Fans expecting more crushing feedback, pile-driver drumming and arty, late-’90s-style British bluster will be shocked by the quiet, introspective vibe BRMC displays on its third outing. There’s plenty of overdubbing — Autoharp, congas, piano, organ, drums and electric-guitar noise — but the mix has an unplugged feel that leaves the…
Every Time I Die isn’t a hardcore band — at least, it isn’t anymore. On Gutter Phenomenon, the Buffalo band adopts a much more straightforward rock sound in tracks like the heavy “Tusk and Temper.” ETID exemplifies hardcore’s roots in punk rock as well, keeping things high-speed and gritty (the…
With most new bands trying to hit platinum their first time out, you rarely see acts develop over the course of several albums anymore — either you’re huge or you’re gone. This sad fact is yet another reason to enjoy the twists and turns of the White Stripes, who have…
When Tucson’s The Bled recorded their first full-length for Fiddler Records, Pass the Flask, vocalist James Muñoz had just replaced the band’s former singer and had mere days to familiarize himself with the songs. Nonetheless, Pass the Flask was a masterpiece of screaming, growling heaviness, a blend of mathematical metal,…
Screw the Crüe — for our money, the single most iconic moment of the ’80s sleaze-metal era is that scene in The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years in which belligerent W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes floats in a swimming pool in full stage leather, swearing and dumping…
Born in Chicago, Bad Boy Bill grew up on hip-hop as well as dance music. There in the hotbed of house, he listened to Farley Jackmaster Funk of WBMX’s Hot Mix Five, the area’s legendary DJ team. Funk had one of the first house singles to chart (a cover of…
What do Willie Nelson and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips have in common? Besides resin-caked brainstems, both legends have handpicked the same unknown singer-songwriter as an opening act: Travis Graves, otherwise known as Mt. Egypt. And while his upcoming sophomore disc, Perspectives, is already sparking up a buzz on…
It’s hard to believe that the Fleshtones have been at it for 30 years. Beachhead sounds as youthful, snotty and out of control as anything they’ve ever cut, brimming over with joyous garage-band enthusiasm. They kick things off with “Bigger and Better,” in which they shout: “It’s nothing new, it’s…
It was inevitable that part of the fallout of the post-punk/punk-funk riot that recently wrapped its icy fingers around indie rock would be voracious crate-diggers starting to work back through history, excavating any overlooked band that roughly approximated the bass-bulging and jittery riffing taking up hourlong blocks on MTV2. One…
Brazilian chanteuse Lilian Vieira went to study voice in Rotterdam, where she met drummer Stefan Kruger and keyboard wiz Stefan Schmid. And although their collaboration is based in Holland, the sound is pure Brazil. The trio is continually finding unique ways to blend electronic beats with samba, afoxé and other…
While you wait for the next Coldplay album, Nashville’s Blue Merle should fill in nicely. It’s eerie how much singer Lucas Reynolds’ tenor sounds just like the voice of Coldplay leader Chris Martin. Named after a Led Zeppelin lyric (not the Australian sheepdog), this foursome somewhat distinguishes itself by using…
It’s no surprise that our most soulful president tapped Buckwheat Zydeco to play both of his inaugurations. Slick Willy knew no one other than the oft-labeled “world’s greatest party band” could, well, you know, get the party started. Buck, born Stanley Dural Jr., refuses to follow a set list, opting…
Well, stick a boot in my ass and whistle “Dixie,” I do believe Toby Keith has gone soft! Seems like only yesterday the linebacker-size Oklahoman was the biggest, baddest mofo in all of country music — favorite of rowdy rednecks from coast to coast; godsend to U.S. Army recruiters; mainstay…
Any excuse for a party, right? Local dance rock institution Hot Pink! is throwing itself a pre-two-year anniversary get-down before its actual two-year birthday party. We like their style. On Friday, August 12, DJ Nimh and his cronies are flying in legendary NYC impresario DJ Michael T., creator of the…
Modern U.S. life sure is rubbish, asserts Koufax singer Robert Suchan on his Kansas-based quintet’s third album: We’ve got a cheater for a president (“Back and Forth”) conning the nation through a war (“Blind Faith”), but ignorance reigns supreme because the education system is a joke (“Why Bother At All”)…
A Wilhelm Scream may win the award for best song titles this year. Here are the top three: “The Kids Can Eat a Bag of Dicks,” a quick post-hardcore tune with a nice bass solo and an emo breakdown (no, that’s not a joke); “Me vs. Morrissey in the Pretentiousness…
A grotesque vegetable, psychedelic rock is rarely served on its own. But just a smidgen lends weight to pop, color to blues, brains to country, and space to dance music. Modey Lemon is that unusual band that takes it straight. On The Curious City, the Pittsburgh trio’s second album, fun-house…
The Red Chord must be familiar with European theater; the Boston band took its name from a German play in which a schizophrenic man slits his lover’s throat and then reverts to his normal self, asking, “My love, what is that red cord across your neck?” It’s both poetic and…
Anyone paying attention knows that punk bands are in a Zelig-like state of national confusion. So if Scandinavians can sound like Detroit rockers and the Japanese can capture British hardcore, then what seems so perverse about an L.A. band that embodies Boston street-punk? Maybe it’s just our familiarity with American…
1. Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy (Atlantic) 2. The Beatles, The Beatles (The White Album) (Apple) 3. Cream, Fresh Cream/Disraeli Gears (Atco) 4. Black Sabbath, Paranoid (Warner Bros.) 5. The Who, Who’s Next (Decca) 6. David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust (RCA) 7. Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland (Reprise) 8. The Beatles,…
Because indie rock has settled into a kind of polite earnestness best characterized by well-intentioned pasty-faces like Youth Group, and because electronica is slowly getting its corners sanded by the Postal Service, the next logical step was to combine the two. A number of bands have already fiddled with this…
Well, someone had to play OMD in rock ‘n’ roll’s never-ending ’80s remake — why not Minotaur Shock? We mean that as a compliment; essentially the work of one man, David Edwards, Maritime’s chipper, chirpy electro recalls both the spartan arrangements and the casual elegance of its British forebears. Nothing’s…
