Lady Sovereign may not seem as revolutionary as the last great British hip-hop export, M.I.A. In fact, at times, her record feels a bit like M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal sitting down to tea. But it’s the pintsize rapper’s cheeky personality that ultimately matters here (although the quirky synth hooks certainly…
We’ll take the esteemed word of Vogue — along with reports of Karl Lagerfeld’s collection of 60,000 CDs — as evidence that this two-disc comp of the iconic fashion designer’s “favorite songs” isn’t the product of a focus group. But there’s something tragic about a man born in 1933 (according…
The Clash may have scavenged the past for inspiration — calypso, Beat poets, film idols, rockabilly, the Spanish civil war — but never for the sake of nostalgia. And while boxed sets sometimes embalm history, this one suggests the spirit of discovery Joe Strummer might have felt poring through record…
Is there anything that Paul Oakenfold hasn’t done? The London-born wax worker has been dubbed the world’s most successful DJ (per Guinness World Records), toured with Madonna, sold zillions of CDs, reportedly has collected as much as £25,000 or more for certain gigs, and collaborated with actress Brittany Murphy on…
The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, alternately known as “Black Friday” and “Blitz Day,” when people get up at 4 a.m. to barrel over each other in shopping carts and take advantage of the ridiculous rollbacks. If you’re not in such a hurry to…
Thursday 23Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Camus: KURRENT_affairs with Pablo Gomez (electronic, rock, pop, avant-garde) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (hip-hop, dance) Dos Gringos: DJs Benjamin Cutswell & Kid Vicious (rock, ’80s, old school hip-hop) E-Lounge: DJ Domenica (hip-hop, house) Harley’s 2303: DJ Juan (progressive house) Hollywood Alley: Blunt Club with Emerg…
This is not an album that will translate into catchy ring tones or make you bounce in your car seat, bang your head, shake your booty with friends, or write angry/gushy diary entries about your recent ex. It’s thinking (wo)man’s music, a sweeping soundscape that re-creates a horrible moment in…
Wow, there’s a lot of pre-Turkey Day festivities tonight, ’cause y’all ostensibly have tomorrow off of work, and you’re expected – no, it’s mandated – that you get completely shitfaced till the wee hours tonight. First of all, GWAR’s playing at the Marquee tonight, if you like blood, guts, costumes,…
Mu-Fuckin’ DJ Radar Wow, that was a particularly uninspired heading for a blog post about one of the ‘Nix’s only superstars, DJ Radar. Astute longtime readers may already have realized that I’ve long been a homey of Radar’s as well as a fan; I once took him back to my…
Eyes Set To Kill The three-girl, three-boy young’uns (the age range is 17-20) in Eyes Set to Kill are having quite a year. The screamo outfit released a well-received EP earlier in ’06 and just recently dropped a DVD with eight songs performed live. Better yet, they’ve been signed to…
Niki Kwik Poorly written, silly-ass press releases are one of the humorous perks of this job; the flipside is when you have to actually listen to the CDs that they come with. Exhibit A: local female-fronted trio Niki Kwik’s upcoming EP, No Need to Apologize. Here’s a couple excerpts from…
BFH Word came to me recently that local lap-guitar troubadour Brodie Hubbard (aka Brodie Foster Hubbard, aka Brodie Fucking Hubbard) is leaving the ‘Nix soon to head back to La-La Land. That’s a loss for the singer-songwriter set here; as I wrote earlier this year, Brodie’s sometimes tortured, acoustical folky…
Radio Free America I know what you’re thinking, but no, this isn’t a recap of how I spent the weekend. It’s almost the holidays so I had to forego the hookers this time around. Rather, this post is marking a milestone of sorts for Radio Free America, soon to be…
There’s a veritable glut of great shows this weekend, so this is the extended remix weekend edition of the Show Picks series. First, tonight (Friday, Nov. 17) at Stray Cats, for a mere six bucks you can catch a punk rock extravaganza with the Fed-Ups, Thirteen Black, Dick Hazard, Walt…
Last night was an aural adventure (unfortunately not an oral adventure), wherein I hit up both a country show by my cowboy buddy Andy Hersey (who’s opening for Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers at the Marquee this Saturday), and later caught a pretty amazing rock show by Vayden. Vayden’s kind…
An, ahem, Aesthetic A while back I threw up a “show pick” blog post where I dissed locals An Aesthetic for their silly band name. Luckily these guys have a sense of humor, and sent me the following reply… Ha ha… Thanks for posting up the flyer for our show…
As of today, the voting is open for the ’07 PLUG Music Awards, the indie market’s version of the Grammy’s, or, uh, not really. PLUG’s pretty tight though, giving ups to artists that wouldn’t otherwise ever see an award or trophy. And it’s all based on internet voting, so it’s…
SMoCA Nights has become the quintessential fashionable event for Valley clubgoers who want to hang up their ho-bag clothes for the night and feel high-class. With fine art as the backdrop, social sophisticates showed off their stiletto pumps and designer dresses. The crowd at “Luna: Fall SMoCA Nights” on Thursday,…
“All music shows are better with booze,” according to Josh Preston, lead vocalist and guitarist of local band A Few Random Drunks. True to its name, the group formed out of “four men who accidentally stumbled into each other” over brewskis, and their shows are all about bonding over beer…
“Fetti Profoun” is a horrible hip-hop handle, but the hooks here are hot as hell. The CD opens with audio clips from local news stations, spliced together to sound like a big, controversial story about Fetti, then busts into the title track with hydraulic-bumpin’ beats and suspenseful synths, where Fetti…
“It would mean so much to me to know mystery,” Brock Ruggles announces early on in The Great Saturday Night Swindle, but he and his new band Tierra del Fuego have crafted a debut album even Colonel Mustard with a lead pipe in the study would have no trouble figuring…
Ben Lee may be headlining the “Fun! Fun! Fun! Tour,” but the artist most likely to live up to the spirit of that tour name is Rooney, a band whose infectious self-titled debut felt like the Beach Boys bringing in Rivers Cuomo to save the day when Brian Wilson had…
