Avril Lavigne, growing pop phenomenon, had a great 2002. She sold millions of copies of Let Go, a clearly Canadian collection of mildly peeved kiss-offs that goes down like Alanis’ little pills without all the jagged edges. Her slightly warped tours with her band of spiky-haired “sk8er bois” drew capacity…
Now, I’ve never been one to share. But I’m an only child who became a music editor for a good reason. I like to be left alone, stand around at concerts like a potted plant, listen to records in private and then tell you why I think Bon Jovi and…
Naming your band after a poet especially a European one makes you intelligent, right? Yet there’s nothing overwhelmingly intelligent about Rainer Maria the Wisconsin indie-rockers that take their name from famed German “object” poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Too much has been written about Maria’s “articulate” rock by critics who are…
Those who think that only Woody Guthrie wanna-bes crowded the stages of New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s should give a listen to Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band, Live at the Village Vanguard. If nothing else, this newly minted reissue of an almost-forgotten 1961 release will…
Summer at Shatter Creek is the ultimate solo album. Not only has Craig Gurwich played every instrument and written and recorded every song on his debut, but the tunes themselves feel like they were composed in a room far removed from human traffic. You can practically smell the stale sweat…
Careers in music are seldom predictable, but Ethan Buckler’s has been weirder than most. He first kicked up dust among underground types in the late ’80s as a member of Slint, a Louisville, Kentucky, art-noise outfit whose influence continues to linger. The band broke up around 10 years ago, but…
James Taylor’s stab at “Everyday” was just underwhelmingly twee; Andy Bell makes the Buddy Holly tune full-blown gay, which is precisely the point, since few singers are so loud or proud about their sexuality as the Erasure singer. Erasure’s “Everyday” plays even sweeter than the original, but not so syrupy…
Shakira is intellectually fascinating. No, that’s not a pathetic last-call pickup line, nor is it a disingenuous way of disguising lust for the Colombian pop goddess (though that’s an entirely appealing separate discussion). For years a superstar in her native country, the young singer-songwriter refused to release a crossover pop…
With its fourth album set for a March 4 release, Cursive is sitting in the driver’s seat of the monster truck, fueled by Saddle Creek Records, that is Omaha’s not-so-underground rock scene and the post-hard-core-indie rockers have a bristly case of road rage. Emo? More like screamo. In “Art Is…
Four taps of the drumsticks and you have to decide: “Just shut up yeah just shut up is that what I should do/And pretend it’s all okay try not to yell the truth.” Are you with Bangs or against them? The music on the title track of the Pacific Northwest…
BLACK. We hear someone softly speaking in Italian, then… FADE IN: A HOTEL ROOM EARLY EVENING The room is in slight disarray. Whoever is staying in the room has been here a while. A few room-service trays are stacked on a table. The bed is made, but rumpled. A lit…
In casual conversation, it’s difficult to nail just what made a concert great, especially if you’re trying to trigger pangs of regret in a friend who foolishly passed up an opportunity to attend. To make it even harder, let’s say you’re a huge fan of the group, but your pal…
Fatigo is a very young Valley band, having only formed a year ago. It has one self-released record to its name and is slowly building a reputation for its eclectic nature in small clubs now. But it has sold enough of its debut CD, Pero los Chivos!, locally and out…
I read The Catcher in the Rye about seven times before I realized that it depicted Holden Caulfield’s spiral into depression. Initially, I thought he was just a caustically sarcastic son of a bitch with a love for alcohol. When my 10th-grade English teacher pointed out that Holden was telling…
There’s cheeky and then there’s just don’t give a… Boston rapper Benzino, co-owner of hip-hop magazine The Source, is the latter. Despite controversy over his editorial policies former Source staffers have frequently complained of pressure from the boss to give his albums positive reviews the rapper includes a coupon for…
Well, well, Weller another album hailed as “comeback” in the U.K., where it’s been available in altered form since September, and another album sure to be labeled “sell back” in the U.S. You can’t damn the man for growing up and out of his angry phase; that’s what men do…
Lo-fi indie pop gets a startling makeover in the able hands of Phil Elvrum, the young Washington state producer/musician who fronts the loose aggregate of crunchy creative types known as the Microphones. Over a series of albums and singles he’s made for the venerable Olympia label K, Elvrum has methodically…
Elvis Costello’s wit and word play have long established him as a preeminent lyricist, but surprisingly no one’s attempted to assemble a credible tribute to arguably the greatest songwriter of the last quarter-century until now, leaving his oeuvre mostly as untouched as King Tut’s tomb. With Almost You, the new…
Okay, here’s what George Strait has done: Without scandal or undue hype, without compromising quality or any capitulation to fashion, Strait has adhered to his name. The veteran superstar, who releases his first career live CD For the Last Time Live at the Astrodome on February 11, has managed to…
Down in the nether regions of southern Arizona, where the Santa Cruz River nourishes the land and the grass grows waist high, lies the San Rafael Ranch, now a state park, where Tucson-based country troubadour Andy Hersey worked as a real-life cowboy and shoed horses just over a decade ago…
DJ Mark Farina can’t talk too long. He has to go pick up his soundboard. “It’s been in the shop for two or three weeks,” says Farina, one of San Francisco’s top electronic artists. “It needed all this rewiring or something. I’ve had it for a few years and it’s…
The Grammys must not much like Arizona. The nominations for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ (NARAS) 45th annual musical awards shindig were announced last week, and the nominations revealed that the academy still struggles with its own relevance. A stated commitment to open-mindedness made by former NARAS…
