Is there such a thing as “fate” in musical collaborations? There is if you’re former sElf frontman Matt Mahaffey and former God Lives Underwater guru Jeff Turzo. The pair came together after each found himself watching videos of the other’s band on MTV’s 120 Minutes — the station had confused…
DJ Seduce’s masterful mashup of Afrobeats, Brazilian jazz, Latin funk, and downtempo grooves — injected with the occasional flamenco guitar, bongo breakdown, piano jam, and ethereal flute — makes for a mesmerizing musical menagerie. Whether he’s kicking cowbells and sharp snare beats into a samba (as he does in his…
After being together for more than two years as The Brokedown, this L.A. quintet recently changed its name because of complaints from a similarly monikered band. Now christened The Broken West, the group seems to be taking the adjustment in stride, but, based on the evidence provided by its full-length…
An Australia-born, Canada-based one-man band who made his global debut with a 2001 album recorded (and titled) Live in Canada, Xavier Rudd is only now debuting stateside — oddly enough, with a year-old full-length that’s already achieved gold status in his home country. Considering the American niche-market successes of Rudd’s…
Robert Schneider is up to his usual tricks on The Apples’ first album in five long years, assembling effervescent pop gems from the echoes of his favorite records of the psychedelic ’60s (with the occasional nod to Electric Light Orchestra and, possibly, the Partridge Family). It’s hard to say what…
How do you follow a million- selling debut effort that music mag NME named “Album of the Year”? If you’re Bloc Party, maybe you throw in some moodier moments and send out for strings on a couple of tracks without abandoning your roots in twitchy, postpunk angularity. And, well, it…
Not only does Shane Ocell play all the instruments in Via Vengeance, but he plays them all at once. With his Gibson guitar on his lap, he sits behind his drum set and feeds fat, gritty guitar sounds through effects pedals and Sunn amps with one hand while drumming with…
Since striking out on their own as The Autumn Defense, Wilco bassist John Stirratt and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone have seen their soft-rock side compared in Rolling Stone to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the slower side of Big Star. But the lead-off track to The Autumn Defense’s new self-titled effort…
Between Pelican and Sigur Rós lie Red Sparowes, whose epic instrumentals have the ability to pummel you, but instead lull you into submission with rich sonic washes as thick as oil and as deep as the ocean. Formed four years ago, the band features Isis guitarist Bryant Clifford Meyer, and…
Georgia-born and French-raised Madeleine Peyroux has a voice that could calm crying babies or a venue packed with jazz-hungry fans, but that doesn’t mean she puts on a great show. This is not to suggest that her voice — which has been compared to Billie Holiday’s and interprets and bends…
Don’t get us wrong: We’re definitely down with all the old-school jams getting dropped during the off-the-chain hip-hop history lesson known as Take Me Back Tuesdays at Stray Cat Bar & Grill, 2433 East University Drive in Tempe. But let’s face it — the weekly DJ night is something of…
Do you enjoy getting down to brass tacks? Or are you more of a steel fan? Tacks not big enough for you? Then how about a massive, industrial-strength, steel-bore drill manned by a terse, aggravated drill sergeant? Then you’re in luck, because Helmet is coming to town. Way back yonder,…
1. The Shins, Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop) 2. Authority Zero, 12:34 (Big Panda Records) 3. Nelly Furtado, Loose (Geffen Records) 4. Tech N9ne, Everready (Strange Music) 5. Alkaline Trio, Remains (Vagrant Records) 6. Primus, They Can’t All Be Zingers (Interscope Records) 7. Akon, Konvicted (Umvd Labels) 8. Skinny…
In simple terms, Terminal 11 is known as a laptop DJ. However, placing such a generic label on a driving creative force in experimental electronic music implies that he uses computer equipment as a crutch. That’s definitely not the case, because what the local musician transfers from his madman-scientist brain…
Club Candids has been showing a lot of love to the straight folks lately, so we decided to hit up Burn Nightclub to get a good dose of gay on Saturday, February 3. The light-rail construction didn’t stop the beautiful boys who gladly pranced through dirt piles to get their…
If you’ve ever found yourself up in the clouds (for whatever reason), you’d probably run into Portland psychedelic-rock trio Menomena while surfing the heavens. The music marvels have transcended the mere experimental rockers of the band’s first album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster (2003), and climbed to the next…
Universal revived the Republic logo — last seen in the ’30s and ’40s for a series of B-movie Westerns — for Mellencamp’s new album, and it ain’t a bad match. Like the cowboy heroes of yesteryear, Mellencamp still believes that hardworking, honest people can eventually triumph over the forces of…
Melechesh’s geography — which involves being a thrash/black-metal band from Israel comprising Armenian, Assyrian, Dutch, and Ukrainian musicians who’ve relocated to Europe — makes for an interesting story, but it becomes doubly curious when you consider that the band’s material fixates on ancient Mesopotamia. These are no Sumerian dilettantes, either:…
The opening track wastes no time living up to everything this latest reinvention from the desk of Damon Albarn promised — Danger Mouse pushing the post-Lee Perry echo like The Clash in Sandinista! mode, with pulsing reggae bass from The Clash’s own Paul Simonon and Albarn at his soulful best…
While your iTunes playlist is doubtless clogged with songs by bands well-suited to their noms de plume, Philly/NYC quartet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is that rare act whose name describes the desired effect its music will have on listeners. Frontman Alec Ounsworth’s uneven squawk recalls Talking Heads’ David Byrne…
Well, oy vey!, opa!, and oh my gosh!, here’s a world-music collective that plays an enchanting blend of Gypsy music (two of the five members of Fishtank Ensemble actually traveled across Europe in a caravan as Croque Mule) and other exotic styles, including klezmer, polka, punk, flamenco, classical, and rock…
Watching Young Love mastermind Dan Keyes wriggle his hips behind the microphone as he yelps, “If you get the chance/You must dance dance dance” on the R&B-tinged “Find a New Way,” one would never know that he used to be a member of an emo band. Keyes, formerly the moping…
