Some bands wear their influences on their sleeves. Phoenix trio Emperors of Japan are no exception, but the quirky group has altered its attire. The Emperors wear many clothes. For example, “Reptile,” the opening track to the band’s first album, opens like an old Cure song, with spacy, dreamy keyboards…
The late alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was infamous for a rich and powerful tone, a heroin addiction, and being the dude who nearly stabbed iconoclast Charles Mingus after the big bully bassist punched him. But one thing overlooked during McLean’s career — due to the relatively restrained modal jazz compositional…
Jim Fairchild explores modest arrangements on his debut as All Smiles, finding mostly memorable hooks in airy, acoustic guitar-driven folk pop. Ten Readings of a Warning is Fairchild’s solo outing; his former gig as a guitarist for West Coast psych-pop troupe Grandaddy ended last year. Although he’s a strong singer,…
If you believe in reincarnation as torture, then imagine all the A&R people who, in past lives, signed nothing but copycat bands and reality show winners, returning to this world only to be demoted to the publicity department, being handed a headscratcher of an album like Priestbird’s debut In Your…
The Los Angeles coeds in Silver Daggers bring the apocalyptic no-wave party ruckus, and then some: They’re a viciously exuberant counterpoint to like-minded labelmates Coughs. On the quintet’s latest adrenalized outing — New High and Ord, on Load — frontwoman Jenna Thornhill unleashes incoherent, bloodied-throat cries from the crazed center…
RJD2’s The Third Hand is the kind of alternative hip-hop record that raises the question: When does a particular artist stop being alternative anything and start to step outside the confines of a single genre? What’s even more impressive is that RJD2 did it all himself — the producing, the…
It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for Franklin, Tennessee, punk-pop quintet Paramore. Signed to Fueled By Ramen in 2005, their debut All We Know Is Falling came out in the summer of that year, and they’ve been on the road pretty much ever since. Led by fetching red-haired teenage…
Both of these acts offer a fresh feminine perspective in genres with an overabundance of “masculine” posturing and one-dimensional angst while also refusing to draw attention to their “femaleness” for its own sake. Indeed, Morgan Lander and Candace Kucsulain, frontwomen for Kittie and Walls Of Jericho, respectively, strike a fine…
John “JB” Bigham, the mastermind behind power trio The Soul Of John Black, has a remarkable résumé. For almost a decade, he played guitar and keyboards with Fishbone, contributing to three of the band’s best albums. He’s written songs for Miles Davis and played on the jazz legend’s last studio…
May is shaping up to be a pretty killer month for Valley drum ‘n’ bass fanatics. In addition to the brand new weekly event SEEN! Wednesdays blasting out plenty of supertempo beats and jungle jams every hump day over at Coach & Willie’s, a superstar-studded slate of d’n’b deities will…
After two weeks without partying, we decided to ease back into the club circuit by taking it slow. Club Candids skipped out on total Cinco de Mayo craziness and hit up a local favorite, the Hidden House, on Saturday, May 5. (Click here for more photos.) The super-casual atmosphere was…
“Heeey maaan, you got a cigarette for me?” The question comes from a tall, skinny, glassy-eyed kid in a Megadeth T-shirt, and it’s directed at my friend Chazz, who could easily be his father. Chazz asks the kid if he’s gonna buy him a beer. “Yeeah, maaan, I’ll buy ya…
Surfing the retro-rock revival wave isn’t a bad thing if you’ve got balance, and Brooklyn-based Panthers have it. The power rock quartet’s found the perfect median between melodic stoner rock, fast-paced punk, and ’70s metal here. Tracks like “Uncertainly” have the high energy of punk, alongside fuzzy, fast-paced garage riffs,…
Remember when it felt as if any band with loud guitars whose singer didn’t make you think of Creed was being lumped in with the Vines as part of some ambiguous post-Strokes garage revival? This is what that music would’ve sounded like if it was real garage. The Love Me…
If “now” were the mid- to late 1960s, Jana Hunter’s There’s No Home would likely be released on the legendary ESP-Disk label. It was one of the most uncompromising American labels ever, and the New Weird America/Free Folk scene with which Hunter is identified has roots (at least in part)…
Leave it to Trent Reznor, a musician who probably doesn’t need to hype his art at this point, to trump every other viral marketer with the Internet-heavy promotional campaign for Year Zero. (It’s a concept record; think the Big Brother mentality of George Orwell’s 1984 combined with the drugged-out society…
With a hard mash of breaks, dubstep, and anything else that buzzes and beckons asses to the dance floor, Tayo’s Fabriclive.32 mix packs consistent, convulsive shudders. The South London producer spotlights his neighbors when a handful of dubstep VIPs appear toward the adjournment of the track list, with entries from…
Swati, a thirtysomething lesbian from Manhattan, is a powerful singer/songwriter, but her amazing guitar technique is winning her as many critical raves as her songs. Her 12-string guitar has been restrung as an 8-string with doubled B and high E strings, and the sounds she wrings out of the instrument…
Rai (pronounced “rye”) is the name given to the popular music that dominates Algeria’s streets and nightclubs and that is present among immigrant communities throughout America. In its original form, rai was a simple folk music made with improvised lyrics and accompanied by flute. The genre evolved over the years,…
Musicians who invent stuff are way cool. There’s Boston’s Tom Scholz, who developed the hugely popular Rockman headphone amplifier; New Orleans soul-punker Quintron and his bizarro, light-activated Drum Buddy; and, of course, Junior Brown, who, two decades ago, came up with his signature “guit-steel” — a Frankensteinian double-necked instrument that’s…
The most powerful introduction to Lucinda Williams’ new record, West, comes not from the languid, repetitive opener “Are You Alright?” but from the liner-note inscription by her poet father, Miller Williams: “You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.” As one…
Apparently, breaking up helped Black Rebel Motorcyle Club more than it hurt. After losing drummer Nick Jago, remaining members Peter Hayes and Robert Been took an abrupt, well-received detour into acoustic-based folk on 2005’s Howl, which soon led to Jago’s return. The time apart must have worked some sort of…
