Something is wrong with society when the most impish bands of the ’90s start making resonant social statements. But on Under a Billion Suns, Mudhoney seems more vexed and pissed than Green Day or NOFX. Partly, it’s the sound: Oxidized slabs of guitar psychedelia evoke messy times better than polished…
Whether or not you consider the results “hip-hop,” you’ve got to respect Oakland, California’s Anticon collective for establishing its own paradigm. Since 1998’s Deep Puddle Dynamics, the Midwestern transplant crew has branched off into numerous subgroups, exploring new creative waters each time. A celebrated beatmaker for Themselves since going solo,…
Seconds to Breathe is ready for radio. This modern rock quintet has been refining its sound during the past year, culminating with a brand-new album, Sirens. The band works the power chords and strategically places crescendos in a way that is danceable, but also creates the quintessential slow modern rock…
It’s tempting to say that Bands on Grand will be a glimpse of what’s to come for downtown, when there’ll be nightlife galore and bands playing all the time. Really, though, is that such a stretch from reality, at least in a modest, seeing-signs-of-life-down-there way? To be sure, you won’t…
Despite its combative-sounding moniker, the Ska Brawl tour won’t consist of skank-happy rude boys battling in a clash of brass knuckles and brass instruments. Nor will it feature local upstart ska bands like The Dietrichs or the eight-member ensemble Captain Squeegee & The Soap Suds taking out veteran Third Wave…
Don’t fuck with Joan Jett. The leather-lovin’ singer-songwriter turns 46 this year, and she’s come a long way since her prepubescent days with Kim Fowley’s all-girl garage band, The Runaways. And if you thought she looked tough in the 1982 video for “I Love Rock N’ Roll,” you should see…
Who cries for Graham Coxon or Scott Kannberg? A better question: How many people even know their names? They are The Other Songwriters, talented individuals who will go down in musical history as merely the sidemen for more distinctive songwriters, respectively Blur’s Damon Albarn and Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus. Once they…
While Seattle’s Minus the Bear features winding, sometimes jarring guitar work that calls to mind D.C. post-core and math rock, the band’s tone is more in keeping with Built to Spill. Songs melt by with an easygoing fluidity that belies the dense swirl that often envelops them in a hazy,…
Last year was a fascinating one for Korn: Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch found Jesus and quit the band (i.e., the “Korn Holy, Oh!” incident), and the remaining foursome found The Matrix (the production team known for its work with Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne, and Liz Phair), which helped guide the…
Once a year, we at New Times have the pleasure of sending a local beat-mechanic off to Miami during the dance-centric Winter Music Conference to play for thousands of people at the Ultra Music Festival. But before that happens, you have the chance to see the contenders throw down, with…
The video for Goblin Cock’s “Stumped” features girl softball players, comic books, and bad special-effects robots — three sure signs that, while the band’s music wouldn’t be out of place on a mix tape with Sabbath’s, these guys aren’t your ordinary metal band. This is metal for the ironic indie…
Unless you’re a barfly or an Enzyte stockholder, “stiff” isn’t a very fetching adjective. At best, it connotes cold reserve and efficiency; at worst, it means corpse. And yet stiff will go down as the prevalent rock descriptor of the early ’00s, when The Strokes and Interpol appropriated plenty of…
With their rapid-fire subversive stabs, Asylum Street Spankers are like a Family Guy hootenanny. This Austin, Texas, outfit has devoted entire albums to irking the easily offended. Spanker Madness skewered the war on drugs, and Dirty Ditties lived up to its title, producing “The Scrotum Song” (“It’s my wrinkly, crinkly…
The kind of group that exists just beneath the radar, sneaking onto mix tapes and performing as the unknown but charming opener for a wide range of better-known acts, Matt Pond PA has always written great melodies. Formed when the band’s titular head moved from New England to Pennsylvania, the…
Poker night at the Smith house, November 2004 . . . Jada Pinkett Smith: I see that 25 and raise 500. Abe Vigoda: Whoa, that’s too rich for me! Jackie Chan: Yeah, me too. I’m out. Jada Pinkett Smith: What about you, baby? Will Smith: I wanna keep going with…
OK Go scored right out of the box with its memorable shit-talking single “Get Over It,” which epitomized the band’s fun-loving, amped-up power-pop. Riding a mix of crashing post-punk guitars and bouncy New Wave rhythms, this is a party band with real skills, not unlike fellow Illinois natives Cheap Trick,…
The Soweto Gospel Choir, a South African troupe that includes some 30 members, is one of the most inspiring musical performances you’ll see this year. Under the direction of choir leaders David Mulovhedzi and Beverly Bryer, the group delivers elegiac layers of harmony in eight African languages from 11 separate…
Women of the future, prepare to shake your hips. There’s a blast of fresh air coming from the Windy City, and it’s coming straight from the roaring amps and tightly wound voices of Chicago band The M’s. Future Women, the group’s second album, is chock-full of reasons to do the…
While most “Golden Era” hip-hoppers have retired to community social clubs or made halfhearted, half-cracked attempts at reliving bygone days, Public Enemy has kept chipping away at the cornerstone. While on a seeming hiatus since Apocalypse 91, Chuck D, Flava Flav, and newest addition Paris have designed a sound through…
For this week’s American debut of the Arctic Monkeys, bullshit deflectors have been readied in droves. And for good reason: The debut’s hype, British record-breaking sales figures and critical raves are getting more attention than the actual songs in question, a fact that demands an immediate red flag (yet, strangely,…
Scott Herren’s recent work has drawn criticism for sounding too similar to his early breakthrough recordings (particularly Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives). He often uses the same melodies — a soft, melodic arpeggio of keys — on all of his recordings, a tendency that frequently appears on Security Screenings, his…
If you’re digging the broken sound of breakbeats and the pulsating pound of drum ‘n’ bass, peruse the plethora of peeps who’ll be spinning at 10,000 Leagues Below the Funk on Saturday, March 4. This massive aquatic-themed, rave-style event features three stages with more than a dozen DJs from around…
