If not for the mass appeal of emotional exhibitionism, Billy Corgan would have been an acquired taste. Think about it: those vaporous guitar tones, the over-the-top Victoriana, and, of course, that whine, uniquely irksome in pop history. It wasn’t until Zwan — his 2003 attempt at banddom, now regularly and…
Your heart won’t be the only thing pounding if you’re in the middle of the dance floor at Myst on Thursday, June 30. There’ll be loud, irresistible beats courtesy of the Planet of the Drums collective: Dara, AK1200, and Dieselboy (with MC Messinian), a trio of turntable messiahs who should…
Surprisingly durable and devoted, rockabilly is a vigorous American subculture, much like the Elvis-ites. The slicked-back pompadours, tattered sleeveless oxfords, tattoos and souped-up cars at rockabilly shows make it hard to tell whether you’re in a dusty Stray Cats video or cavorting with Eddie Cochran’s first fans. Kim Nekroman, a…
The Faint were only the first to tap nascent New Wave nostalgia. Action Action is another that’s wandered away from the whole emo/screamo/punk-pop thing, harking back twenty years for its sound. Of course, it’s not exactly a new phenomenon for singer/guitarist Mark Kluepfel. A couple years ago, he headed the…
Tussle doesn’t claim to be a dance band. In fact, Tussle doesn’t claim any musical genre as its own. But in spite of its transcendent aspirations, this band is bound to get people moving. These gentlemen from San Francisco combine disco, noise, punk, and dub to create kinetic grooves that…
The most impressive thing about Cowboy Troy’s major-label debut is what it took to make a black country-rapper feasible. Hip-hop, the great assimilationist art, had to become the dominant musical form. A long line of experiments, from Charlie Daniels’ spoken-word songs to Timbaland’s hoedowns with Bubba Sparxxx, had to lay…
Lamb of God exudes metal — long hair, a gregarious nature, and insane solos — and puts on a superb live show, as this two-hour flick shows in detail. One of the best parts of the band’s performance is the extravagance that is Chris Adler’s drumming. The man has 18…
“Retro World,” from the Black Halos’ debut, remains rock’s most relevant self-critique six years after it was released. In it, grubby-voiced Billy Hopeless croaks, “Here it comes, baby, there it goes/It’s getting harder to shoot my load/Nothing’s really dangerous, just a retro world.” Here was an anti-nostalgia anthem rendered in…
For those who’ve longed for the poetic license of Morrissey crammed into the keyboard-tinted riffs of the Cars, leave it to the limeys to satisfy the demand. Maximo Park has already received panting pre-emptive praise, and A Certain Trigger actually bears out much of that premature ejaculation. “Apply Some Pressure”…
1. White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan (V2) 2. Sleater-Kinney, The Woods (Sub Pop) 3. Coldplay, X&Y (Capitol) 4. The Flaming Lips, Fearless Freaks DVD (Sony) 5. Belle and Sebastian, Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (Matador) 6. Stephen Malkmus, Face the Truth (Matador) 7. Tears, Here Come the Tears…
The essential hardcore sound makes us think of living in New Jersey — kind of like the shirt that says, “New Jersey: Only the strong survive.” But guess what? West Coasters are strong as well. Just ask Seattle’s Champion. Signed to the frequently impressive Bridge Nine Records (Death Before Dishonor,…
Gabby La La is tap dancing. Tiny of frame, huge of talent, she tap dances onto the stage — it’s about performance and it’s about percussion. Gabby is hooking in to a growing audience, as if the sitar she plays, held like a Strat, is tapping the cosmic escalator and…
The cascading waves of sound that constitute the songs on Engineers’ self-titled debut contain lyrics, but they’re almost entirely beside the point. For almost 50 minutes, these Londoners deliver the aural equivalent of those overpriced Sharper Image relaxation chairs: soothing, tranquil, easy to mock — but hard to resist once…
It used to be that the most ironic thing in my music collection was my LP of A-Tom-ic Jones, with the swivel-hipped singer posing in front of a bloody red mushroom cloud while autographing “Best Wishes” — it’s a safe bet the previous owner wasn’t Japanese. Now comes this Battle…
It wasn’t a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup moment when this Brooklyn trio learned they could merge cool jazz, poetry and rap into a desirable package (The Last Poets, The Jungle Brother, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest can all arm-wrestle over first honors). But Digable Planets scored the…
Lots of indie bands get press from ‘zines and alternative rags, but when you get some love from the New Yorker, then you’ve got that rarefied air of intelligentsia’s critical acclaim. John Darnielle, former nurse and New Times music freelancer, received the highbrow treatment last month — when he was…
Technically speaking, Embrace is the egg to Coldplay’s chicken, yet given the frenzy over Chris Martin and the Three Other Guys, it wouldn’t be surprising if people also started calling U2, Pink Floyd, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “the next Coldplay.” Not the short-lived ’80s emo outfit fronted by Ian MacKaye,…
Sub Pop’s 2004 proper release of Rogue Wave’s Out of the Shadow (originally a limited release on Responsive Recordings in 2003) was one of the quieter ones of the year — strangely quiet, because it seemed destined to be a huge success. The delicate pop featured was both heartfelt and…
It’s getting to the point where it’s almost too hot to go out and dance, at least before the wee hours — it seems best to hide in the air-conditioning and drop some ambient beats while you chill with an icy vodka tonic. That is, unless you’ve got some seriously…
Having flown from dusty alt-country to the land of orchestral pop plenty with 1998’s Overcome by Happiness, Joe Pernice is no stranger to spontaneous relocation. On Discover a Lovelier You, however, the Holbrook, Massachusetts, songwriter just moves to a different room in the same apartment. In spots — notably the…
With a near-egalitarian gender split, a tendency toward horns (including trombone and tuba), and the wry ability to deliver phrases like “permanent malaise,” “kill you politely,” and “11 different reasons for fists and fights” while still claiming its twee pop turf, Architecture in Helsinki is the hands-down winner as 2005’s…
No disrespect for co-headliners J-Live and Vast Aire (of Cannibal Ox), but the star attraction and the recipient of any spare ice backstage has to be New York’s rap fixture C-Rayz Walz, who was the only three-time champion of the long-running EOW MC Challenge freestyle contest, and was even banned…
