Indiana’s Murder By Death may draw from wild sources like Dante’s Inferno and Johnny Cash for inspiration, but we’re fairly certain that “Raw Deal,” off the newly released In Bocca al Lupo, has nothing to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Quite the opposite — on this latest album, the band delves…
Instituto Mexicano del Sonido (IMS) is a one-man type of project, with lots of after-hour editions and additions at a home computer. During the day, Camilo Lara is the well-known industry man and savvy record label guy who works for major companies in Mexico City. By night, he finds magic…
“No shoegazers here!” swoons Vibration singer Anne Fitzgerald on “Muscle Memory,” the lead-off tune from this Brooklyn band’s debut. Well, there might be a few boot-staring palookas in their audience, as most of Amarilla is raw, sauntering guitar churn and rolling drums, calling to mind moody early ’90s mashers like…
Maybe the only thing shocking about Madonna’s 2004 “Reinvention” tour was how completely unshocking it was, at least by her standards. No cone bustier, no simulated masturbation on a bed, no topless backup dancers (female ones, anyway) to writhe against . . . just a safe two-or-so hours of classic…
The old-school Brooklyn-based dance-punks in Radio 4 vividly illustrated their dissatisfaction with The Man on 2004’s pissed-off Stealing of a Nation, but they forgot to have any fun in the process, which made joining their underground resistance a very hard sell. Though it doesn’t match the punk-funk intensity of 2002’s…
Now that summer’s upon us, we have a dearth of entertainment options and the promise of sweaty afternoons spent waiting for the sun to drop below the horizon so that the concrete heat islands stop sizzling. Once the natural light has faded, though, there are still a few places you…
1. Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere (Downtown) 2. Peeping Tom, Peeping Tom (Ipecac Recordings) 3. Les Claypool, Of Whales & Woe (Prawn Song) 4. Tool, 10,000 Days (Volcano) 5. Blue October, Foiled (Universal/Motown Records) 6. Angels & Airwaves, We Don’t Need to Whisper (Universal/Geffen) 7. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium…
This Windy City trio likes to lambaste pop-culture targets — especially the Warped Tour world it gets lumped into. Blame the clipped, bubblegum pop-punk drum sound and tempos the group has employed since its formation in ’99. But then the band members lay on slashing riffs and gruff vocals that…
You know Elvis Costello: angry young punk with talent to spare turned middle-aged (52 candles this summer) master collaborator. Preceding projects have promulgated an array of songwriting trysts (Bacharach and McCartney and wife Diana Krall, to name but a few) as well as orchestral dalliances with the Brodsky Quartet and…
Impatient ears will hear the pretty indie gloss of Camera Obscura and quickly dismiss it as twee chamber pop, but while the sextet’s sunny music pleases on contact, front woman Tracyanne Campbell has more on her mind than sweet refrains. While the galloping opener, “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken,”…
A vision of smeared red lipstick, smudgy eyeliner, and a cotton candy tangle of platinum hair, Theo Kogan was an early ’90s icon as the petulant, potty-mouthed front woman of all-girl punk band the Lunachicks, who ruled the New York club scene after the sea change of grunge unleashed a…
While mosh-inclined fans and occasional employment of screamo vocals often pigeonhole Seattle trio The Fall of Troy into the hardcore genre, the skill level of the barely legal members’ playing suggests that there is more to this group than circle pits and screeches. Guitarist Thomas Erak loops his uncontrollably speedy…
If Lyle Lovett is the thinking man’s Texas songwriter, Robert Earl Keen is the drinking thinking man’s Texas songwriter. Since the late ’80s, Keen’s cockeyed, barstool’s-eye view of life’s landscape has lured love from the alt-country set and diehard frat partyers in equal measure. Lumped in early on with the…
Has any American artist — whether it be filmmaker, author or musician — responded to 9/11 more vigorously than Bruce Springsteen? Between The Rising, Devils & Dust, and this year’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Springsteen’s recent material has laboriously detailed the human fallout from that day’s attacks and…
The legendary DJ Vadim has been gaining accolades in the underground hip-hop community for ages now, working with a who’s who of MCs and holding his own as an instrumental sonic architect. Across the Atlantic pond, where the Russian-born DJ holds down a residency in London called Loose Change, Vadim…
Cutting her teeth with unique Parisian band Nouvelle Vague (whose last album featured bossa nova covers of ’80s songs by the likes of Joy Division), Camille’s second solo outing has already won accolades on her home continent. A predominantly a cappella record, occasionally backed by light yet effective instrumentation, Le…
Since rapper Timothy “Gift of Gab” Parker and Xavier “DJ Chief Xcel” Mosely formed Blackalicious in 1987 while attending high school in Sacramento, California, the duo has persevered from one hip-hop generation to another. The two have seen musical tastes change from the trendy youth culture of the late ’80s…
To metalheads everywhere: There appears to be some confusion about a particular number in reference to me and my eminence. Somewhere between the misinterpretations of numerologists, that movie with the scary kid, and the occasional nod from a handful of spandex-wearing musicians in the late 20th century, all of you…
The 18 tracks compiled on Invaders present a rare glimpse inside Kemado A&R chief Keith Abrahamsson’s troubled cranium. Though these bands share musical touchstones (it’s pointless even to mention Black Sabbath), each takes its influences in a slightly different direction. Leaning toward the sludgy bludgeoning of groups such as Saviours,…
You’d have to search mighty diligently to find another set of hardcore punks who voluntarily put an “FBI Anti-Piracy Warning” on their independently released CD. But Sigma already distinguishes itself as perhaps the only group in any musical genre outside of Up With People to list a “band meaning” on…
It’s rare for an artist coming up in today’s rap game to release an album that’s not quickly labeled pop rap, underground, or gangster, but the second solo project from Phoenix rapper Blaze Rock falls somewhere in between, defying easy categorization. With tracks produced by a variety of mostly local…
As female duo The Ditty Bops cover the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” on their new record, it’s difficult to believe them when they sweetly croon “I feel like I could die” over delicately plucked acoustic guitar and mandolin. But that discontinuity may very well be the group’s appeal. Spinning…
