Music

When did DJs stop being tastemakers? I’m not talking about scenesters who play songs for nightclub crowds, or vinyl junkies who juggle beats on a couple of turntables. Those are the newer notions of what a DJ is. Instead, I’m thinking of the faceless folks who deliver music over the…

Years ago, I was scheduled to do a phone interview with this living legend, but Mr. 200-Plus-Shows-a-Year slept through my call. It left this fan with a lot of unasked questions: Since most blues consists of I-IV-V progressions, how many chords would it take, and in what fucked-up order would…

Shooter Jennings had a country Outlaw for a father (Waylon), grew up on tour with country rebels the Highwaymen, and is now breaking a few country rules himself by embracing the Southern rock side of the biz that Nashville’s been ignoring for too long. To make this point, consider a…

You’ve got to wait until the new year to buy the new Strokes record, First Impressions of Earth, in stores, but this Thursday, December 29, if you’re truly a Casablancas and Co. fanatic, you’ll want to be down at the latest installment of Panic! at Anderson’s Fifth Estate in Scottsdale,…

Start a band, post music on MySpace, and get a record deal. Isn’t that how it works? Not quite, but that’s what happened when Earache Records grindcore mogul Lee Barrett discovered Abigail Williams’ fan-bloated MySpace page. The result: Barrett quickly ushered the local death metal hellions (named after the McCarthy-like…

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…

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…