With a name cribbed from a mysterious Air Force base that houses UFOs, you would expect Hangar 18 (the latest group to emerge from underground hip-hop stalwarts Def Jux) to sound like your usual X-Files nerd rap, i.e., long on consonants and light on grooves. But while its jittery, effects-laden…
Scratching, mixing, beat-juggling, all the elements of hip-hop DJing — they’re all good, but sometimes you just wanna hear a song you can dance to straight through, the way you know it, the way you loved it in the first place. And especially if you’re a dance-music recidivist, you need…
Past a certain point in their careers, musicians tend to get more serious, putting away childish obsessions with pop culture in favor of creating something of more importance (or self-importance), sometimes with mixed results. The career of Mike Park, former vocalist/saxophonist for the ’90s third-wave ska supergroup Skankin’ Pickle, certainly…
Carson Daly prefaced Citizen Cope’s network TV debut with some blubbering comparisons to Bob Dylan and John Lennon, which Cope obliterated by performing a first-rate single (“Bullet and a Target”) that sounded like neither. Clearly the new Dylan/Lennon analogy has more to do with the engineer’s cap Cope sports on…
If any indie band could be reconstituted with a properly calibrated mix of the mood, pop and rock quarks, Early Day Miners would require practically a whole shaker of mood, seasoned with a sprinkle of pop and but a dash of rock. Like the paintings of Winslow Homer, their watercolor…
Call me cynical, but when someone approaches me and offers up a review copy of a CD unavailable in stores, the first thing I think is, “How many different ways is this going to suck?” However, I’d just seen Chopper, L.S. perform “one for the ladies” titled “Baby What Up?”…
The roster reads like a list of things you wouldn’t want to relate to: Heroes Dead and Gone, Obskurity, Coercion, Lifeless Embrace, Kill the Last Hour, And the Hero Fails, Learn to Suffer, Men Shall Fall, Fate to Fall, and Desolate Demise. But really, death comes sooner or later, so…
Laurie Anderson worked for the Olympic organization in Athens, was NASA’s artist-in-residence for a time, and has been finding some satori taking long walks down archaic roads in Greece, Sri Lanka and England. Add on the fact that Anderson lives only a handful of blocks from the scar of 9/11,…
There’s something about an emo band that talks shit about emo — the genre dedicated to self-deprecation — that seems overly appropriate. The Letter Kills are that band. The Southern California five-piece is highly vocal about its disapproval of the notion that being classified as emo makes one popular. Sure,…
Let’s eliminate any potential confusion right off the top: The Explosion is not the Blues Explosion. Besides, the Explosion couldn’t be more different from Jon Spencer’s garage-rock project. This Boston five-piece digs into punk rock the way it was done in Berkeley’s Gilman Street club, D.C.’s F Street club, and…
1. Apathy, Where’s Your Album?!! (Demigodz Entertainment) 2. Atmosphere, Headshots: Se7en (Rhymesayers) 3. MacGuyver vs. Rainbow Revenge 7″ (iXodes/Drachenwerkstatt04) 4. Pig Destroyer, Terrifyer (Relapse) 5. Handsome Boy Modeling School, White People (Elektra) 6. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Ruin Jonny’s Bar Mitzvah (Live) (Fat Wreck Chords) 7. Against Me!,…
New York-born DJ Kid Capri is one of the most recognized names in hip-hop turntablism, having been scratching since the tender age of 8. With a résumé that includes tours with P. Diddy, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, Usher, and Aaliyah, a stint as the live DJ on Russell Simmons’ Def…
Talented as he is, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy has never particularly struck me as “fun.” Same goes for R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, unless he’s (allegedly) throwing yogurt around an airplane cabin. But Minus 5 singer/commandant Scott McCaughey, he of Young Fresh Fellows, Tuatara, and late-period R.E.M. fame? Now that dude oozes…
It would be easy to name off the big hip-hop hitters who participated in the production of Pokafase’s self-titled debut album for Artist Direct Records (including Warren G. and Kokane from the Doggystyle All-Stars) and let hype build from there. But the truth is, what makes Poka’s CD so good…
Good band names can be hard to come by. Budding groups have to conjure up something catchy and unique that nails their sound exactly. For instance, there’s San Diego-based indie Tristeza, whose moniker sticks in your brainpan but also describes the emotional makeup behind a bulk of its songs (the…
Zao is a powerhouse of the metalcore scene, following the example of genre icons Earth Crisis, forging a hardcore/metal act unafraid of dabbling in other genres, and becoming known for passionate performances. But where Earth Crisis’ sociopolitical stance is decidedly secular, Zao is faith-based, working the Christian music and Cornerstone…
Black Flag was once accused of being neo-Nazis, and so were the Ramones. But when NYC hardcore pioneers Agnostic Front came along, maybe the alarm-ringers couldn’t be blamed for perceiving racism in the lefty world of punk. After all, the cover of 1984’s Victim in Pain is an archival photo…
Nowheresvilles have always produced more than their fair share of good bands. The alchemy that breeds inspiration from frustration works overtime when the only place open late is Circle K. But while most bands wish themselves out of the dust of their home turf, Throw Rag frolics in it. On…
Recently back from a six-month tour, brothers Mike and Jared Bell of the Lymbyc Systym display their intense musical relationship via jaw-dropping keyboard and percussion performances. Their sound blends electric jazz with elements of electronica and indie rock, and winds up being unique with strong beats and impressive grooves. The…
Many local bands rush to put out a CD as soon as they have enough material. Not Sistrum. The band’s debut CD, Ashes & Whispers, has been nine years in the making. Biding its time through several lineup changes and budget constraints, Sistrum continued to develop songs and tighten the…
The flyaway pages of the calendar bring us to 2005, midway point where some exciting new music has got to emerge to atone for this decade’s stagnant first half. You can take heart that the appearance of Kongos on our local scene is a sign of things finally getting interesting…
Even the briefest essay about Rosanne Cash requires a list of her reckonable accomplishments: the 11 number one singles, the Grammy award, and always, always her royal musical lineage. But if being Johnny Cash’s daughter got her foot in Music City’s door, and while all those hits kept her on…
