Grandma may finally be out of traction after that unfortunate reindeer hit-and-run last December, but she’s liable to have a stroke if she hears the lyrics to Blink-182’s prison carol “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” this holiday season: “Even though the jail didn’t have a tree/Christmas came early/Because a…
Returning after a 15-year-long hiatus — during which leader David Lowery launched the far more successful Cracker (remember “Low”?) — Camper Van Beethoven melds the quirkiness of its earlier incarnation with Cracker’s pop sensibility and a newfound relevance on New Roman Times, thanks to a rich conceptual conceit. Though CVB’s…
This MTV-sponsored mash-up between megaplatinum rapper Jay-Z and megaplatinum rockers Linkin Park isn’t the first time Chester Bennington and his bandmates have looked to rap to spice up their airtight emo-metal crunch-and-munch. For 2002’s Reanimation, the band invited Kutmasta Kurt, Chali 2na, and the X-ecutioners, among others, to remix cuts…
Rather than just presenting a compilation album to promote their own roster, the folks at Five One — a tiny, emo-ish label based in Santa Monica, California — approached some of their favorite musicians and asked them to come up with solo tracks exclusively for this project. And so this…
When it comes time to reinvent themselves, most guitar heroes just start putting out the same old trash in a flashy new can. Steve Turner, lead guitarist of Mudhoney, took a decidedly new tack by stepping forward as a singer-songwriter with a ’60s-tinged folk-pop sound. There are still times when…
The Gourds have been confounding audiences with their catholic musical taste and solid musicianship for almost 10 years. They play credibly in any style you’d care to mention — folk, blues, swamp rock, country — and delight in showing off their range. The title tune is a take on the…
Can we give out a Nobel prize this year for the Most Evolved View of Gender Relations in a Hip-Hop Song Still Saddled With Gratuitous Use of the Word “Bitch”? (We can do it the same night we award the Prehistoric Fuckface trophy to Dr. Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus, whose…
When a band’s cast-off B-sides are good enough to indict an entire subgenre as inane, either the band doesn’t know its own strengths, or a generation of indie-poppers had better put away the four-track and finally apply to graduate school. Outrageous Cherry’s “My Suspicious Midwest” stands somewhere near Hüsker Dü’s…
The wordless one-note howl that opens up Thai Beat A Go-Go swells up long and low from the belly of a jilted man. That single, baleful syllable makes one thing clear: Language may be regional, but heartache is universal. So, of course, is rock ‘n’ roll; it seeped into Thailand…
If you’ve been waiting for someone to have that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup accident that ends with, “Hey, you got electronica in my rock and rap,” look no further than Cross Platform, five great tastes that might taste great together. Dubbed “an experiment in rap, funk, rock, soul & electronic,”…
If Tiger Beat ever dedicated an issue to the hottie bad boys of psychobilly, sure as shit you’d see the mugs of San Diego’s Formaldehydes gracing the cover, asking the preadolescent readership, “Can You Tame Their Wild Souls?” And untamed they are, as drummer Mr. Hyde and guitarist Gizmo play…
Q: Are we not metal? A: Yeah, sorta. Both bands on this bill are enormous-sounding, but they achieve their audio girth from dissimilar means, neither atypical metal. Most of Isis’ albums are three-fourths instrumental and all-fourths conceptual. The band’s previous CDs were sold in room-thrashing flavors like Oceanic and Celestial…
Costumed shtick in the rock ‘n’ roll world is a tough road to travel — just ask the guys from Dread Zeppelin and the Village People, if you can figure out which Holiday Inn Express lounge they’re playing this weekend. Even KISS spent more than half its career sans makeup…
1. Lil’ Jon & Eastside Boyz, Crunk Juice (TVT) 2. Ludacris, Red Light District (Def Jam) 3. Snoop Dogg, R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece (Geffen) 4. U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Interscope) 5. T.I. , Urban Legend (Atlantic) 6. Mario, Turning Point (J-Records) 7. Gwen Stefani, Love,…
This Saturday, December 18, the long-running but recently in absentia Rhythm & Form night at the Emerald Lounge returns for “Rhythm & Form — The Resurrection.” Resident DJs Jacob Delph, Brian Pfirrman, and David Siefert are bringing back their tech house stylings in conjunction with wall displays by local artists…
Before landing a record deal in 1978, the Police dyed their collective locks blond and posed as a punk band for a bubblegum advert. That wasn’t the only time a pop trio got its break via a TV commercial. The Dollyrots actually are a punk bubblegum group — one that…
When talking to people from the other side of the country, there are usually three local bands you can name that they’ve heard of: the Gin Blossoms, Jimmy Eat World, and the Phunk Junkeez. And while the Junkeez have yet to tap the mainstream success that GB and JEW experienced,…
There may be a lot of bitchy backbiting in the music business at large, but on a local level, great P-town bands understand the spirit of the season. Local rockers Goodbye Tomorrow are the epitome of “good sports” — when the musicians parted ways with bassist David Roat, they posted…
David Allan Coe’s been looking like a redneck version of George Clinton lately, sporting a multicolored dreadlock beard, big sunglasses, and more tattoos than Skin and Ink. But the only thing funky going on behind the Confederate flag guitar is the booze-and-broads smell of a hard-livin’ country legend. The 65-year-old…
When local blues outfit Sistah Blue took second place at the International Blues Talent Competition in 1996, the band was just a year old. Over the past nine years, it’s built up a fan base by playing all over the Valley, opening for such acts as John Lee Hooker and…
While all the upstart pop-punk bands seem insistent on establishing their “maturity,” the Vandals are like the guy who shows up to the 20-year high school reunion wearing parachute pants and a joy buzzer, revealing he still lives in his mom’s basement and still works at the local comic book…
1. Iron and Wine, Passing Afternoon (Sub Pop) 2. Arcade Fire, Funeral (Merge) 3. Pinback, Summer in Abaddon (Touch & Go) 4. My Morning Jacket, Early Recordings, Chapters 1 & 2 (Darla) 5. Elliott Smith, From a Basement on the Hill (Anti) 6. Neko Case, The Tigers Have Spoken (Anti)…
