With a near-egalitarian gender split, a tendency toward horns (including trombone and tuba), and the wry ability to deliver phrases like “permanent malaise,” “kill you politely,” and “11 different reasons for fists and fights” while still claiming its twee pop turf, Architecture in Helsinki is the hands-down winner as 2005’s…
Thursday 23 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 AKA (gothic, industrial) Dos Gringos — Scottsdale: Block Party with DJ Sterling (all genres) Draft House: DJ Dave outta NYC (hip-hop) E-Lounge: DJ Domenica (high…
No disrespect for co-headliners J-Live and Vast Aire (of Cannibal Ox), but the star attraction and the recipient of any spare ice backstage has to be New York’s rap fixture C-Rayz Walz, who was the only three-time champion of the long-running EOW MC Challenge freestyle contest, and was even banned…
I’ve been having nightmares lately, populated by drug addicts, orphans, a woman with her mouth sewn up, and occasionally two skinny Afroed Chicano guys who whisper sinister things in Spanish. They didn’t go away even after I saw the band that’s causing them — the Mars Volta — play live…
Last year, in the dead of summer — you know, the time of year when the sidewalks are still too hot to touch at midnight, and the heat sucks the sweat right out of your pores — Robbers on High Street played the very first show of their West Coast…
If there were windows in Joe’s Grotto, they’d be steamed up tonight. Almost 400 people are packed into the small Phoenix club, fanning themselves with magazines and ordering extra ice with every drink. The crowd’s getting restless, jockeying for position near the stage and chatting away excitedly. Proprietor Joe Grotto…
Imagine the Children of the Corn doing acid with the Manson family while jamming out in a mossy pasture. Still here? Then you might be ready for Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice. Although they disavow their avant-garde status, their music is most definitely unclassifiable. Formed after the breakup of…
Aesop Rock’s legendary Greek namesake wrote fables with morals like “A man is known by the company he keeps.” And Aesop the MC (a.k.a. New Yorker Ian Bavitz) has borne out that bit of ancient wisdom: Since 2001’s acclaimed Labor Days, he’s been a mainstay of Def Jux, the underground…
This is an essential night out for fans of raffish, infectious, congenial and, yes, fun pop music. All the way from Oslo, you’ve got ’60s revivalists The Jessica Fletchers, sounding like some English, phonetically assembled band from Nuggets II, decked out with flutes and strings but still managing to pack…
There are a lot of ex-smokers in the world, judging by the testimonials on Amazon.com regarding Jesse Sykes’ husky voice (e.g., “makes me want to take up smoking again,” or how about “I found myself reaching for Dunhills that weren’t there”). It’s a wonder the surgeon general didn’t write the…
Funky house vets the East Coast Boogiemen won’t be here in full, but you’ll get a half-dose when Ken Christensen hits the Real Bar (formerly P.I./Boston’s) on Friday, June 17, as part of his “Ken You Dig It” tour. Christensen, and ECBM partner Juan Zapata, launched Odds and Ends Records…
It’s not exactly party-crashing if you don’t know Chase Stain or the local record label he’s been running for the past decade, but if it makes you feel more punk rock to bilk, then entertain that notion. At this all-ages extravaganza with no cover charge, you can sample a dozen…
Thursday 16Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with AKA (gothic, industrial) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Draft House: DJ Dave outta NYC (dance) E-Lounge: DJ Domenica (high energy dance) Exit Seven: DJ Martin Soliz (dance) Garcia’s: Latin Dance Night (Spanish rock/pop, reggaeton,…
“Pure devastation” is how the boys in local screamo outfit Greeley Estates jokingly describe their band on the mini-documentary “The Life of Greeley Estates,” included on this recently released DVD. While they certainly have some devastating riffage, Greeley’s live songs included here are more remarkable for their affability. Crowds of…
“Hey, you got your Rancid in my Mars Volta!” “You got your No Doubt in my Postal Service!” “Now you’ve got your Sublime in my Radiohead!” No, I’m not talking about the latest mash-ups by Z-Trip or Danger Mouse. Rather, this was my internalized conversation with local independent alternative radio…
“Everybody thinks we’re assholes,” Sum 41 guitarist Dave Baksh says. “We’re Canadian; it’s impossible.” Phoning from one of the asshole capitals of Los Angeles, the Bel Age Hotel near Sunset Strip, Baksh and his band are taking a breather from an extended road trip with punk legends Unwritten Law. The…
A grim romanticism has gripped British pop since the days of Morrissey, from Robert Smith’s mopey New Wave, through Thom Yorke’s existential angst, to Chris Martin’s haunted piano epics. The brainchild of Matt Hales, Aqualung is gripped by a similar tender pain, awash in luxurious piano-driven melodies that form a…
Within the next month, expect American music ‘zines and your local hipsters to pile head-exploding praise on England’s Amusement Parks on Fire, which just released its self-titled debut stateside. It’s already happened in the U.K. — “Genius-in-a-bottle waiting to be unleashed,” ejaculated Drowned in Sound; “Sounds like the sun rising…
Buzz bands from here, there and everywhere are nicking U.K. sounds, but too many of them are targeting the same period: the early ’80s post-punk days, when it was okay to wear any color as long as it was black, and young men were discovering how much fun they could…
Attention, (guys in) Tight Pants Brigade! Behold Bullet Train to Vegas — your new leader. The Los Angeles-based band’s We Put Scissors Where Our Mouths Are is a creative and spastic art damage record with intense guitar work dominating 11 tracks. The variation of sharp and clean styles (from hardcore…
Everybody loves to see a good bitch-slapping, and the expanded DVD version of this Sundance Award-winning documentary on two friendly bands turned rivals gives you bitch-slapping in any number of directions. What was originally slated as a Brian Jonestown Massacre documentary grew to encompass the Dandy Warhols when BJM went…
Hey, tweakers — hurry up and finish reassembling your El Camino, stop grinding your teeth for a minute, put down the glass dick, and listen up. I’ve got good news: Your favorite non-inhalable muscle motivator is coming to town. On Friday, June 10, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland, a.k.a. breakbeat…
