Alkaline Trio has had a revolving door for band members since its inception in 1997. Yet somehow the three-piece emo band sounds consistent. With pop-driven music and lyrics depicting the agony and self-deprecation of breaking up and being rejected, the Chicago band has captured the broken hearts of emo kids…
Nearly a decade ago, exceptionally talented skins man Jimmy Chamberlin was the black sheep of the Smashing Pumpkins family, finally getting drummed out of the group (and publicly shamed by his bandmates) after a particularly egregious 1996 run with Racehorse Charlie that resulted in the overdose death of Pumpkins touring…
If you were born and christened “Michael Jackson,” you might be thinking about changing your name nowadays — perhaps to something like a disclaimer such as “Oh No.” That’s exactly what Oh No, the triple threat MC/producer/DJ brother of Madlib (Otis Jackson Jr.) did a while ago. Oh No’s swiftly…
Even if the name looks unfamiliar, chances are you remember Seu Jorge singing David Bowie covers in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou or playing nice guy turned rebel Knockout Ned in City of God. That last movie proved a summation of his life, being reared in Brazil’s favelas. Today…
Australian native Xavier Rudd is a musical madman; the ambidextrous multi-instrumentalist is proficient at guitar, percussion and didgeridoo, interlacing them into a sharp, dynamic echo of today’s funky folksters. Most interesting is that he plays them simultaneously. Solace is one man’s journey into sonic solitude and an aural testament to…
Calling John Hiatt a songwriter’s songwriter makes it sound like people don’t like him. People do — they’re just not as demonstrative as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen, all of whom have paid the ultimate compliment by covering a John Hiatt song…
“The voices of hardcore and metal will be heard,” warns the Living Dead-themed official Web site of this tour. And while things won’t go quite as long as dawn, the show will get under way at the ungodly hour of 11 a.m., when most of us are zombies even with…
1. Gorillaz, Demon Days (Virgin) 2. Coldplay, X&Y (Capitol) 3. Black Eyed Peas, Monkey Business (A&M) 4. Foo Fighters, In Your Honor (RCA) 5. Various Artists, Look At All the Love We Found: A Tribute to Sublime (Cornerstone) 6. System of a Down, Mezmerize (Sony) 7. Dredg, Catch Without Arms…
There’s plenty of musical experimentation going around, thanks to the mounting trend of laptop recording, but when was the last time you actually heard something new, as in an identifiable flavor you’d never tasted? Well, here it is: The guitar/drums/upright-bass trio Asmodeus plays a precise combination of rockabilly and metal…
Well-scrubbed and enunciating clearly, the master entertainers in the Clumsy Lovers offer few concessions to the affected tastes of our time. Even the hook of authenticity, so fruitfully proffered by most bands with rootsy-folksy tendencies, is traded for Nashville-caliber professionalism by this Vancouver quintet. Armed with such uncool moves, the…
While shrieking, hanging-from-the-rafters front man Ian Svenonius and groovy bassist/chanteuse Michelle Mae led the Vespa-riding, white-belted indie kids in a gospel yeah-yeah revolution with The Make-Up during the late ’90s, their latest act, Weird War, has evolved — or is it devolved? — into a purveyor of glorious psych sleaze…
Scout Niblett is the nom de indie rock of one Emma Louise Niblett, a native of Nottingham, England (though currently residing in Oakland, California), whose raw, ranging, unhinged blues moans and wails place her in the same ballpark as fellow Brit Polly Jean Harvey, circa Rid of Me. Like ol’…
The Knitters — X members John Doe, Exene Cervenka and D.J. Bonebrake, augmented by then-Blaster Dave Alvin and current Red Devil Johnny Ray Bartel — recorded Poor Little Critter on the Road in 1985. The album consisted of the country and folk songs that inspired the music of X as…
Perhaps the only thing more self-indulgent than issuing a double album is planning a surprise party for yourself and then feigning astonishment when your guests emerge. Many such releases have been ostentatious excursions of masturbatory significance, while others (Bitches Brew, London Calling, Sign of the Times, Life After Death) have…
When Stephen Marley soulfully croons “Let me out, let me out, I’m an angry lion” during “Iron Bars,” strains of Nesta sparkle in the indifferent rage. Indifference, for the Marley family, does not imply a lack of compassion. It’s their laid-back assessment of social and spiritual topics that made reggae’s…
Blessed with exquisite musical taste and an enviably large record collection, Four Tet (a.k.a. British producer Kieran Hebden) has maximized those assets over four increasingly accomplished albums since 1999’s Dialogue, while incidentally becoming the foremost proponent of “folktronica.” Four Tet’s mastery of the laptop and sampler culminates on Everything Ecstatic,…
Governor Janet Napolitano put a quick end to the bill that would have allowed you to take your guns into bars around the state, but that’s not stopping Niños Con Pistolas (Children With Guns) from setting up shop at the Old Brickhouse Grill (1 East Jackson Street) on Saturday, July…
Two of the most promising bands in the local metal scene are performing together this weekend. Autumn’s End keeps it dark and heavy, and pretty much exemplifies Arizona metal: shredding guitars and growling guys in black cowboy hats. The band was formed by vocalist and guitarist Chris Cannella, former N17…
The Lawrence Arms are three Midwestern guys who know how to party. These Chicago punk rockers keep with the old-school style of short songs played fast, and on Cocktails & Dreams, vocalist and bassist Brendan Kelly (formerly of the Broadways) preaches the joys of a good night at the bar…
So often have the similarities between punk rock and country/folk been stated that acoustic guitars have become nearly as colloquial as reggae in the language of punk. But this dozen-song set by Florida hardcore veterans Rumbleseat is exceptional for its palpable melancholy and consistent quality. Broad and ringing, the dual…
What’s a suicidally named band to do but make undeniably good records? In the tradition of every quirky crew that’s as beloved by its audience for shooting itself in the foot as for its creative heights, Florida’s Grabass Charlestons have risen to the extraordinary occasion made necessary by their own…
1. Mike Jones, Who Is Mike Jones? (Warner) 2. Ying Yang Twins, United State of Atlanta (TVT) 3. Mariah Carey, Emancipation of Mimi (Universal) 4. Common, Be (Universal) 5. System of a Down, Mezmerize (Sony) 6. Cassidy, I’m a Hustla (BMG) 7. Pretty Ricky, Bluestars (Atlantic) 8. 50 Cent, The…
