This diverting five-song EP inaugurates ex-Libertine Pete Doherty’s new contract with the only American label brave enough to sign a world-renowned junkie hell-bent on seeing how far the English judicial system can be pushed before it throws him in the clink. (Recently, Doherty was fined 770 pounds and ordered not…
Wanda Jackson dated Elvis Presley in the ’50s, and even if she may not have slept with him (“There were things you could and couldn’t do, and my daddy made sure I never crossed that line,” Jackson’s said of the period), just having shared a milk shake with Elvis is…
So you say you’ve been holding your breath in the hopes that some young band would put out a record that sounds even more like the great lost Duran Duran album than The Killers’ Hot Fuss? Well, in that case, you should breathe and check out Popularity, Jonezetta’s hook-filled Tooth…
When Kevin Barnes started Of Montreal in the mid-1990s, he was a bit late to the Athens, GA, scene’s retro pop-rock party. At that time, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Olivia Tremor Control ruled the roost of the ripening Elephant 6 Collective, beguiling indie-rock audiences and tastemakers by…
Blessed with an uncommon power to transform a sort of jovial brotherhood into eclectic, rootsy rock songs, Marah has always attracted fans with the prowess of its live performances, aiming not to replicate its albums onstage but rather to infuse its albums with the vigor of its stage show. The…
L.A.’s Moving Units worship at the altar of Robert Smith, injecting their very of-the-moment dance rock with a fat dose of post-punk. Like comrades in arms Interpol, The Faint, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Moving Units will get your skinny ass shaking with disco-chic ditties about dance clubs, drama, and…
If you were hankering for many happy returns in 2007, looks like you’re gonna get your wish, bub. Namely, the dope drum ‘n’ bass DJs of Essential Wednesdays, who were dumped from their longtime weekly gig at Sky Lounge late last year, are making a comeback with Liquid Heat on…
1. Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (Geffen) 2. Various Artists, Dreamgirls: Music From the Motion Picture (Col/Urban Soundtrax) 3. Young Jeezy, The Inspiration (Def Jam) 4. Akon, Konvicted (Umvd) 5. Beyonc, B’day (Sony) 6. Omarion, 21 (Sony) 7. Nas, Hip-Hop Is Dead (Def Jam) 8. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive)…
After two holiday weekends in a row and the final shake-off of family obligations (phew!), we wanted nothing more than to return to normal life and normal drinking habits. This week, Club Candids skipped on anything super sizzling and flopped into homey Scottsdale punk bar TT Roadhouse on Saturday, January…
On a recent cold and rainy Thursday night, my girlfriend CooKie and I plan to hit a hot hip-hop weekly — but not the one most people think of, which is “The Blunt Club” at Hollywood Alley in Mesa. With a crew like Emerg McVay, Pickster One, and Brad B,…
Any band that calls its members “Vagina Rock Warriors” and takes its name from a pseudonym for a slutty friend must be on a sublime mission to spread its, uh, music to the menstruating masses. But the music made by the three ladies of Juicy Newt — vocalist/guitarist Annamarie Sanchez,…
Diddy has yet to bastardize a classic rock riff from Bob Seger, which is great because I don’t care to hear Diddy’s rap tribute to James Brown slapped down over “Night Moves.” The Seger songbook is just too underrated for that kind of modern-day MTV molestation. Indeed, it seems that…
Like Public Enemy and the Wu-Tang Clan, the five pioneering group members in N.W.A were a revolutionary bunch that changed music with unabated street rhymes composed within the framework of gangster rap. However, no rappers were oppressed like Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Yella, and the late Eazy-E —…
After six or so years on Jade Tree Records, the Richmond, Virginia, melodic hardcore quintet Strike Anywhere — which formed in 1999 from the ashes of Inquisition — jumped ship to Fat Wreck Chords for 2006’s Dead FM, their third full-length. Makes sense, really, as SA’s primary influences (Avail, Sick…
Who invited you? The Donnas may not think you’re cool enough to get into their pajama party, but the five females in Austin-based band The Applicators will not only let you into their pop-punk bash, they’ll probably shove a beer bong down your throat to boot. With songs that sound…
Albert Hammond Jr. is The Strokes’ Ron Wood, or maybe its Izzy Stradlin, or . . . y’know, the guy who’s content to bash out a few chords and look cool while leaving the bulk of the flashy soloing and histrionics to someone else, but who’s usually the band’s secret…
Some things are just awesome together: chocolate and peanut butter, Britney Spears and drunken rampages, trance music and belly dancing. Local DJ collective Overmind Works serves up the latter in spades at its monthly laid-back dance spectacular Aura, which goes down at belly dancing joint the Mystic Jewell Studio, 524…
Live From the MTC, the debut release on Phoenix-based DIY label onewordlong, isn’t exactly music because the conceptual art piece doesn’t abide by any familiar formula. Project founder JRC, co-owner of the Trunk Space art gallery and performance venue, recruited four local artists/musicians (Archbishop Jason Polland, The Coitus, Zach Burba,…
“Dude, I got the awesomest idea for our rave on Saturday, January 6!” “What?” “We should call it Yoshi’s Island.” “Don’tcha think that’s kinda ghey?” “Naw, everyone played Super Mario Bros. back in the day and will dig it. We can call our drum ‘n’ bass stage ‘Bowser’s Dungeon’ and…
When Sgt. Pepper first came out, one reviewer called it “George Martin’s finest hour.” He’s had several cracks at cheapening that high-water mark, from producing the disastrous Sgt. Pepper movie soundtrack to the George Martin: In My Life album on which he gave everyone from Sean Connery to Goldie Hawn…
Long before morphing into a three-headed disco machine, the Brothers Gibb recorded some of the weirdest head albums ever made. Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices ranked Bee Gees 1st among his all-time favorite albums. Imagine how many acid trips went awry with morbid advice like “Don’t go talking too…
It’s hard to say why anyone would think to cover Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats, a cover-heavy oddity whose appeal is based more on the spirit of friendship and drunken abandon producer John Lennon was able to capture on his way to passing out than on what he and his drinking…
