When it comes to rap legends, few rhymers are more legendary than Tupac Shakur, but no one is more exploited. Controversial and often contradictory while alive, he has become universally loved since his still-unsolved murder in 1996, even by those who used to hate him. Stars from Ja Rule to…
As Curtis Armstrong’s Miles tells Tom Cruise’s Joel in the 1983 smash-hit comedy Risky Business, sometimes you just gotta say, “What the fuck.” In Joel’s case, this phrase is employed with a shrug of the shoulders and a sly smile: “What the fuck, let’s go for it.” In mine, as…
In 2005, pop music was rock music. Between Kelly Clarkson’s tarted-up “Since U Been Gone,” Ashlee Simpson’s raspy, Courtney Love-after-a-bender vocals and Hilary Duff’s collabs with her Good Charlotte boy toy Joel Madden, even the biggest Top 40 starlets liked their guitars cranked up to a sassy 11. Elsewhere, rockers…
If hip-hop had a theme song in 2005, it wasn’t “Gold Digger” or “Lose Control” or “Candy Shop,” or any tune that contained Mike Jones’ phone number. Instead, it was that old standard by the Original Rapper himself, Lou Reed: “I’m Waiting for the Man” — the man in this…
On the surface, 2005 was another banner year for hip-hop. There were at least a couple of classic albums (Beanie Sigel’s The B.Coming and Kanye West’s Late Registration), a slew of great ones (Madlib’s The Further Adventures of Lord Quas, Young Jeezy’s Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, and The…
My undying love for Dudes With Guitars Who Think Way Too Much About Girls is now a critical liability, as Rockism has recently become grounds for public execution. I can only hope my final hours (before I am personally decapitated by Missy Elliott) are as graceful, poignant, and unabashedly melodramatic…
When it comes to heavy metal, 2005 will be remembered as the year the promising Sounds of the Underground tour debuted, metalcore dominated the scene popularity-wise, and Iron Maiden got egged at Ozzfest. There weren’t a lot of big hits (only nü-metal holdovers Disturbed and Mudvayne cracked the Billboard Top…
In 2005, Nashville hunks-in-arms like Toby Keith tuned down their jingoist jingles, the Muzik Mafia treaded water, and most of alt-country’s best contenders simply looked back. But as these 10 albums from country’s mainstream and underground demonstrate, these quiet scenes were still full of ferment beneath the surface. Only the…
2005 was a year of exploration and expansion in urban music. Against a Matrix-like background of corporate-controlled radio and TV, iPod-enabled consumers demanded more musical choices, and were rewarded by indie labels that stepped in to provide an alternative to mainstream mediocrity once again. For every lackluster commercial effort (like…
Listening to every single thing that comes across my desk is by and large a painful if not soul-killing experience, but it does occasionally land a few diamonds in my lap that wouldn’t get there any other way. Most of these CDs are by artists you’ve likely never heard of…
As far as music goes, I am not a tribal person. I am not prodded by Pitchfork, nor narcotized by Relix, nor are my spirits lifted by No Depression. Not to say that those media sources are entirely flawed — indeed, each has its virtues. But each of these influential…
So barefoot-boogie hippies rub you the wrong way. Or maybe you’re more open-minded than the typical cranky-pants, scene-sucking elitist. Either way, hopefully you’re savvy enough to realize that shortcut labels like “jam band” and “indie rock” better describe a band’s business approach and fan base than its sound. This past…
While hip-hop continued to get mo’ live in ’05, and indie rock further honed post-punk/emo’s affectations into something more genuinely affecting, the arch-paradigms from the past 12 months of electronic composition seemed more concerned with looking in than locking in. For the most part, top producers haven’t seemed as worried…
It’s rare to find anybody over 20 inside the noisy arcade castle at Mesa’s Golfland during the Saturday morning $8 Video Game Blowout. Never mind anybody over 60. That’s why the gray-haired dude on the Guitar Freaks V machine sticks out like a sore joystick-jamming thumb. Eyes squinted Clint Eastwood-like,…
Atllas has spent years trying to follow in the footsteps of his hip-hop heroes — Jay-Z and Master P, among others — but now he’s becoming a role model himself. The 25-year-old Phoenix MC stars in the next installment of MTV’s Made, coaching a high school girl from Sedona on…
It’s that time of year again, when all our sins come back to bite us in the ass, and right around midnight on New Year’s Eve, we resolve to fix all the things we keep doing wrong. Here are a few resolutions from musical artists to help you remember it’s…
When asked about favorite Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa memories, most people remember the good times. You know, the stuff they write songs about to get you in the holiday spirit — deck the halls, fa la la la la, and all that jazz. Now, ask a musician the same question…
For several years back in the 1980s and ’90s, rock ‘n’ roll keyboard legend Al Kooper had a very cool Yuletide custom. Kooper was (and is) an avid collector of prank calls, celebrity (and some non-celebrity) bloopers, weird songs, hilarious answering-machine messages and studio banter, and each December, he would…
1. Hanna-McEuen, Hanna-McEuen (DreamWorks) As drab and unremarkable as mashed potatoes, Hanna-McEuen is a couple of lonesome, heartbroken cowboys who whip out every cliché in the cornball country songbook. These two cousins (both sons of members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) sing about “making love ’til the morning light,”…
All hail Slayer! The monstrous sound of Reign in Blood inspires to this day. Unfortunately, much of what it inspires is adolescent claptrap such as the majority of death metal. Even though most fans of this “scariest” form of music are pimply dipwads, every once in a while the music…
A couple years back, singer-songwriter Jake La Botz was spending his Sundays down at the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in south central L.A., and playing in the church’s band with his friend Willie Chambers, of the ’60s R&B group the Chambers Brothers. La Botz is a Buddhist, but the…
Dem bow is like audio crack. The modified Jamaican dancehall beat creeps up on even the most rhythmically challenged and makes them move, leaving them craving more of the springy tempo. On a recent Saturday night at Jackson’s on 3rd, the floor is a sea of bobbing bodies, all grooving…
