Call it the great inevitable. Alt-rock trends in the 21st century have, so far, stuck to a pretty tight schedule, reviving retro sounds right around the 20-year mark. So it makes perfect sense that the successor to all the recent post-punk and early-New Wave imitators would firmly plant us somewhere…
Whether you know what to expect or it’s your very first time, nothing can actually prepare you for South By Southwest. Battalions of bands take over Austin, Texas, and Shiner Bock flows like water. The whole music industry food chain — major and indie label reps, publicists, booking agents, and…
Although Matisyahu has been around for a few years, the novelty factor is still high on his third album. After all, can you name another Orthodox Jewish dancehall star? But those who can handle a bespectacled, bearded, yarmulke-clad performer breaking it down, island stylee, will find that Youth quickly turns…
In a music industry where the dreck rises to the top of the charts and the cream gets tagged as “cult,” it’s comforting to see Sparks persevere over the decades in spite of a mostly indifferent American audience. Fronted by the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, the Los Angeles group…
There used to be a time when you could actually mention Dilated Peoples and Black Eyed Peas in the same sentence, given that they both came up in the subterranean Los Angeles hip-hop scene in the late ’90s and once shared a similar funk-soul sampling, old-school scratching and beatmaking, Golden…
While many of us have likely uttered at some point, “If I hear one more goddamned whiny emo song I’m gonna kill myself,” suicide really is no laughing matter, especially when it comes to our nation’s kids — it remains the third leading cause of death for those between the…
Local beat manipulators DJ Delikacy and DJ Xtra-E, of Foreign Affair at the Hidden House, are hosting an underground hip-hop blowout at the Hidden House (607 W. Osborn Rd.) this Monday, March 27, in association with the west side collective Modurn Languaj Asosiashun (whose members rhyme much better than they…
It’s called Art Detour, but hey — music’s art, too, and the annual creative confab taking place this weekend is as much about sounds as it is about sights. These days, no chitchat about the downtown arts community is complete without major props for the music scene, which has noticeably…
No band in indie rock today has a more badass name than this Austin quintet’s. Say it with relish: I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness. Makes you just wanna break up with somebody, doesn’t it? The badassness doesn’t stop at their name, either, like with that other noisy five-piece…
The Project enjoys bringing it back to the blunt-tokin’ old school days of “Bitches Ain’t Shit” gangsta rap circa nine-deuce, but with a twist, fusing together seemingly disparate elements of modern creative jazz, avant-classical, and metal with a funkdafied energy that rolls right alongside West Coast party hip-hop. The rollicking…
It’s no surprise that a record called Destroyer’s Rubies (as opposed to, you know, just Rubies) is endlessly self-referential to Dan Bejar’s earlier works. As you read this, Bejar acolytes are furiously footnoting every mention of his old songs, albums and motifs, as if it would help divine meaning from…
An Angle’s Kris Anaya knows how to stick to a theme. The name of the latest disc by his “band” (a rotating lineup of pals and co-conspirators) is We Can Breathe Under Alcohol, and to make sure no one thinks the title was chosen at random, he kicks off “Green…
The cover of Kreator’s Live Kreation depicts a solemn ghoul playing the intestines of a bound, disemboweled victim with a bow. Album artwork doesn’t get much more aesthetically appropriate. Dating back more than two decades, this German quartet started out heavier than the burden on Atlas’ shoulders, and last year’s…
It’s been quite some time since the underground rave scene was thriving and everybody was out all night on the weekends, twisted up in cuddle puddles while bass thumps were rattling their spines. The days of PLUR — which we think stands for “Peace, Love, Understanding, Respect,” but then again…
Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche speaks (and sings) English as a second language, but that hasn’t stopped him from penning dozens of perfect pop gems. He’s been building an international buzz since his dazzling debut with Faces Down in 2002. Duper Sessions may be more acoustic, stripped down and retro than…
A favorite talking point of media scribes over the past year has been the supposed reconfiguration of the record industry as a result of the rise of MP3 blogs. The idea is that the snatch-and-grab mentality of these sites has nullified the physical record, lionizing immediacy and brevity and aiding…
Here’s one explanation for the lack of female-fronted power-pop bands through the years: While girls might appreciate the power, as well as the pop, they’re creeped out by the teenaged male geek emotional state — mainly obsession with and over-idealization of girls — that laces the chiming hooks together. If…
Back in the early days of Mogwai’s career, an album titled Mr. Beast would have matched the band’s category-five noise hurricanes perfectly. But as the Scotsmen refined their sound over the next decade, moments of levity and clarity — airy synths, strings, eerie silences — made the band’s emotional maelstroms…
It’s one thing to say that Band of Horses is influenced by Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips, and The Shins. But there isn’t a single sound on Everything All the Time, the Seattle group’s debut, that doesn’t come from one of these three influences. Still, it’s a pretty inspired…
Despite the way it sounds, “Japan’s greatest emo band” is not faint praise along the lines of, say, “Israel’s best Oi! band” or “Spain’s finest Celtic rockers,” though bands do exist to qualify for such plaudits. Remember, there isn’t a non-English-speaking nation on Earth where kids speak punk rock (of…
The hot-rod rock ‘n’ roll stalwarts at Gearhead Records have been indulging in two habits of late: snatching up Japanese bands (Gitogito Hustler, Electric Eel Shock) and laying down big air mattresses for aging stuntmen who may be taking their last leap (Wildhearts, Lords of Altamont). With the Brooklyn-based Spunks,…
Criteria waited until its second full-length to release a record on its hometown label, Saddle Creek, and it’s none too soon, as Saddle Creek needed a huge blast of rock music to complement its recent roster of softie releases. Criteria is the brainchild of Stephen Pederson, the original guitarist for…
