In the opening track of What the Toll Tells, Adam Stephens of San Francisco’s Two Gallants plays the role of a murderer facing the gallows, yowling like a tortured young Black Francis over country-punk guitars while keeping counsel with the dead. He’s shot his wife and dumped her body in…
Alfred Weisberg-Roberts, a.k.a. Daedelus, looks like a man from another time. He adheres to a style he calls “Victorian dandyism,” and sometimes he wears clothes that make him look like an 19th-century British gentleman. He grows his sideburns thick and long to accentuate his appearance. He calls himself a romantic…
“Wicked!” Richard Winn exclaims as he stands on Seattle Center’s Broad Street Lawn during Bumbershoot, expressing appreciation for the French band Nouvelle Vague. “That’s weird — I got goose bumps on that one.” He pulls up the sleeve of his blue sweat jacket to prove it. The bubbly 42-year-old British…
Woe betide the child who springs singing from the loins of a rock star. Sure, it might be nice to have Drew Barrymore and R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe for godparents, like Frances Bean Cobain. Or to have received your first guitar from KISS’ Gene Simmons, like Cher and Gregg Allman’s son…
Should a plumber receive a royalty check every time a toilet he’s installed is flushed? It’s an interesting question, posed by Led Zeppelin biographer Alan Clayson as he mounts a defense of what others have characterized as outright theft in the Led Zeppelin: The Origin of the Species DVD (released…
“This ain’t no history lesson,” snarls the opening line to the liner notes of Rockin’ Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly (Rhino/Wea), an excellent four-CD boxed set. “It’s about attitude! This is where punk rock began!” To me, the first and last of those bold declarations are exactly wrong. Rockin’ Bones…
Spend one of your Sunday nights, as I did recently, at the Yucca Tap Room in Tempe, and you’re likely to see what will at first seem like an anomaly — a pretty, diminutive, 30-year-old woman named Dana Armstrong sitting behind two turntables playing classic country songs from the ’60s…
Karen O, the focal point of any Yeah Yeah Yeahs show, works the stage like Iggy Pop in fishnets, a force of unnatural nature overdoing every gesture, every post-“Rock Lobster” vocal tic, until you’d have to be a fool to turn away. She’s part train wreck as performance art, part…
Shane MacGowan’s continued existence on the planet is nothing short of a miracle that would test the resolve of even the most determined atheist. I’ve personally witnessed the notorious Pogues front man — who’ll turn 49 on Christmas Day — ingest an incomprehensible amount of booze and illicit substances, then…
Six years ago, Jonny Lang faced a crossroads in his music career and personal life. Too much underage drinking, cigarette smoking and drugs, plus an obsession with witchcraft, threatened to ruin his career and create havoc in his personal life. A revelation gave rise to his current sobriety and new…
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…
