Phoenix eating and drinking establishment The Hidden House (607 West Osborn Road) has been making waves in the DJ scene lately, offering up beats several nights of the week. Among its notable offerings is Foreign Affair, a downtempo rhythm celebration that goes down every Monday night. DJs Delikacy and Xtra…
Oh, gracious. These days, hard rock is a most denigrated genre of music, is it not? With all those Mudvaynes and Slipknots besmirching the landscape, how can any self-respecting individual bang his head without feeling a wee bit peevish? Luckily, the clouds occasionally part for such honorable acts as Monday’s…
After a two-year absence, Broadcast returns with Tender Buttons, a searing, minimalist pop record. Seeing how the band has gone from six members to two, Buttons’ theme of “letting go” makes sense. Vocalist Trish Keenan and her only remaining bandmate, James Cargill, have toyed with the Broadcast concept a bit,…
The seventeen tracks on this CD/DVD combo — combining the 1995 best-of comp Eternal E with all his videos and a new track by his son, Lil E — are charmingly clunky things by today’s standards, all teeth-chattering 808 beats clashing with the sound of things being slapped, rattled, and…
Modern Machines are hardly the first young band to take early Replacements’ drunk-punk and stumble with it. But while so many others have gotten the fucking-around part down pat, this Milwaukee quartet captures the melody and muscle as well. At eight tracks, Taco Blessing is more densely packed with lilting…
1. Kanye West, Late Registration (Roc-a-Fella) 2. Death Cab for Cutie, Plans (Atlantic) 3. Against Me!, Searching for a Former Clarity (Fat Wreck Chords) 4. Between the Buried and Me, Alaska (Victory) 5. Dane Cook, Retaliation (Comedy Central) 6. From Autumn to Ashes, Abandon Your Friends (Vagrant) 7. Common, Be…
Major labels haven’t had a lot of success marketing singer-songwriters (unless they sound like Dave Matthews), and given that their target audience isn’t advertisers’ favored demographic (18 to 25), it might be questioned how much interest they can generate. Duncan Sheik produced the enormous hit “Barely Breathing” (which sounds a…
While it burst from the same U.K. post-punk explosion that produced other such earnest and humorless flag wavers as U2 and The Alarm, New Model Army’s continued to mine the battlefield long after the former dropped politics for messianic introspection and the latter proved to be just an excuse to…
The Posies loved Big Star so much that they became the band. Front men Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer became the backing for Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens when they reunited Big Star for the first time in 1993, and have just finished a new Big Star album with them…
Phew, can you smell that? No, we’re not talking about the stench of decaying pabulum emanating from the Top 40 charts. This particular pleasing aroma wafting its way into our proboscis originates from across the pond, courtesy of the Seatsniffers, a foursome of Belgian hellcats who specialize in blending all…
While not unique, the songs on 32 Leaves’ Welcome to the Fall would be ideal sandwiched between 3 Doors Down and Dark New Day on mainstream modern rock radio. By far the standout member of 32 Leaves is singer Greg Norris, whose beautiful vocals bring serenity to the sound and…
At 25, Milton Campbell is a generation between generations. The Flatbush, Brooklyn, native known as Ohmega Watts borrows the beat structures and b-boy swagger of predecessors — you could easily believe The Find was released in ’95 as much as ’05. The producer/MC is accustomed to living between worlds, crafting…
Hundreds — more likely thousands — fondly remember the good ol’ days with a monkey on their back; in this instance, RedMonkey, the long-reigning, irregularly held house music celebration thrown down by infamous local DJ Pete Salaz. Wave your Tootsie Pops in the air, because RedMonkey’s making a comeback. Back…
Being a good emo/pop-punk band these days is like being a natural blonde in a sea of peroxide. It’s easy to get lost in the waves, but these bands have distinguished themselves as two of the better acts in a crowded pool. Hidden in Plain View is a New Jersey…
Tired of Not Being Away From Here has the same signature style as other Before Braille records — powerful rock with gut-wrenching lyrics — but with this latest effort, the Phoenix band has spread its wings a bit wider, building more harmonies and instruments (including a notable trumpet on “Well…
Beyond obvious nostalgia (and having the same first name), this pairing of classic rock veterans makes a certain amount of sense. Consider that both drink from the well of rich American musical styles: country, bluegrass, folk. Remember that both got undeservedly overshadowed by their higher-profile peers — Springsteen and Petty…
Pieced together by an all-star team of producers (RZA, Raekwon, Mark Ronson) and bolstered by guest vocalists like Missy Elliott, Macy Gray, and fellow Wu-Tang alumni Ghostface and Method Man, A Son Unique feels more like a posthumous tribute to the late Russell Jones than an actual ODB album. Even…
It takes some patient, ear-to-the-speaker listening before Jamie Lidell’s off-kilter, glitch-funk tendencies come to light on Multiply, but that sultry subtlety makes the album a repeat-play sleeper. Straight out of the box, Multiply bubbles with Stax/Volt soul, easy, husky and heartfelt, Lidell’s affable vocals colored a vibrant shade of Otis…
One stands, one sits! Both sing, rock and overextend themselves! It’s a simple winning concept that every minimalist duo without a bass player has employed to great personal gain, but few have excelled with greater zeal for multi-tasking and whimsy like James Karnes and Chris Pomerenke. Living on opposite ends…
The lifeblood of ska has always been struggle and adversity of some sort. Songs like Desmond Dekker’s “007 (Shanty Town)” and Dandy Livingstone’s “A Message to You Rudy” embody the hardships of unemployed Rude Boy youths of 1960s Jamaica turning to a life of crime to survive, while The Specials’…
Anyone silly enough to believe that music journalism is populated exclusively by deep thinkers will be quickly disabused of the notion after thumbing through the Jucifer clip file. Most articles about the combo mention that it sprang from the same Athens, Georgia, scene that produced R.E.M. — an act that…
Veda’s hometown of Kansas City was immediately sold on its early sound — a soaring, loose, emo-operatic, naked-soul-baring tidal wave fit for washing over today’s tragic versions of when Andrew McCarthy met Molly Ringwald. Most endearing of all was Kristen May’s trained voice, applied with tearful precision to the drifting,…
