Reviewers seldom gush over discs that remind them of albums made by lousy artists from the past — hence the dearth of notices praising Shakira for introducing a new generation to the genius that is Charo. But the opposite proves true when it comes to CDs that recall the long-ago…
Richard Patrick of Filter might be a good moderator for a music-conference panel: “The Hit Single: More Harm Than Good?” The band’s 1995 release, Short Bus, produced a major hit with the single “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” but its overexposure on MTV and commercial radio did not come without a…
Billing themselves as providers of “the only rock from Siberia,” the Russian rockabilly vaudevillians in the Red Elvises have spent the past six years conquering the club circuit with an over-the-top stage show that features an Old Country interpretation of American trash culture. Surfing (“Surfing in Siberia”) and disco (“Closet…
In the beginning of the movie Reservoir Dogs, gangleader Joe, played by Lawrence Tierney, is confused by the discourse taking place around the film’s famous round table. His partners in crime are discussing someone whose name he doesn’t recognize. “Toby?” he asks his fellow diners. “Who the fuck is Toby?”…
The last time Josh Davis was being talked and written about by lots of people he didn’t know, he had just fomented what many of those people had decided would become a fundamental change in the way musicians make records. His debut album as DJ Shadow, 1996’s Endtroducing . …
Her oldest brother, Justin, is the heartthrob of the group. With the perfectly tousled, blond-streaked hair, the model’s eyes and the fashionably pierced earlobes, he’s the one in the foreground of all the photo shoots. The principal songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of the band whose unfortunately pun-intended name appropriates…
Independent hip-hop seems as if it’s edging ever closer to that other kind of indie music, the kind that features pasty, forlorn vocalists delivering ironic, self-deprecating lyrics about love and loss and hurt and fear. At least, that’s what’s going on with Atmosphere’s latest, God Loves Ugly, which reads like…
As captain of the good ship Built to Spill, Doug Martsch wears a lot of hats, and he wears ’em well. One most becoming cap reads “Resident Guitar Genius.” That’s the one Martsch sports most prominently on Now You Know, the first side maneuver released under his own name. But…
When producers Rob Garza and Erik Hilton, collectively known as Thievery Corporation, released their debut CD Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi in 1997, it carved out a place for slower tempos in a world dominated by pumping house and hyperactive drum and bass. Thievery’s signature sound — a catchy fusion…
For a guy with such an anonymous moniker, John Doe surely has an instantly identifiable style about him — that plaintive voice, at once folksy and underground urbane; a lyrical approach that favors the narrative with occasional flashes of pure impressionism; a minor-key, often profoundly melancholy mode of composition; and…
If your cheesy, green-beer-swilling, American version of Saint Paddy’s Day got a Mohawk and a few tattoos, then did a fat line of blow along with its usual bucketfuls of Jameson, it would look a lot like Flogging Molly. This band turns traditional Irish music on its drunken ear, incorporating…
“There’s a very cool geezer element to this record,” says Tempe-born Jon Rauhouse, referring to his new CD, Jon Rauhouse’s Steel Guitar Air Show. “It isn’t very much in keeping with what people necessarily think of when they hear the name Bloodshot.” There are plenty of other unique aspects to…
There are two kinds of cool. First, we have conventional cool — the preening, pouting and posturing that’s more show biz than rock ‘n’ roll. Say what you like about the Rat Pack, Elvis and the Strokes, but this affected cool has as much to do with their schtick as…
Afu-Ra is many things: father of two, devoted husband, hip-hop MC, martial arts student, devoted disciple of Haile Selassie. But right now he is a grown man getting yelled at by his mom. Tomorrow night Afu-Ra will be traveling to San Francisco, where he’ll be joining the High & Mighty…
At this point in its development, hip-hop is all about the marketing. Crossing over to the pop side of the street is incredibly lucrative, but doing so too overtly puts street cred at risk. That’s why acts and their labels are looking for new and creative ways to make the…
How indie rock got its groove back: Four D.C. scenesters listen to ZZ Top’s Eliminator nonstop for a week, realize its might but recognize its limits (narrow field of focus, reluctance to test goal-oriented MTV viewers’ patience, songs exclusively about body parts or carburetors) and set about retooling the formula…
Subtle as an amputation, the Residents cut themselves off from pop music’s tumorous body three decades ago and never looked back. Still as prolific as they are self-indulgent, the cadre of one-eyed malcontents — led by Mr. Skull — remains cloaked in deliberate secrecy. And while they proudly anoint themselves…
For the disenchanted boys and girls of early ’80s suburbia, the kind of kids who stepped into adolescence with alienation and dissatisfaction (and a protective layer of superiority) lodged deep in the center of their chests, the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano was nothing less than a prophet. Now those kids…
If buzz sold records, Pinmonkey would be riding higher than the Dixie Chicks. Together for less than four years, with just one indie release under its belt, the Nashville-based quartet already has the critics in high soothsayer mode. “This band is a superstar act ready to explode,” raved Music Row…
On March 7, 2001, Valley virtuosos DJ Radar and Raul Yanez pulled off one of Arizona’s few great historical events in music history, the performance of the first movement of their classical composition Concerto for Turntable. On the stage at ASU’s Gammage Auditorium and accompanied by ASU’s symphony orchestra, Radar…
The wail is always there. The songs are plusher now. They don’t demand that you sit on the cold, hard floor. But somewhere, beneath what artists call “craft,” Corin Tucker’s voice conveys the emptiness of pure feeling. That alone is enough to keep Sleater-Kinney fans coming back over and over,…
The hair isn’t quite as big as it was back in the late ’80s, when moussed metal monsters like Jerry Dixon’s band Warrant ruled the airwaves and the concert circuit. “I think we look similar to the way we used to, just a little more hip,” Dixon, 34, insists. “You…
