Keller Williams isn’t the first Deadhead to harbor a secret love for electronica. He is, however, the first to make a career of combining the conflicting genres. This solo performer’s folk-rock leanings (which often transform him into a one-man jam band) are punctuated with spontaneous oontz-ing thumps via an Echoplex…
It’s a safe bet that Pepper grew up on a steady diet of Sublime, Sugar Ray, and post-1995 Red Hot Chili Peppers, with the occasional grunge snack. The Hawaii trio’s sophomoric, agreeable, brand-spanking new No Shame will likely find great favor at barbecues, ganja-flavored get-togethers, and luau-themed fraternity parties everywhere…
The kiss of death when describing a blind date is that he/she/it has a “great personality.” The kiss of death when describing a band is that it has “great musicianship.” Working twixt both extremes are these Finnish black metal pushers — great personalities fermenting beneath a mulch field of great…
When Swedish death metal band Arch Enemy announced in 2001 that original singer Johan Liiva had been asked to leave the band because guitarist Michael Amott wanted “a more dynamic front man,” few people expected that new “front man” would be a woman, a then-unknown German singer named Angela Gossow…
The Bad Boy roster closed the millennium spitting lyrics over an inane series of ’80s classics, a movement that screamed of selling out. However, No Way Out, Diddy’s 1997 vanity-rap debut, went seven times platinum on the strength of the Bowie-sampling “Been Around the World.” Indeed, the man has always…
Along with B.B. King, George “Buddy” Guy is perhaps the quintessential modern blues singer/guitarist. Born in 1936, Guy came from the original wave of Chicago blues players who made a major impact on rock ‘n’ roll, establishing himself with Howlin’ Wolf, Koko Taylor, and Muddy Waters before going solo —…
Although Army of Anyone features half of Stone Temple Pilots as well as former Filter lead singer Richard Patrick, the whole isn’t greater than the sum of its parts. None of the tracks on the group’s debut smolders quite like Filter’s mid-’90s breakthrough, “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” nor does any…
Ben Folds plays the ivory keys like an 11-fingered man suckled on Elton John records. The former front man and namesake of the Ben Folds Five has a clamant, albeit sometimes goofy, presence and an overwhelming talent that at times makes it hard to distinguish his solo work from his…
Pitbull’s newest CD, El Mariel, includes lines like “Welcome to the real Dade County/Where we’re soldiers from birth to the hearse/That’s why my childhood included a bulletproof vest,” and “Welcome to the real Miami/Where we live to die.” Typical rapper throw-down boasts, yes, but that’s the only thing that’s typical…
When DJ Astonish isn’t busy dropping the hip-hop hotness over Valley airwaves every Saturday night from 9 to 11 on KISS-FM 104.7, the banging beatmaster can be found at the new nightspot John Q’s, 7000 East Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale, presenting Naked Wednesdays. While, sadly, no one actually drops trou…
These days, NYC ain’t the only hip-hop haven bustin’ out lyrical clicks and renegade rappers. Straight outta Boston, Mr. Lif is bringin’ back that ol’ Beantown rap sound with Mo’ Mega, a politically charged followup to his highly praised 2002 album, I Phantom. The pseudo-optimistic dread-head is keepin’ it real…
Either Andy Partridge has way too much time on his hands or he’s simply too prolific to be reined in by the confines of XTC, the proto-punk band-turned-Beatles/Beach Boys disciples he founded nearly three decades ago. It’s likely a bit of both; after all, it has been practically 25 years…
1. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come (Roc-a-Fella) 2. Brand New, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (Interscope Records) 3. Killswitch Engage, As Daylight Dies (Roadrunner Records) 4. Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (Geffen Records) 5. Tenacious D, The Pick of Destiny (Sony) 6. The Game, Doctor’s Advocate (Geffen Records)…
The Phoenix indie crowd has a new pit stop on their Friday-night boozing agenda. Glam (formerly Ky’s Place), at 32nd Street and Indian School Road, is a perfectly petite dance club stuck in a strip mall. The place goes nuts after midnight, when the pre-drinking is over and an ass-shaking…
Face it, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen your friends make asses of themselves at karaoke. On a Saturday night in mid-November, I’m about to launch an alcohol-fueled audio assault on the croaky-oke crowd, along with my friends Bones, Chazz, Toxic JuJu, and JuJu’s dad Papa JuJu, who’s visiting P-town…
Kurt Cobain loved The Melvins. Without that band’s influence, there would be no grunge. The outfit un-cheesed Sabbath and created truly evil-sounding metal that directed future generations toward methodical bass lines and sick distortion. Cobain (the band’s most tragically beloved roadie) tinker-punked The Melvins’ sounds and made them palatable to…
Somewhere, “power-pop” sticklers are brooding that these Oklahomans can’t possibly apply that mantle to what it is that they do. According to most universally accepted theorems, most power-pop bands are in their late 30s and early 40s, unless they had some estimable RIAA success in the ’70s — then they’re…
Piano rock, schmiano rock. What Copeland produces is something much more than the recycled Ben Folds schmaltz typical of most ivories-oriented groups. Both Beneath Medicine Tree, the quartet’s 2003 debut, and In Motion, its 2005 breakthrough, were awash in lush, dreamy indie pop that eschewed irony for introspection. The guitar…
Best known for incredibly catchy punk songs about murder and monsters, Misfits-Samhain mastermind Glenn Danzig is the only alumnus from hardcore’s original old-school scene to land an album at No. 1 on Billboard’s classical album chart, with 1993’s Black Aria. More sophisticated and eclectic, Black Aria II is instrumental, but…
Lady Sovereign may not seem as revolutionary as the last great British hip-hop export, M.I.A. In fact, at times, her record feels a bit like M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal sitting down to tea. But it’s the pintsize rapper’s cheeky personality that ultimately matters here (although the quirky synth hooks certainly…
We’ll take the esteemed word of Vogue — along with reports of Karl Lagerfeld’s collection of 60,000 CDs — as evidence that this two-disc comp of the iconic fashion designer’s “favorite songs” isn’t the product of a focus group. But there’s something tragic about a man born in 1933 (according…
The Clash may have scavenged the past for inspiration — calypso, Beat poets, film idols, rockabilly, the Spanish civil war — but never for the sake of nostalgia. And while boxed sets sometimes embalm history, this one suggests the spirit of discovery Joe Strummer might have felt poring through record…
