Great Xenu’s ghost! Didja know Beck Hansen’s a Scientologist? That’s correct, alt-rock’s favorite shabby-chic troubadour is a Dianetics-following, E-meter-reading Hubbardite — not that it factors into his music or anything. Nope, despite shout-outs to folks like Jenna Elfman or brother-in-law Giovanni Ribisi in the liner notes of Guero, his latest…
Anyone who’s been following Atmosphere — the Minneapolis indie hip-hop act comprising MC Slug and DJ Ant — over the past 10 years likely isn’t too surprised by the sarcastic title of the duo’s fifth full-length, You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having. In the conflict of man versus…
Power chords, catchy riffs and introspective lyrics make the six tracks on Mourning Maxwell’s latest effort ready for modern-rock radio. Maybe that’s why the Tempe rock band’s tag line on MySpace.com reads, “Music even your Grandma likes.” While your grandma might not be familiar with these guys, she’ll surely approve…
Bobby Bare’s always recorded a blend of country, folk, pop and singer-songwriter material that kept fans guessing. The Moon Was Blue is no exception, a combination of country and pop classics that give Bare a chance to show off his weary, soulful vocals to great advantage. “Everybody’s Talkin'” combines a…
Bury Your Dead is one of those New England hardcore bands that always puts on an energetic live show and gets the crowd to dance up a storm. So Victory Records decided the best thing to do was offer up a live CD: Alive, a CD/DVD combo of 12 brutal…
So let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Yes, Jahcoozi’s singer is from Sri Lanka, the group does play a glitched-up brand of electro, and (perhaps as a concession) all of its label-sanctioned press materials mention M.I.A. by name. But the similarities between the two artists are, as…
Jazz lizards are righteously euphoric these days on the news that Blue Note Records just released a previously unknown 1957 Carnegie Hall recording that pairs saxophone legend John Coltrane with his onetime mentor and fellow genius Thelonious Monk. Such rarities seem to surface about once every decade, so it’s startling…
Boy, oh boy. Just in time for Halloween, one of the spookiest-lookin’ characters of the past few decades is coming to town to pick up one of Phoenix’s infamously cheap eight-balls of blow. Oh, and Boy George will be DJing, too, for the kickoff of the 5th Annual Ghost Ball…
If his rhymes were weapons, he’d be a 30mm chaingun, eviscerating the landscape with enough unrelenting wordplay to make the New York Times’ crossword seem childishly quaint. Francis got his start slapping his salami on the counter (metaphorically), working the battle rhyme circuit, and beating down other MCs throughout his…
Merle Haggard can’t sleep well at night knowing what’s become of his beloved country music. Every time Kenny Chesney sashays across a stage, ol’ “Hag” has to want to dig out a revolver and make it all go away. Can you blame him, though? This is the guy who finished…
He’s lean, he’s mean, he’s a — well, he’s got a nice hat. But Dwight Yoakam is more than the sum of his style and practiced scowl. He’s a closet beatnik and he eats tofu and will discuss goofy-ass shit forever, once you get him revved. His new album, Blame…
Dear God, Blag Dahlia here, from scum-punkers The Dwarves. We’ve been around 20 years and I’m getting a little older now, so there’s a few things I think I need to get square with you. I’m sorry for putting blood-splattered naked women and a midget holding a dead rabbit on…
1. Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene (Arts & Crafts) 2. Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers (Drag City) 3. Explosions in the Sky, How Strange, Innocence (Temporary Residence) 4. Boards of Canada, The Campfire Headphase (Warp) 5. Animal Collective, Feels (Fat Cat) 6. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Jacksonville City Nights…
Now that Lady Sovereign and Dizzee Rascal have conditioned enough ears to accept the kind of flow that rhymes “garage” with “carriage,” German electro-queen Quio isn’t going to seem like such an anomaly. Wisely ditching the “MC Looney Tunes” moniker she used in her early days as a sideshow in…
Clint Black got tired of hassling with his label a few years ago and started his own logo. This is his second outing for his own outfit (not counting last year’s Christmas album), and being his own boss obviously agrees with him. The title track has the sound of a…
Of late, hip-hop supergroups have fared better than their rock counterparts. C’mon — Madvillain? Handsome Boy Modeling School? Incredible stuff, especially in comparison to Velvet Revolver. Now let’s add Dangerdoom to that distinguished list. A collaboration between it-producer Danger Mouse and Madvillain rhymer MF Doom, The Mouse and the Mask…
Ray Raposa, the singer-songwriter at the core of Castanets, makes oddly elusive music. The lyrics are oblique, the delivery is matter-of-fact, almost spoken as much as sung, and the playing is minimal, just enough music to make the tracks into songs rather than poems or conversation. First Light’s Freeze balances…
Taking a cue from their successful Verve Remixed series, the folks behind the legendary jazz label open the catalogue of their sub-label for 10 producers to modernize classics. While Verve was always a bit more “mainstream” — if you can ever claim that of anything outside of light jazz –…
Caitlin Cary began playing violin when she was very young, but had let music lapse in favor of a creative-writing degree when she met Ryan Adams, who recruited her to play Emmylou Harris to his Gram Parsons in the band Whiskeytown. Her smoky alto had enough character to write its…
Boys Night Out and Fall Out Boy may be on the Nintendo Fusion Tour, but don’t let the monikers of these poppy emo bands fool you — they’re still adults. The real boys of the tour are the four teenage members of Las Vegas’ Panic! At the Disco, who formed…
Here’s a band that should’ve gotten some of the drooling praise that was slathered upon the similarly guitar-drenched music of Longwave. Then again, hype like that is never good for any artist, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that this Los Angeles four-piece can get the credit it deserves without…
It’s always exciting when a world-class DJ hits the ‘Nix for the first time; it does our egos good and quashes a bit of our desert metropolis’ inferiority complex. So clap your hands and say “yeah” for this Saturday’s inaugural appearance by U.K. producer and DJ BK, a.k.a. Ben Keen,…
