Most of you know the South African brooders in Seether from “Broken,” a song from their debut album that they rerecorded for The Punisher soundtrack as a duet between Shaun Morgan and Evanescence singer Amy Lee. Please refrain from singing “When a Front Man Loves a Front Woman,” as Morgan…
As you’ve undoubtedly heard, now is a good time to be of Montreal — just ask such critically slurped bands as the Arcade Fire, Stars, and Broken Social Scene. It’s also a good time to be Of Montreal, the colorful Athens, Georgia, psych-pop band fronted by ever-clever songsmith Kevin Barnes,…
A cancellation by headliner Yellowcard has booted this Virginia Beach quintet to the top of the bill and brought in local luminaries Lydia for added entertainment value. Mae is an acronym for Multisensory Aesthetic Experience, a study of how our senses perceive information and decipher it for the other senses…
Wasn’t Josh Gracin that country-singing Marine from American Idol’s second season? How did that jarhead land himself a recording contract? Well, actually, it’s a lot easier to understand than you might think: While Simon, Randy, and the eternally narcotized Paula have never really understood the relevance of country music to…
In a previous incarnation, Robinella and her husband, multi-instrumentalist and arranger Cruz Contreras, cut Robinella & the CC Band, an album that blended the swing of Bob Wills and Duke Ellington, with a side of Bill Monroe. Solace is less eclectic and more focused, living up to its name with…
1. Yellowcard, Lights and Sounds (Capitol) 2. Cat Power, The Greatest (Matador Records) 3. The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth (RCA) 4. Panic! At the Disco, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (Decaydance) 5. Rocky Votolato, Makers (Barsuk) 6. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love…
Saturday night is overrated. More often than not, I find myself having the most fun on a school night. After all these years, there’s still a naughty thrill to going out in the middle of the week. Maybe it’s because there are lower expectations and people loosen up. Maybe folks…
Like the Flaming Lips tripping with the Butthole Surfers and listening to Nick Drake albums, this Brooklyn quartet makes quirky, folk-inflected art rock, similar in mood to that of Devendra Banhart, who also got his start on Michael (The Swans, Angels of Light) Gira’s Young God Records. While many songs…
They’re cute, they’re Canadian, they may or may not be sisters, and if you can get their track “Walking With a Ghost” out of your head, you are stronger than we are. After being discovered by Neil Young and releasing one record that sank like a rock, the ladies abandoned…
To be a musician and hail from New Orleans this year is to have the world’s ear — up to a point. That very same world would probably demand that your group have some kind of universally recognizable blues or R&B packed away in its rowboat and expect that you…
Fans of singer-songwriter Rob Dickinson’s old band The Catherine Wheel should not expect to hear the same spacy, silvery guitars and feedback-filled solos on Dickinson’s new album, Fresh Wine for the Horses. Nor should they expect any visceral ditties like TCW’s “Happy Days” — with its angst-ridden line “Eat my…
The band’s moniker is a reference to the jacket of an old hardback book, and front man Conan Zimmerman is an avid reader of literary legends like Salinger, Hemingway, and Chekhov. It’s no surprise, then, that Dust Jacket’s poetic lyrics stand out like Bob Dylan next to that first, infamous…
Of all the artists that the fan-approved, critically underrated Rhymesayers label has discovered in recent years, Stefon Leron “P.O.S.” Alexander may be the most intriguing. A black punk rocker from Minneapolis, P.O.S. (which stands for “Product of Society,” “Pissed Off Stef,” and many other acronyms) blends together hard rock and…
“Last year’s AZ show was so fucking epic that folks are traveling from far and wide to be there this year!” testifies “eastcoastpete” on Avail’s MySpace page. That includes the hardcore punk icons themselves, who are flying in from their Richmond, Virginia, headquarters on Friday night, playing this special one-off…
Music cognoscenti everywhere will probably agree that 2005 was the year of “New American Weird.” From Sufjan Stevens to Iron & Wine, nu-Americana, folktronica or whatever you call it is fast becoming the new American sound, at least among the mop-top and Puma set. Tempe-based Skybox’s new release, Arco Iris,…
As an underground hip-hop group from Portland, Oregon, Lightheaded wouldn’t be expected to rap about pimping bitches, but this trio’s subject matter is noticeably clean-cut. Wrong Way, its second album and first since 2001’s Pure Thoughts, features songs about trying to be a better husband (“Eye to Eye”), testimonials about…
Ordinarily we wouldn’t encourage anyone to patronize a fraternity-sponsored event, but since all y’all collegiate would-be intellectuals are back clocking hours with the professors, you probably need a chance to cut loose while the semester’s still fresh. The local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha — the first intercollegiate African-American fraternity,…
With a title like The Greatest and a hot pink album cover featuring boxing glove bling, Chan Marshall (otherwise known as Cat Power) seems to be making an effort to separate herself from her established image with this latest release. Marshall, notorious for her insecurities and fumbling onstage persona, began…
A prime example of a drunken idea that turned out to be a good one, Head Wound City is a noise-rock supergroup of sorts, featuring two members each from hypercore outfits The Locust and Blood Brothers, plus guitarist Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Recorded in a week, this…
Don’t let the band’s name, the band members’ eyeglasses, or the kittens they’re brandishing on the album cover fool you. The dudes in We Are Scientists look every bit as awkward as beloved femme-punk trio Le Tigre, but thankfully pocket protectors often conceal the hearts of lions. The California trio’s…
Meanwhile, in a back room somewhere in northern New Jersey . . . “Do you know why I’ve gathered you here for this important meeting?” “No, Boss,” replied the eight members of the E Street Band in unison. “Have you heard the new Marah album?” Springsteen hissed through clenched teeth…
Fans of music heavier than the cast of Celebrity Fit Club 3 have had much to rejoice about over the past couple of years, what with so many powerful, innovative sounds coming out of the art-metal underground (as so nicely documented in a recent New York Times piece), plus the…
