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,”…
I have some married friends who send out genius homemade holiday cards, so funny and meticulously planned I’m sure I’m not the only person who looks forward to getting one in the mail, wondering how they’ll outdo their previous creations. These two are obsessive collectors of various hard-to-find goodies –…
What’s more selfless than a bodhisattva who discovers nirvana but postpones his own enlightenment until he can get everyone else up to speed? How about Bodhisattva with a capital B, a two-man sonic tag team that uses every limb and brain synapse to give us ADD listeners the ultimate in…
Some soul singers have sung their joy — Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder not least — and made their best art. But Anthony Hamilton comes from a bluesier tradition, with a lilting, earthbound voice that knows struggle, and a masterwork in 2003’s heavy Comin’ From Where I’m From. Ain’t Nobody…
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…
The Adolescents have been around for so long now that founding guitarist Frank Agnew’s 18-year-old son, Frank Agnew Jr., is also playing guitar in the legendary Orange County, California, punk band’s current formation! This year, the group is actually celebrating its 25th anniversary (granted, it’s spent more than half of…
With everyone supposedly declaring war on Christmas in 2005, what better time for the good Reverend and his merry band to release We Three Kings: Christmas Favorites? In case you were hoping for “White Christmas” crossed with “Bales of Cocaine,” forget it. The Rev purposefully eschews sex, drugs and booze…
The septet Nous Non Plus scares up sumptuous cool on its self-titled debut, whipping elements borrowed from The Strokes, Stereolab, and The B-52’s into delectable French pastries. And so we get delights like “Lawnmower Boy,” in which the band makes like Guitar Wolf on a New Wave kick; the disco…
Phil Spector’s legendary “Wall of Sound” is the inspiration for this massive, engrossing collection of early ’60s girl groups. While Spector’s best-known sides are absent, it’s amazing to hear how creatively energizing his hits were during a brief period usually disparaged as a downtime in “rock’s maturity.” Among the standard…
Thursday 22 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) Cypress Lounge: DJ Giv (punk) e4:…
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…
Another year, another rich haul of Christmas CDs. But instead of coming up with just another essay about holiday music, this time around we decided to help out the ailing economy — not to mention you frazzled holiday shoppers out there — and do a Christmas CD Buying Guide. So…
It seemed like scenesters Mr Kline + The Wizards of Time’s new CD might never see the light of day. But after overcoming personnel setbacks, tape-machine failures, and synth man/co-producer Bob Hoag’s hiatus to record with The Ataris, the band saw it fitting to release two CDs simultaneously — the…
The self-titled debut album from She Wants Revenge isn’t due out ’til the end of January, but Halloween would’ve been a better time to drop music this dark. With lascivious lyrics about damaged relationships (“These Things”) and moonlit sadomasochism (“Monologue”), Justin Warfield sings in a brittle monotone that could freeze…
Keith Jackson, vocalist/guitarist for legendary local punk group Glass Heroes, wears his love for Joe Strummer on his sleeve — and then some. Not only has Jackson seemingly been grafted with the same old-school rough-and-tumble punk style of the late Clash singer, he’s penned poignant paeans to his “personal hero”…
If you’re toiling in a 9-to-5 job, telling yourself that one of these days your musical genius will be discovered, lemme tell you about Zach Schwartz. After years stuck in nowhere bands, Schwartz got canned from yet another job and decided, “Okay, that’s it.” Finally resolving to treat his music…
Uh, excuse us for a just a sec, but as the beyond-buxom breasts of one Candye Kane, the former porn star turned blueswoman, we’d like a word with you. We’re certain we’ve got your attention, due to the fact that your lecherous peepers have been riveted to us since our…
Whether he’s repping the Taliban, dubbing himself “human crack in the flesh,” or prefacing one of his many latently homosexual slip-ups with the transparently insecure caveat “no homo,” Juelz Santana is brilliantly bad. During his second verse from “Mic Check,” Santana sneezes, pauses, and declares, “God blessed me, yes that’s…
Lil Wayne is the Al Green of rap: He could recite the phone book and have listeners hanging on each of his curvaceous consonants and smoldering vowels. On Tha Carter, Vol. II, Wayne more or less does just that, injecting familiar rap tropes (sample chorus: “Get money, fuck bitches, get…
This eight-song EP provides the first real indication that U.K. grime may be more than just a passing fad. South London MC Lady Sovereign, already a battle-scarred veteran at 18, has all the confidence of a sassy 28-year-old, plus the charm and cheekiness of an 8-year-old. Against a backdrop of…
