. But there remains plenty of irony in the degree to which the genre has been mainstreamed. Whereas punk acts were…
When Jason Ringenberg walked onstage with the Nashville Scorchers, the two dozen scenemakers masquerading as a crowd never thought for one minute they’d be thinking about this guy 21 years later. This was a novelty act, a joke — and not a particularly good one — consisting of Hank Williams-style…
The kings of desert rock, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age, return with a third album that whips up a sandstorm of epic rock proportions. These dudes fuel themselves on alcohol and drugs, construct mighty psychedelic soundscapes, write some bitchin’ guitar riffs and handsome harmonies…
Maybe the Dixie Chicks dared to undertake this acoustic, bluegrass-flavored album in order to kill the dumb-blonde image they’ve always teasingly courted and never seriously deserved. Or maybe the astounding success of the tradition-soaked O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack has finally been acknowledged in Nashville’s corporate halls. Or maybe,…
If Beenie Man weren’t still smashing it on the ragga circuit, as he has been for nearly a decade, his crossover success in U.S. markets might taint his street cred. But instead, his lyrical skills and charisma just translate, making him a pioneer in bridging the long-puzzling disconnect between Jamaican…
Dwight Yoakam is the unsung champion of today’s alt-country movement. His 1986 debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., made both country music and cowboy hats cool for rockers and punks alike. Listeners craving substance and soul found both in Yoakam’s timeless, gritty sound. Through him, many discovered the songwriter’s own influences,…
Pharrell Williams wasn’t supposed to be at the MTV Video Music Awards on August 29. According to his busy itinerary, Williams and the other members of the rock band N*E*R*D, the super-successful producer’s ambitious little side project, were supposed to be enjoying a day off between their Holmdel, New Jersey,…
Those looking for a mix CD that represents everything that’s right with dance music today need look no further. Trevor Jackson, the man behind last year’s popular Playgroup LP, has compiled and mixed a collection of groovers that spans the past two decades. Jam-packed with ’80s production, DJ Kicks best…
After Def Jux Records released Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein last year, hip-hop heads dying for a new direction in the art form began clamoring for more stuff that mixes ambient noise with East Coast rhymin’. RJD2 has stepped in nicely, but all hail the real kings of warm, noise-drenched,…
Did you ever hear the one about how the young George Gershwin, hoping to break into show business, was sent packing by Sholom Secunda, an established songwriter in the then-vibrant Yiddish theater? Secunda slammed the teenage Gershwin for being “too American” and said he’d never make it with the Catskills…
It’s been 25 years since Augustus Pablo released what most reggae lovers consider his masterpiece, East of the River Nile. Now the good folks at Shanachie are using the anniversary as a reason to reissue the album — with much-improved sound and a half-dozen killer bonus tracks. Still, one has…
Pink wants everyone to know that she isn’t Britney Spears. She’ll yell it from the rooftops. She’ll tattoo it on her washboard midriff. She’ll hold a high school principal hostage just so she can scream it over the intercom during morning announcements. She’ll even sing it. Her latest album, M!ssundaztood,…
There are 26 bands, 114 dudes and one woman performing at this year’s Ozzfest, the annual headbangers’ bacchanalia where the queasy mix of Coors and Coppertone often feels like one prolonged Maalox moment. Amid all the tanning lotion and testosterone, Otep is the lone woman. “It’s like being a diaper…
When Morphine front man Mark Sandman died from a heart attack onstage in 1999, he left behind friends, loved ones and an exceptional body of musical work. He also left behind a curious batch of crudely rendered cartoons drawn on everything from cocktail napkins and bowling score sheets to fancy…
It’s like a wacked-out comedy sketch from an All That episode. The four hot young hunks of R&B boy band sensation B2K are hanging out backstage after their set in London, clowning around in their matching electric-blue tracksuits, exchanging high-fives. Onstage, headliner and special guest Destiny’s Child is finishing up…
