Madlib’s Madvillain project is the second of his dream match-ups, following his slightly disappointing pairing last year with Detroit iconoclast Jay Dee (Jaylib’s Champion Sound). While Jay Dee favors original compositions, track-busting Madlib finds more in common with MF Doom, since the latter’s early-’90s work with KMD as Zevlove X…
BR549’s energetic synthesis of Buck Owens and Ernest Tubb started packing ’em in during pass-the-hat gigs at Robert’s Western Wear — a Nashville haberdashery on the wrong side of the tracks — in early 1996. When the band’s self-produced EP Live at Robert’s juiced up the buzz to a deafening…
For a while there, it seemed like Britain’s Squarepusher, a.k.a. Tom Jenkinson, would never show his face around these parts. One full-scale U.S. tour was aborted shortly after its launch, and another was scrapped entirely, all for unspecified reasons. It only added to Jenkinson’s long-standing reputation as a mad IDM/drill…
Ten songs into what was supposed to be a nine-song set, on a lawn between two of Arizona State University’s freshman dorms, Greeley Estates singer Ryan Zimmerman is obviously spent. He keeps spitting behind the PA, trying to clear his throat to finish screaming the lyrics to “Not Alone,” the…
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When I was 17, I worked at a skateboard shop in Anchorage, Alaska, called G&B, the first skate shop in the state. Growing up in Alaska doesn’t afford one much exposure to underground music — you have to dig for it. Luckily, beneath the glass front counter at G&B, there…
Singer/guitarist Karie Jacobson and drummer Drew Kowalski of the Dagons were a duo way before this current trend of rock minimalism became all the rage. And forget about the candy-coated innocence of faux siblings Jack and Meg. Comparing the White Stripes to the Dagons is like comparing the Osmonds to…
“God bless this mess,” Khadijah Anwar proclaims at the top of Slicker’s We All Have a Plan, the third album by Chicagoan John Hughes III, a dude possibly better known for his ownership of Hefty Records (home of Telefon Tel Aviv and Prefuse 73 offshoot Savath & Savalas) than for…
Lauded producer Kanye West has a king-size chip on his shoulder about being passed over so many times as an MC. But with the breakout success of The College Dropout’s first two singles (“Through the Wire” and “Slow Jamz”), it’s a safe bet the chip has been whittled down to…
The two albums sturdily bearded Floridian film professor Sam Beam has released as Iron & Wine — 2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle and the new Our Endless Numbered Days — are the kind perfect for putting on when you’ve just performed some sacred ancient ritual in the woods and…
First, the bad news: This package tour from New York hip-hop superindie Definitive Jux could use a couple higher-profile names than it currently boasts. At a hometown launch last month, label star Aesop Rock put in a breathtaking appearance at the end of a marathon show; though his rapping was…
Ben Funke’s the overachieving, gifted kid you’ve always hated and wished you were. At 18, he’s the driving force behind the electro synth-pop trio XOXOXO, touring the West Coast in style, and getting paid to play gigs he’s booking himself. His band tours in a shiny new 2004 Honda Element,…
Slim Golba cuts a unique figure even walking along freaky Mill Avenue, where his bouncing, loping gait and long graying hair, braided in classic cigar-store-Indian style and falling in front of his button-down shirt, create the image of a mellowed ancient soul much older than his 43 years. On this…
Someone tagged the plywood where the mirror used to hang in the men’s room at Long Wong’s: “Where do we go now? Tempe dies April 3, 2004.” Last Saturday was, in fact, the Tempe desert-rock institution’s last day open. But the tagger had it all wrong. Tempe died a long…
At this year’s South by Southwest music conference, I unexpectedly witnessed the invention of a brand new musical genre — honkycrunk. I didn’t discover the honkycrunk at any officially sanctioned event, or even onstage, but rather at an impromptu “showcase” I threw in my room at the Austin Hilton 48…
Arguably one of the most vital and prolific live music venues in Arizona is closing for good. On Saturday, April 3, Long Wong’s on Mill Avenue showcases twelve of the notable local bands that have gotten it attention over the years, including signature Tempe acts such as Dead Hot Workshop,…
Once, the roar of punk rock noise rallied a cry of anomie and alienation like a shot across the slowly steaming and sprawling suburban bow, spawning the vibrant, diverse Eighties underground. Now it seems the gentle swoon of traditional folk, country and blues — housed under the guise of Americana…
“[The Liars have] contempt for their audience . . . nothing that resembles forethought or emotion. Unlistenable” Grade: F Spin Magazine, March 2004 ” . . . a record you fear listening to” Grade: One Star (Poor) Rolling Stone, March 2004 Did the Liars pee on some rock critics’ corn…
“I wish a tomato would carry me away.” Perhaps these lyrics aren’t the truest universal to be found on the brazen and amazing new album by Reubens Accomplice, The Bull, The Balloon and The Family, but they’re the ones that best encapsulate the frustration guitarists Jeff Bufano and Chris Corak…
A group of young, slightly geeky, self-hating emo kids from Long Island, Bayside pours its little hearts out on its debut record, Sirens and Condolences (Victory), turning high-school prom tragedies into magnificent rock songs. These kids worship at the altar of exalted emo-punk forefathers Jawbreaker, whose frontman, Blake Schwarzenbach, sang…
Louie Vega’s musical journey to maturity has been an extensive tour of self-discovery through collaboration and experimentation. Vega broke as a teenage DJ in the Bronx Latin freestyle scene of the ’80s (notably remixing the classic 1987 hit “Silent Morning” by Noel) and has been a dominant figure in house…
Forget about beer. Not even an hour after finishing their Wednesday gig — on the opening night of the South by Southwest music festival — the members of Phoenix rock band Blanche Davidian are standing by the bar at the Elysium in downtown Austin, doing shots of Robitussin. Make that…
