The further Anticon strays from its original granola posi-artiste rap roots, the more intriguing this Oakland, California label becomes. England’s Bracken represents the latest link in the imprint’s evolutionary chain, though slotting We Know About the Need is something of a challenge. While it isn’t really a shoegaze record in…
Established in 1996 by producer Chris “Peanut Butter Wolf” Manak, Stones Throw serves as a benchmark for innovative hip-hop music. This compilation, originally released last year as an in-store exclusive through Guitar Center, arrives at the height of the L.A.-based imprint’s popularity. It collects underground hits (Lootpack’s “Whenimondamic” and Aloe…
The first words out of Lily Allen’s mouth here are on the song “Smile”: “When you first left me, I was wanting more/But you were fucking that girl next door.” So yeah, she’s got the cheeky British attitude that did so well for Lady Sovereign. But despite its lilting reggae…
Remember the first time you heard the Pixies classic “Where Is My Mind?”? It condensed the euphoria of cutting anchor and sailing into the abyss into a four-minute pop song. Now Jay Reatard (that Memphis garage-punker from the Lost Sounds, the Reatards, Angry Angles, and probably a dozen other bands…
Free time has got to be the eternal enemy of local DJ impresario Hyder. When the turntable trickster isn’t spinning at The Blunt Club on Thursdays at Hollywood Alley, he’s working the wax at Shimmy Mondays at Trax, hooking up with the scenesters of the Abstract Workshop, or teaching beat…
1. Mos Def, True Magic (Geffen Records) 2. Nas, Hip-Hop Is Dead (Def Jam) 3. John Mayer, The Village Sessions (SonyBMG) 4. The Beatles, Love (Capitol) 5. Matisyahu, No Place To Be (Sony) 6. Joanna Newsom, Ys (Drag City/Caroline) 7. Ben Folds, Supersunnyspeedgraphic (Sony) 8. Kooks, Inside In/Inside Out (EMI…
The Valley’s post-adolescent crusty punk rockers have been getting a lot of camera time lately, so Club Candids hit up one of Scottsdale’s most popular clubs, Myst, on Friday, January 19, and the only crust was found in the hair gel of the employed and freshly bathed Scottsdale socialites. DJ…
When we heard about the grand opening of Lady Luck Tattoo Gallery in Tempe, we packed our camera and hit the party for some freaky photo-ops. After all, tattoos and Tempe go together like drunk girls and frat parties; both are necessities for the college experience and may lead to…
In addition to boasting the slickest use of samples and instrumentation this side of a Moby/Diddy collaboration, Tomorrow’s Last Try also contains the most hardcore local hip-hop song ever recorded, in the form of track nine, “Zombie Jesus.” The song opens with some psychotic Latino threatening to fuck another guy…
The members of Liverpool’s Clinic are up to their surgical masks in Nuggets-worthy psychedelic splendor here, from the bass-driven pulse of an opening track whose instrumental section could practically pass for The Yardbirds paying tribute to the Far East, to the dark narcotic haze that hovers over “Gideon.” On “Animal/Human,”…
If you like The Glimmers’ penchant for spinning the best in disco punk, but just haven’t warmed to the Belgian DJ duo’s sense of rhythm, check out this album. The Glimmers’ new contribution to the indomitable Fabric series is an improvement over their 2005 DJ-Kicks mix CD. It starts out,…
Ever since Buena Vista Social Club, Afro-Cuban music has been on the radar of mainstream trend spotters both old and young. Yet the majority of new releases and rereleases since BVSC have concentrated on the Caribbean side of the equation (with the possible exception of Senegal’s Orchestre Baobab), to the…
How’s this for self-confidence: After finishing sessions for its debut album, Richmond, Virginia-based baby band Cassius was apparently so convinced of its own ass-kickingness that the band members broke their leases, bought a tour van and started booking gigs at any club that’d have them. Luckily for the band, I…
This diverting five-song EP inaugurates ex-Libertine Pete Doherty’s new contract with the only American label brave enough to sign a world-renowned junkie hell-bent on seeing how far the English judicial system can be pushed before it throws him in the clink. (Recently, Doherty was fined 770 pounds and ordered not…
Wanda Jackson dated Elvis Presley in the ’50s, and even if she may not have slept with him (“There were things you could and couldn’t do, and my daddy made sure I never crossed that line,” Jackson’s said of the period), just having shared a milk shake with Elvis is…
So you say you’ve been holding your breath in the hopes that some young band would put out a record that sounds even more like the great lost Duran Duran album than The Killers’ Hot Fuss? Well, in that case, you should breathe and check out Popularity, Jonezetta’s hook-filled Tooth…
When Kevin Barnes started Of Montreal in the mid-1990s, he was a bit late to the Athens, GA, scene’s retro pop-rock party. At that time, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Olivia Tremor Control ruled the roost of the ripening Elephant 6 Collective, beguiling indie-rock audiences and tastemakers by…
Blessed with an uncommon power to transform a sort of jovial brotherhood into eclectic, rootsy rock songs, Marah has always attracted fans with the prowess of its live performances, aiming not to replicate its albums onstage but rather to infuse its albums with the vigor of its stage show. The…
L.A.’s Moving Units worship at the altar of Robert Smith, injecting their very of-the-moment dance rock with a fat dose of post-punk. Like comrades in arms Interpol, The Faint, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Moving Units will get your skinny ass shaking with disco-chic ditties about dance clubs, drama, and…
If you were hankering for many happy returns in 2007, looks like you’re gonna get your wish, bub. Namely, the dope drum ‘n’ bass DJs of Essential Wednesdays, who were dumped from their longtime weekly gig at Sky Lounge late last year, are making a comeback with Liquid Heat on…
1. Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (Geffen) 2. Various Artists, Dreamgirls: Music From the Motion Picture (Col/Urban Soundtrax) 3. Young Jeezy, The Inspiration (Def Jam) 4. Akon, Konvicted (Umvd) 5. Beyonc, B’day (Sony) 6. Omarion, 21 (Sony) 7. Nas, Hip-Hop Is Dead (Def Jam) 8. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive)…
After two holiday weekends in a row and the final shake-off of family obligations (phew!), we wanted nothing more than to return to normal life and normal drinking habits. This week, Club Candids skipped on anything super sizzling and flopped into homey Scottsdale punk bar TT Roadhouse on Saturday, January…
