Tired of Not Being Away From Here has the same signature style as other Before Braille records — powerful rock with gut-wrenching lyrics — but with this latest effort, the Phoenix band has spread its wings a bit wider, building more harmonies and instruments (including a notable trumpet on “Well…
Beyond obvious nostalgia (and having the same first name), this pairing of classic rock veterans makes a certain amount of sense. Consider that both drink from the well of rich American musical styles: country, bluegrass, folk. Remember that both got undeservedly overshadowed by their higher-profile peers — Springsteen and Petty…
Pieced together by an all-star team of producers (RZA, Raekwon, Mark Ronson) and bolstered by guest vocalists like Missy Elliott, Macy Gray, and fellow Wu-Tang alumni Ghostface and Method Man, A Son Unique feels more like a posthumous tribute to the late Russell Jones than an actual ODB album. Even…
It takes some patient, ear-to-the-speaker listening before Jamie Lidell’s off-kilter, glitch-funk tendencies come to light on Multiply, but that sultry subtlety makes the album a repeat-play sleeper. Straight out of the box, Multiply bubbles with Stax/Volt soul, easy, husky and heartfelt, Lidell’s affable vocals colored a vibrant shade of Otis…
One stands, one sits! Both sing, rock and overextend themselves! It’s a simple winning concept that every minimalist duo without a bass player has employed to great personal gain, but few have excelled with greater zeal for multi-tasking and whimsy like James Karnes and Chris Pomerenke. Living on opposite ends…
The lifeblood of ska has always been struggle and adversity of some sort. Songs like Desmond Dekker’s “007 (Shanty Town)” and Dandy Livingstone’s “A Message to You Rudy” embody the hardships of unemployed Rude Boy youths of 1960s Jamaica turning to a life of crime to survive, while The Specials’…
Anyone silly enough to believe that music journalism is populated exclusively by deep thinkers will be quickly disabused of the notion after thumbing through the Jucifer clip file. Most articles about the combo mention that it sprang from the same Athens, Georgia, scene that produced R.E.M. — an act that…
Veda’s hometown of Kansas City was immediately sold on its early sound — a soaring, loose, emo-operatic, naked-soul-baring tidal wave fit for washing over today’s tragic versions of when Andrew McCarthy met Molly Ringwald. Most endearing of all was Kristen May’s trained voice, applied with tearful precision to the drifting,…
What Death Cab for Cutie does best on its major-label debut, Plans, is capture flashbulb moments of melancholy — the dissolution of a summer romance, growing apart from a lover, being dumped by an egotistical jerk — and analyze them with astounding honesty. Take the tear-inducing “What Sarah Said.” Solitary…
These Scots seem destined to be the U.K.’s odd men out, a fate that’s tragic but fitting. Unlike conquering heroes Coldplay, this quintet wears a disgruntled sense of defeat even in its most defiant moments, such as on 2000’s melodic, punkish 100 Broken Windows. Since Windows’ failure to break the…
If hip-hop is dead, somebody forgot to tell Little Brother. The North Carolina-based affiliates of the Justus League crew have gone from regional up-and-comers to nationally recognized stars, aided by the well-deserved critical acclaim for their ABB Records debut, The Listening, and producer 9th Wonder’s work on Jay-Z’s Black Album…
Besides the White Stripes, the Volebeats might be the best band the Motor City has to offer. Like the Jayhawks drenched in reverb, they make classic folk-rock that’s part Everly Brothers harmonies and part Byrdsian 12-string jangle. Firm believers in quality over quantity, the Volebeats have released only six proper…
Who needs freakin’ DJs anyway? Unless they’re scratching, beat juggling, or throwing down mash-ups, they’re just playing songs — you know what you wanna listen to better than they do, right? If you think so, and you’re bourgeois enough to own an iPod, bring it down to AZ 88 on…
1. Mt. Eerie, No Flashlight vinyl with CD (P.W. Elverum and Sun, Ltd.) 2. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty) 3. New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador) 4. Fruit Bats, Spelled in Bones (Sub Pop) 5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (self-released) 6. Holopaw, Quit +/Or Fight…
You just can’t hate Chris Martin. Oh, you can find him overrated and his tunes sappy, but aside from the occasional run-in with a photographer, Martin is that rare gentleman rock star with a modest mouth. He married a glamorous Oscar winner, he named his kid Apple, and yet the…
If you believe what he said on 60 Minutes not long ago, even Bob Dylan is in awe of the staggering leaps he took when he made a mountain of art from the molehill folk scene he transcended in the early ’60s. This change wasn’t a simple organic process of…
With a Hammer of the Gods voice and enough street cred to be the ghetto president, Slim Thug is the latest import from the scorching Houston underground. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that his major-label debut, the optimistically titled Already Platinum, is a collaborative effort with reigning pop kings the…
Everyone goes through a phase where they wish they’d lived in the ’60s. You know, the world roils outside, but in the bedroom, the record player is turned up to the latest thing — musical bliss. Well, guess what? We’ve got soldiers slogging through a dead-end war, and now we’ve…
The Glass Heroes proudly proclaim their allegiance to “unadulterated and undiluted punk,” and listening to their self-titled Malt Soda debut, it takes no guesswork to trace their influences straight back to the late ’70s. For one thing, they’ve completely nailed covers of two of the best songs from that era…
When music fans utter the phrase “gay metalhead,” it’s usually in derision of some aging, teased-hair ’80s throwback. But with Ben Aqua, the 23-year-old Austin, Texas, headbanger behind the one-man thrash/noise/metal act Assacre, it’s the literal truth. For most of the past two years, the openly homosexual guitarist has spewed…
In Memoriam: Destiny’s Child (1990-2005) The multi-platinum pop-R&B trio Destiny’s Child died of an unspecified illness at GM Place in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday, September 10, 2005, following a long farewell tour. Friends, family, and several thousand fans were on hand to say their final goodbyes to the trio, which…
C’mon, A.J., pick up the damn phone, Nick thought to himself. “Hello?” “A.J., it’s Nick, what’s up?” “Hey, Nick, how’s it goin’? Wait a sec, lemme mute the TV . . .” “Whatcha watchin’?” “Oh, just this thing on the History Channel about Hitler invading Russia and how he fucked…
