Back in the ’90s, when I was a young adult, I desperately wanted to start a small record label. It was the age of awesome and inspirational labels like Kill Rock Stars, the heyday of indie stalwarts like Dischord and Lookout, and a time when you could watch a small…
Author Chuck Bukowski probably never imagined Hot Water Music, the title of a collection of his short stories, would become synonymous with the post-hardcore scene. But so it is, thanks to Hot Water Music, the Gainesville, Florida, proto-punk quartet that took its name from Buk’s tome and spent the past…
When it comes to rock ‘n’ roll theatrics, Rob Zombie may not have drawn up the blueprint, but he’s definitely remodeled his own house of horrors, from directing instant cult classic horror movies like House of 1000 Corpses to his catalogue of ghoulish industrial metal albums (the latest being this…
Hippies, though admirable and well-intentioned, often compensate for their excellent politics with profoundly lousy art. Which is a real bummer, as our current political situation is profoundly lousy — as you might have heard, we’re living through one epic backlash against the ’60s and liberal democracy and yadda yadda. Meanwhile,…
Skin shows aren’t usually on my agenda for quiet Thursday nights, so I’m a bit startled to find myself watching a band with the drummer banging away wearing only a pair of peach-colored jockey shorts from American Apparel on a recent Thursday. Needless to say, my dollars are staying in…
Christina Aguilera’s new double disc, Back to Basics (RCA), is a sonic nod to the music of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. But a closer look reveals how the album also draws inspiration from classic double albums of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Blonde on Blonde (1966) On Back to…
You’ll find no hit singles as big as “Psychotic Reaction” or “96 Tears” in The Knights of Fuzz: The Garage & Psychedelic Music Explosion, 1980 to Now DVD (Dionysus), historian Timothy Gassen’s fanboy’s-eye view of the post-Nuggets wave of garage bands Little Steven’s always going on about. But it’s certainly…
How many boxed sets are really worth $65? A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box (to be released Tuesday, September 19, by Rhino Records) is — this package is like the Nuggets of the goth rock world. There are three CDs, a DVD containing a dozen videos, and a book…
The more things change, the more they stay the same. And so it goes — at least musically — with Akron, Ohio, residents Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney, a.k.a. The Black Keys. In 2002, the youthful duo released The Big Come Up, a self-produced, basement-recorded debut that featured fuzzed-out, fatback…
When asked why it’s taken old-school hardcore/punk band Bring Your Own Weapon, which has been around since 2002, so damn long to finally release a full-length CD, drummer Brett Sandy says “sheer laziness.” “Procrastination,” bass player R. Michael C. concurs. Whatever the cause, I’m rejoicing that this group of veterans…
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that The Rolling Stones were ever young, but the DVD Under Review 1962-1966 (released August 8 by MVD Visual) offers photographic evidence that the rockers haven’t always looked quite so creepy. This 90-minute documentary chronicles the artistic development of The Rolling Stones during their first…
Here’s the concept behind the Burn to Shine DVD series, the latest installment of which (Burn to Shine 03: Portland, OR) was released August 22 by Trixie DVD: One city hosts a sunup-to-sundown procession of local bands performing one song each within a house that at day’s end will be…
While most bands are looking for sponsors like Fender and Gibson, Boston-based band Constants would prefer support from somebody like Wesson or Mazola vegetable oil. In March, the psychedelic indie prog-rock band kicked off a nine-month U.S. tour in a 66-passenger school bus that’s been modified to run on organic…
Tool grants very few interviews, never appears in its own videos, has a singer who often performs in the shadows onstage, and releases albums full of complex, epic songs that fans scour for secret codes and meanings that the band neither denies nor confirms. The rare occasions that front man…
It’s not exactly like unraveling there’s no Santa Claus, but it’s not unlike it, either. When a friend tells you about a three-day festival of stoner rock and doom metal and mentions that the organizer is a guy by the name of Ancient Rob, your thoughts naturally gravitate toward the…
Don’t even mention the words “dead horse” to Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke — he gets pissed. Making it perfectly clear that the current incarnation of the iconic Southern rock band that brought us “Free Bird” is no knockoff, Medlocke vehemently issues a challenge to any naysayers. “For anyone who…
Considering the haunted after-hours vibe he kept returning to on last year’s critically acclaimed Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet, it may seem strange to find John Doe reissuing the far more raucous For the Rest of Us, a little-heard EP from 1998, as For the Best of Us, its outtakes only…
Corey Parks is like a bad-ass biker broad wielding a fierce four-string. The trashy, inked-up bassist has always struck an intimidating figure onstage, whether she was stomping around in shredded fishnets and cowboy boots in Die Hunns next to punk pariah husband Duane Peters (U.S. Bombs) or literally spewing fire…
Phoenix is a tough town for bands — the city doesn’t have a sound of its own (please don’t count Gin Blossoms-style jangle rock), and you can count on one hand the number of bands that have made it outside of our desert metropolis. That wasn’t always the case, though…
Malibu “psych-folk-rock” band Simon Dawes and math-rock mavens Don Caballero might be on to something: Give your band a solo-sounding name, play full-bodied songs, and watch people scratch their heads trying to figure out who you’re named after. (We’ll give ’em both away: Don Caballero takes its name from a…
Do hairstyles influence musical styles? They do if you’re Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, whose various ‘dos (and don’ts, in the case of her late ’80s mullet) mirror her musical phases. Year of the Spiky Red Mullet (1988): Like the mullet, Etheridge’s music was often found in divey bars with…
If you asked Black Label Society guitarist/singer Zakk Wylde if he were a beer, what kind would he be, he’d probably heroically spout out the names of some hearty stout or high-octane Indian Pale Ale. Sadly, as evidenced on Black Label Society: The European Invasion — Doom Troopin’ Live, a…
