Hey, Joey, baby, it’s me — Johnette. I know I haven’t called in a really long time, but I wanted you to know that in case you never heard that one song, I’m still not angry anymore. In fact, I’ve been feeling pretty content lately (at least that’s what my…
Sometimes, with music, you’re lucky enough to be present to watch the first time that a collaboration among artists becomes greater than the sum of its parts. That happened to me recently when I saw the first four-piece practice of a country band that now calls itself the Rock Ridge…
On August 8, thrash metal legends Slayer will unleash Christ Illusion, a blistering, brutal atom bomb of an album that some critics are calling the band’s heaviest audio assault since the cataclysmic 1986 classic Reign in Blood. The record is also Slayer’s first studio album in 16 years to feature…
Singer/guitarist Nathan “Naybob” Shineywater and singer/Rhodes pianist Rachael “Raybob” Hughes form the core of anodyne groovers Brightblack Morning Light, whose new, self-titled Matador Records debut fuses the spaced-out shoegazer-gospel of Spiritualized, the mellow country-rock of Acetone, and the heavenly vocal harmonies of Mojave 3 together to create a stunningly hypnotic…
Like Donny Osmond, South Carolina singer-songwriter Edwin McCain is a little bit country, and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. He’s a whole lot of heartthrob, too, penning some of the most poetic tunes ever to make the women in the trailer parks swoon. Over the course of seven albums…
It’s laughable how many Valley bands still insist on using a “rising from the ashes like a phoenix” analogy in their bios when all they’ve struggled with is the climate change from the living room to the garage to the gig. But in the case of the Walnuts, it’s totally…
Who ever thought of having vocal harmonies in heavy metal? Well, System of a Down, Evanescence, and Lacuna Coil, for starters, but the debut CD from Eyes Set to Kill proves that you don’t have to be innovative to be sonically savvy. The core of ESTK — 17-year-old lead vocalist…
Twenty-one-year-old Patch, the sole member and producer of Die Kranken Katzchen (“The Sick Kitten”), files herself under “Industrial/Goth/Techno” on her MySpace page, and has also likened herself to “a female Nine Inch Nails.” But the atmospheric compositions on Transude are way more experimental than anything Trent Reznor would dare do…
Inventing punk was a dirty job. You had to make up new rules for the guitar, cram your hairy appendages into ladies’ pumps and lingerie, get hooked on hard drugs, and squeeze Howlin’ Wolf and the Shangri-Las into the same three minutes. That routine shortened the lives of two New…
In 1961, fledgling jazz label Impulse garnered considerable out-of-the-gate clout by landing an exclusive contract with John Coltrane. It was a brilliant coup because, at that time, the saxophonist was compiling the finest working band of the 1960s. The reed giant was about to take his new quartet with him…
Mr. Lif’s sophomore full-length is brilliantly structured to be a metaphor for the battle people endure to be heard. Mo’ Mega moves from a chaotic first half in which the Boston rapper’s frustrated voice cranes through the rubble of El-P’s production (every bit as suffocating as it was when Cannibal…
Thom Yorke’s first individual outing is about what you’d expect — a glitchy, primarily electronic excursion that mirrors Radiohead’s most recent work. The Eraser’s dour compositions conjure the icy, detached vibe of Kid A and Amnesiac, and were it not for Yorke’s beguiling melodies and consistently compelling fey falsetto, it…
As the U.K.’s most infectious punks, the Buzzcocks may one day be forced to take the fall for every lame-ass pop-punk band this side of Blink-182. But the Buzzcocks’ original blend of over-caffeinated pop and punk was always more adventurous than that. And more legitimately punk. While everyone from Hüsker…
Regardless of whether it’s a fair comparison, Muse, Britain’s second-favorite semi-atmospheric sensation, will always be the Jan Brady to Radiohead’s Marcia. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to read a Muse album review — including this one — that doesn’t mention the band’s sincere appreciation for, or outright thievery from, Thom…
Hailing from the shores of the California desert’s Salton Sea, a leviathan fed by agricultural runoff and ringed by crumbling ghost resorts, Throw Rag embodies a potent combination of punk and Podunk. The six-man band’s punk ‘n’ roll and boogie-core, salted with carnivalesque psychedelia, rips harder than almost any current…
As DJ BT, Los Angeles-based turntablist and electronics whiz kid Brian Transeau is known as one of the pioneers of trance music. He’s also credited with innovative techniques like the stutter edit and time correction, which tie samples together in mathematical rhythms. As a producer, DJ BT has mixed up…
Come within 10 feet of Marshall Chapman and she’ll likely tell you a story — which is not all that surprising since Nashville, Tennessee, is nothing if not a town full of stories, and “the tall girl” has called the Music City home for nearly four decades. Chapman might tell…
Like Popeye and Jonathan Richman, Steve Forbert is what he is. In 28 years of playing sun-dappled heartland rock with the occasional sidelong glance of cynicism, he’s only gotten to sound more like his own earnest self. But then, you don’t expect a lot of shape-shifting from a Mississippi kid…
Thursday 20Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Red (hip-hop, dance) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Baja Tilly’s: DJs Richy Rich and Big Latin (reggaeton, hip-hop) Camus: KURRENT_affairs with Pablo Gomez (electronic, rock, pop, avant-garde) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (hip-hop, dance) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) e4: Limelight…
It’s a sticky Saturday evening on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and the CMJ Rock Hall Music Fest is in full swing. Head Automatica lead singer Daryl Palumbo wanders into the Record Revolution music store, wearing a scruffy tee. He flips through a trove of obscure DVDs and CDs…
I. Introduction Were I to saunter up to a podium and announce, through the condescending gaze of a monocle, that “Two-piece bands are really hot right now!” you might just roll your eyes and leave my lecture hall. Of course two-piece bands are hot right now. They’ve been hot for…
Ben Lee, the pop bard of Bondi, Australia, used to be known as that kid from punk band Noise Addict. Then he was known as Claire Danes’ boyfriend (and then as Danes’ ex). These days, he’s just Ben again, touring his ass off and churning out pop numbers as buoyant…
