Recognized for producing of some of the greatest records of the punk era (Elvis Costello, The Damned, the Pretenders), Nick Lowe left the most indelible mark on his own records. Witness Yep-Roc’s recent 30-year anniversary edition of Pure Pop for Now People. In 1978, dressing up like the Riddler was…
The band’s name is crass, and song titles like “Myke Ptyson” and “Iaadeedaa” hardly help bolster any early confidence in liking them, but Starfucker’s self-titled debut is a smart, multi-layered gem of indie-pop splendor. The album’s opener, “Florida,” establishes the band’s simple yet delightfully complex sound with its dreamy guitar…
Like their Elephant 6 brethren, of Montreal has always walked the line between the accessible and the avant-garde. Usually, Kevin Barnes and Co. have fallen neatly on the pop side, making music that would work in, say, an Outback Steakhouse commercial — after being stripped of its references to Greek…
It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of a frontman who had a four-octave vocal range and a tendency to wear glittery capes on stage. Listening to Cosmos Rock, it’s clear that former Free/Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers isn’t up to the task. To his credit, though, Rodgers didn’t…
Cat Power kicks off her new CD, Jukebox, with a remake of John Kander & Fred Ebb’s standard “Theme from New York, New York,” but given the track’s sultry, Stax-y R&B makeover and coolly rumbling keyboards, perhaps she should call her version “Memphis, Memphis.” She recorded her previous album, 2006’s…
There was a time when a new Randy Travis album was cause for celebration in country music circles, with radio programmers tripping over themselves to add Travis’ brand of neo-honky-tonk to their late-80s and early-’90s playlists. The basso profundo former juvenile delinquent could render a tear-and-beer-stained ballad better than anybody…
For a Phoenix band, Smokescreen sound pretty British. Not, like, Blur British, but British enough. It’s not the vocals – singer Gus Holwerda doesn’t sound like Liam Gallagher or anything – but the band’s musical vocabulary definitely owes a debt to the lads across the pond.
By Lilia Menconi Woah. Slideshow. Planning our nights out isn’t always a smooth ride. Especially when we start boozing. So, in a slightly inebriated state, we weren’t as Johnny-on-the-spot when it came to our original plan, Friday’s Dear and the Headlights CD-release party. Being the party animals we are, we…
By Benjamin Leatherman Kimber Lanning’s Stinkweeds Record Exchange, 12 West Camelback Road, specializes in indie and alt-rock music, so it’s only natural that the store’s Top 10 best-selling albums for the week of September 15-21 feature such acts as Mogwai, Tilly and the Wall, Kimya Dawson, and Tucson’s Calexico. Here’s…
I picked this week’s flier not because it’s good, as it is certainly anything but. I picked this monstrosity because my flier of the week contest is still going on, and this should serve as a reminder of just how bad the fliers in this town have gotten.
Fuck Huey Long: Young Jeezy is the master of populism. Here’s a self-made millionaire who empathizes with the day-to-day troubles of the working class, preaches distrust of the media and authority figures, and always gets his base boiling. While he leaves the lofty rhetoric to the arugula-chomping pantywaist he endorses…
Looks like the DJ freakazoids behind Electrostatic have found a new home for their popular weekly dance night, formerly hosted at the shuttered Glam. And fittingly enough, it’s at Homme, 138 West Camelback Road, where they’ll be working the mixers every Tuesday night. While the gay-friendly lounge ain’t as swank…
Ben Folds has never strayed far from his trademark geek-pop sensibilities. He’s honed the sound even further over the past few years, playing for crowds of adoring college kids. The excitement of the live shows seems to have made an impression on the Nashville-based singer/songwriter/pianist. His new record, Way to…
After the seething, explosive brilliance of Tricky’s first two albums, 1995’s Maxinquaye and 1996’s Pre-Millennium Tension, inspiration is spreading thin. Later releases Angels with Dirty Faces, Juxtapose, and Blowback contained a recommended song or two, but as albums they were jumbled failures. Knowle West Boy doesn’t break that disappointing pattern…
Four albums in (five, if you’re an eBay-stalking obsessive), Slipknot is having an identity crisis. Frontman Corey Taylor’s side project, Stone Sour, has allowed him to unmask his sensitive singer-songwriter side, which is represented here on “Snuff” and “Dead Memories” — the former a half-acoustic ballad, the latter a slab…
Brass Knuckles is Nelly’s Thriller. I’m not kidding. Brass Knuckles is not a perfect album, but neither was Thriller. It jumped styles and was not particularly cohesive; similarly, Nelly’s fifth CD skips haphazardly from dirty South jams (“Hold Up,” featuring T.I.) to G-funk throwbacks (“L.A.,” featuring Doggs Snoop and Nate)…
Denver’s Flobots seem intent on fomenting a populist revolution — or, at least, cashing in on the sugarcoated, romanticized, anything-can-happen idea of one. Perhaps they’ve struck a chord, thanks in part to appearances on late-night TV talk shows, debut Fights with Tools is closing in on 200,000 units sold here…
Few artists have gone through more reinventions than Mexican-born guitarist Carlos Santana, going from his Latin-jam days fueled by his unforgettable appearance at Woodstock to his lackluster days in the ’80s (even though his band was still considered a top live act) to his resurgence after his multi-Grammy winner Supernatural…
When guitarist Milo Bonacci started Ra Ra Riot at Syracuse University in 2006, he was looking to put together a classical-tinged rock band that could stir up dramatic moods but also get a dance party started. On its just-released debut, The Rhumb Line, Ra Ra Riot strikes a fine balance…
I was once in a band. A hobo-themed band, actually. The Hobo Kin played our one and only show at a cemetery in Brimfield, Ohio on Halloween night 2002. We gave our fans – all girls we knew from our college paper – doughnuts.
By Lilia Menconi The Dubliner on Saturday, September 20th. It gets even better if you check the slideshow We had some pretty good luck when we hit up the North Valley a few weeks ago at Joe’s Grotto, so we thought we’d check out another neighborhood fave, The Dubliner, on…
It’s a big concert weekend with The Hives and Eagles of Death Metal in town tomorrow. If you’re looking for a more danceable show check out One’s three year anniversary show at the Ruby Room. House DJ Jay Tripwire, a Canadian DJ that makes up half of ‘The Clones’ with Chicago’s Mazi. He’s known for deep house.
