On the beginning of “Hey Y’all” — a track from Approach’s Ultra Proteus full-length, a buffed-up version of his 2002 debut EP — the Kansas City MC makes his intentions clear: “It’s time to do Grandma’s funky popcorn.” While the indie rapper may name-check such rap luminaries as A Tribe…
The Psychedelic Furs have pretty much been a mainstay in alternative rock since the late 1970s, save for a few blips on the radar for lead singer Richard Butler’s solo work and his side project, Love Spit Love. Even though they are not pushing a new album or material, the…
Top 10 selling CDs at Hoodlums (ASU Memorial Union Building in Tempe) for the week of August 2 through 8: 1. The Roots, The Tipping Point (Geffen) 2. Jadakiss, Kiss of Death (Ruff Ryders) 3. Ashlee Simpson, Autobiography (Geffen) 4. The Cure, The Cure (Geffen) 5. Damien Rice, The B-Sides…
With their saccharine-sweet hit “Love Fool,” Swedish pop band the Cardigans were poised to rise above the mid-’90s glut of female-fronted bands like Republica, Chumbawamba, Sneaker Pimps, and Garbage. But although they found success, selling more than 10 million albums worldwide, they suffered from the curse of the one-hit wonder…
You don’t hear many kids saying they want to be in an adult alternative band when they grow up — and no wonder. Unlike punk, ska, metal, industrial and prog rock, adult alternative is perhaps the only genre based not on rebellion but rather redistribution and revision. It’s where people…
Kudos to the members of this Brooklyn hardcore-jazz-tech-metal-hip-hop-spazz-out hybrid for coming back for more after a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler. The aftermath of the crash, which caused critical injuries for some of the band members, is documented on the album cover with photos of the band’s demolished van. It…
This is the Velvets’ last stand, captured on a portable cassette recorder on August 23, 1970, shortly before Lou Reed left the band. Containing an extra hour of performances, the release of the expanded version gave us a chance to speak to guitarist Doug Yule, who still plays music but…
With Soulfly — the band he’s been fronting since a less-than-pleasant split with metal giants Sepultura eight years ago — Max Cavalera has been on a mission to both delight and challenge his longtime followers. While there’s no lack of hardcore bark and guitar growl on the band’s latest album,…
One day back in 1969, Winston Rodney was walking through the hills of St. Ann’s, Jamaica, when he ran into Bob Marley, who was on his way to his farm with a donkey, some buckets, and some plants. Rodney told Marley he wanted to get involved in the music business,…
It’s rare to find a band that convincingly blurs the line between smart and smart-ass without seeming uptight, but Fleshies pull it off with the simplicity of putting a match to a stick of dynamite. These lo-fi hellions blast the kind of loud, relentless guitar fury that reminds us that…
Veteran producer and beatmaker BT (a.k.a. Brian Transeau) won’t be manning the turntables for his upcoming performance at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe on Tuesday, August 17. Instead, for the first time in four years, he will be appearing with a full band to perform the ethereal soundscapes that have…
Assembled from a stockpile of 150 cassettes that turned up, inexplicably, at a public library in California, Khmer Folk & Pop is a riveting example of cultural cross-pollination. It’s also a fitting first stop for anyone still frightened off by the frou-frou “World Music” genre tag: The most interesting thing…
From all accounts, Denver-based screamo/hardcore foursome Planes Mistaken for Stars flat-out leveled stages on the recent politically charged Plea for Peace tour, stealing the thunder from headliners Cursive with jackknifing Mack truck riffs and gone-haywire howls. And their dirtbag, anti-emo pretty-boy looks (they’ve been referred to as “an entire group…
Dinah Cancer wants you to know that she is not goth. Goth connotes mopery, and as a wicked woman of the night, Cancer does not mope — she prowls. “I do carry a fondness for dead things,” Cancer writes on her Web site. “I’d always worn and had a very…
What’s Selling Top 10 sellers at Eastside Records, 217 West University Drive in Tempe, for July 21 through 29: 1. The Locust, I Don’t Feel a Thing! EP (bootleg) 2. The Dillinger Escape Plan, Miss Machine (Relapse) 3. The Hives, Tyrannosaurus Hives (Interscope) 4. Dwarves, Salt Lake City EP (Sympathy…
If you’re going to the Phoenix school of punk rock, what better teacher to have than Jeff Dahl? Local trio Labor Party thanks the former Angry Samoan for his “support and expertise” in the liner notes of its new CD, Graffiti and Glass, a raucous nod to the psychedelic pre-punk…
Scary? Not especially. But the remixed, remastered and rereleased six-song disc from Scary Kids (who get their name from an obscure mid-’90s song by math-rock progenitors Cap’n Jazz) definitely has some punch to it. Scary Kids’ three-guitar assault, combined with a sprinkling of synths, is melodically pummeling, yet the songs…
The first Muffs LP in five years is like a quick sugar rush that doesn’t stick with you for long. Some of the band’s power-pop songs are catchy, but taken as a whole, the record lacks staying power. Kim Shattuck’s vocal inflections vary from a pouting little girl to a…
As a touring member of R.E.M., a late-era member of Big Star and a co-leader (with his friend Jon Auer) of the defunct Seattle power-pop band the Posies, singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Ken Stringfellow’s got nothing to prove in the capable-of-crafting-a-catchy-hook department. So on Soft Commands, his third solo album, he doesn’t really…
Eddie slowly walked into the room and lifted his tired eyes toward his two anxious bandmates. “He said, `I’m finally getting my solo career going, and Van Halen doesn’t fit into my plans.’ And then he hung up on me,” the guitarist whispered. “Oh God! Game over!” Michael sobbed, lunging…
Belfast’s Stiff Little Fingers are a legendary band, a punk classic despite the oxymoron. Their mixture of politics and smart songwriting brought them critical acclaim, but fast-forwarding 25 years and a couple of reunion tours and records later, the band is in the same category as the Buzzcocks: playing new…
Stan Ridgway was there when the doors opened, and he never left the building. In the late 1970s, when L.A. punk was kicking off and Black Flag, X, and Darby Crash were climbing out of the primordial muck, still covered in La Brea tar, Ridgway was establishing his mutant view…
