To be completely blunt about it, ubiquity isn’t really an asset when it comes to playing around town. It’s good to have your name out there, to be recognizable. But if I see your name or your band’s name in the music section’s ads week after week for years, I’m…
Quintron and Miss Pussycat make happy music. Granted, it sounds very raw and punk. Quintron, a veritable one-man band who can pound on drums (or rather, a contraption he calls a “drum buddy”), play the organ, and sing simultaneously, produces records that sound as if they were made in a…
Who would’ve imagined that a poke in the eye during a pickup basketball game would have a profound effect on Doug Martsch’s life and music career? The Built to Spill front man didn’t think much of it when he sustained the injury earlier this year. An eventual trip to a…
St. Madness singer Prophet (né Patrick Flannery) won his battle with testicular cancer earlier this year, and now he’s ready to rock hard again with St. Madness’ newest album. Musically, St. Madness’ sound has always harked back to the old-school days of heavy metal, with crunchy power chords, screaming guitar…
Aloe Blacc, a onetime member of the L.A. hip-hop group Emanon, glides through his solo debut, Shine Through, with panache. Save for a few moments, he doesn’t rap. Instead, he sings a workingman’s blues on “Busking,” renders a lively Afrobeat version of John Legend’s “Ordinary People,” and then easily switches…
The adage goes that everything is bigger in Texas. Sure, Spoon may spartanly get by on the core songwriting skills of Britt Daniel and Jim Eno, but give credit to fellow Austinites Sound Team, which triples those ranks and gets similarly terse results. Originally a four-track recording project between guitarist…
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…
On their third album, the core members of I See Hawks in L.A. are joined by Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), Rick Shea (Dave Alvin Band) and other heavies from L.A.’s alt-country gang. It’s the songwriting of the principal bandmates, though, that grabs your attention. Lead vocalist and guitarist…
Earlier this year, in a departure from its usual practice of signing Metalpalooza bait such as High on Fire and Nile, record label Relapse picked up a few instrumental-only bands, the most prized of which is semi-legendary progger Don Caballero, whose members are free on waivers from Touch and Go…
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…
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…
The former Squirrel Nut Zippers vocalist trades in her cabaret for lounge on Dirty Little Secret, distancing herself from the old-fashioned jump blues and jazz swing of her old outfit. While Whalen’s wonderful voice would be winning in just about any band, David Sale’s rich, varied production transposes it into…
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,…
Thursday 6Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Red (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Baja Tilly’s: DJs Richy Rich and Big Latin (reggaeton, hip-hop) The Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance)…
What’s in a name? Depends, when your name is Elmo Kirkwood. At 22, he’s the singer and guitarist for locals Broken Robot. But his musical legacy is much older: Elmo’s the son of Meat Puppets guitarist Curt Kirkwood and nephew of troubled Puppets bass player Cris Kirkwood. “I was in…
If they ever again shoot a capsule into space containing artifacts designed to explain life on Earth to other worlds, they’ll have to make room on board for all 12 volumes of Hip-Hop Essentials. It’s hard to imagine a better explanation of hip-hop for an alien culture. Covering the years…
Independence Day is here again. Turns out we’ve been free for almost 230 years, which is a pretty kick-ass record when you think about it. So what is it that makes America . . . you know . . . America? Well, the best way to solve that mystery is…
In case you haven’t figured it out after all these years, Joan Jett is still the “tough girl.” When her name is mentioned in print, that phrase always follows, like magic, by rote. In an e-mail interview with New Times, Jett has her own take on the pigeonhole she first…
Avenue of the Arts crew member Courdek isn’t just another artist after the glitz and glam of the rap game. Throughout Courdek’s debut solo album, Synchronicity, he expresses his skills as a conscious lyricist in thoughtful chorus and verse rhymes. Composed and performed almost entirely by the MC and producer…
It was only a matter of time before John Ralston broke big. The twentysomething just might be south Florida’s best songwriter — many scenesters, including longtime pal and emo hero Chris Carrabba, say so. A few years back, his work with Legends of Rodeo elevated the band to modest acclaim…
Let’s be honest: Despite the perceived sensitivity injection (courtesy of tear-stained emo and indie artists), radio is no more welcoming to female musicians now than it was during the days of frat-mook nü-metal — well, not to female musicians of substance, at least. Save for Kelly Clarkson and KT Tunstall,…
Metal-core must be a harsh mistress; otherwise, you’d think that more bands in the genre would at least try to inject a shred of originality or imagination into their music. If Orange County’s Scars of Tomorrow don’t necessarily succeed in escaping from the thud-chunk-growl straitjacket, at least they try —…
