There’s something immediately arresting about David Bazan’s vocals, though nothing particularly dramatic is going on. His words are almost always delivered in a slow, off-hand lope. Bazan sounds somewhat congested, as if he barely has the strength to form the words and tap out a somnolent rhythm with one drumstick…
For Chrissakes, you wouldn’t buy a car without first dialing in the radio. And you wouldn’t rent an apartment without asking if it came with its own indigenous creepy crawlies. These are high-commitment decisions you could be enmeshed in for months, maybe years, depending on your threshold for self-flagellation. In…
“This song will become the anthem of your underground.” This first line of “At Your Funeral,” the first track on New Jersey emo quintet Saves the Day’s album Stay What You Are, is proving far more prophetic than its author, eager-voiced Chris Conley, could’ve intended. Though written as a tongue-in-cheek…
It’s one of the sad ironies of George Harrison’s passing last week to cancer that he was memorialized by the international media as little more than a member of the world’s most exclusive club: the ex-Beatles. Of all the former Fabs, Harrison was always the least comfortable with both his…
About a year ago, Prince Paul, as part of Handsome Boy Modeling School, opened for Radiohead at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, segueing playfully behind the turntables from song to song — kitsch tunes, classic jams, whatever in between. And then something truly startling happened.Paul played the opening, ingratiating…
The dreaded word in “local scene” is, of course, the operative one: “local.” In this context, local generally suggests unending mediocrity, the kind of excessive conventionality perpetrated by so many sad-sack groups too busy churning out morbid translations of whatever it is that had a million American kids frothing at…
It’s been five years since the aggro-industrial quintet Nihil released its debut album, Drown. In the intervening time, rock music has swung firmly in the band’s stylistic direction, with everyone from Slipknot to System of a Down to Linkin Park mining Nihil-istic territory: bile-spewing, throat-shredding vocals and heavy guitar riffs,…
Were there any justice inherent in the world — and there is not — to every 10′ x 15′ poster of the latest Current Flavor in every chain music outlet would be appended a small postcard, via a single tasteful staple, in the bottom-right corner. Gracing this postcard would be…
In a culture so besieged by the conflict between art and commerce, it’s perhaps natural that the use of pop idioms is disparaged by the critical elite, anxious to protect their canon from dilution. Charlie Hunter has dodged such dismissive darts aimed at his eclectic jazz treatments, which have spanned…
When Stevie Nicks returned to her Phoenix home at the tail end of 1994, just a year after quitting what was once the biggest band in rock ‘n’ roll, she figured that her career was all but over. There was lots of wreckage in her wake. Earlier that same year,…
Thickest cranium in rock? Probably Martin Atkins, former drummer for Public Image Ltd., now de facto head of the industrial-rock conglomerate Pigface. Who else would devote insane amounts of time, money and energy to industrial music — a subgenre that had its day bathing in the money hydrant during the…
“Success is a wonderful thing but it is very, very tiring.” That was yawnin’ Sir George Martin, recalling how battle-fatigued The Beatles were at the end of 1964. Sure, the Liverpudlians hinted at needing a rest months earlier — you’ll recall the “I’ve been working like a dog/I should be…
About halfway into their set at a packed America West Arena on Saturday, November 24, self-proclaimed rock deities Tenacious D launched into a song purporting to tell their story.The ballad, appropriately titled “The History of Tenacious D,” attempts to build an awe-inspiring myth around the musical union of two pudgy…
In 1969, Mick Jagger called Jann Wenner, editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone magazine, with a business proposition: Jagger would put up the money for a British version of the magazine, if Wenner would oversee its operations. Wenner took him up on the offer, but after a few months, it proved to…
Dude, did you know “god” spelled backward is “dog”? Yeah. Well, DMX might actually subscribe to this kind of bong-load theology, because his canine-laden references to himself have made a serious transition throughout his career. The exultant woof-woofs on “Where My Dogs At?” have evolved to the point where, on…
Sarah Dougher has all the credentials to be a feminist icon. An openly lesbian singer-songwriter on the North Carolina-based label Mr. Lady, she’s also a committed social activist, a college professor, and a member of the bands Cadallaca (with Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker) and the Crabs. Little wonder, then, that gay.com…
Early last year, the Washington state band Modest Mouse took an extended trip to Chicago and made a record with Brian Deck, a central figure in the sprawling Windy City musical family that historically centers on the defunct avant-blues group Red Red Meat. When they headed back to Washington (or…
By definition, a Richmond Slut would be a resident of a San Francisco neighborhood who compromises principles for personal gain. In context of the indie rock ‘n’ roll scene, the name suggests the unblushing ability to laud oneself. Yet, at no time would you catch a member of the Richmond…
You’re in the check-out line at the supermarket. There are two TV Guides with Michael Jackson on the cover; which Michael do you buy? The nappy-haired 13-year-old from Gary, Indiana, who launched his solo career 30 years ago with “Got to Be There” or the 43-year-old from Neverland Valley who…
In the old days, people actually danced to live music. Now, with the exception of gentlemen’s establishments and awkward “Look! I have not lost it! I am down with the kids!” parental displays at wedding receptions, rock elicits next to zero dancing. Perhaps this is due to the inception of…
Atlas likes to talk about his relentless work ethic.The 22-year-old local rapper works every day as a middle-school teacher’s assistant, then works afternoons and nights for the Glendale Parks and Recreation Department, racing home to spend whatever quality time he can squeeze in with his 4-month-old son. On weekends, the…
If a rule book existed for aspiring rock critics, one of the tenets would be: “Must relentlessly slam Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career, lest you risk embarrassing unhipness.” In some ways, the intensity of McCartney’s approximately 30 years of critical disfavor is hard to fathom. Because he was a peer of…
