Long before hitmakers like Kelis sampled Mozart and Mike Skinner borrowed from Bartok, a ’60s girl group called The Toys layered exquisite teen harmonies over Bach finger exercises and launched a pop-music revolution. Led by Barbara Harris, The Toys brought sonatas to sock hops around the country when their million-selling…
On a Friday or Saturday night, sliding into a nightspot as hot as Taste Ultra Lounge, 6910 East Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale, ain’t too easy, playa. Usually, the super-swanky, Asian-style drinkery is so swarmed with top-shelf trim and bar stars during prime time that the doormen ain’t gonna let your $30K-millionaire…
Three-quarters of the way through a compilation that’s been billed as a locals-only/females-only album, a voice that’s clearly not a girl’s appears. That voice belongs to Chris Corwin (no, Chris is not short for Christina), who, last time we checked, is totally a guy. We didn’t investigate to see whether…
Dave King, frontman for L.A.’s Flogging Molly, writes the lyrics for his songs on a manual typewriter that was made in 1916, the year of The Easter Rising, the rebellion that kicked off modern Ireland’s struggle to free itself from British rule. That touchstone of rebellion is mirrored in the…
Anybody out there remember the ’80s U.K. combo Blue Aeroplanes? They’re the closest comparison this critic’s strained brain can make to the eclectic, happily hard-to-pigeonhole Oakland band Why? While in no way imitative of Blue Aeroplanes, Why? shares stylistic similarities with them — bright, buoyant, terse indie-rock melodies; distinctive, cozy…
The acclaim that so often rains down on (insert overrated dance act’s name here) may soon stumble its bandanna-clad way toward Toronto duo Crystal Castles. While their self-titled debut full-length on Last Gang packs a strain of considerably punky tension under its arcade bleeps and beat programming, the more subtle…
After spending the past seven years building their reputation as a no-frills bluesy grit-rock duo, Black Keys vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney felt they needed a fresh perspective. So they turned to Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse, half of Gnarls Barkley, and a recent go-to producer…
A mere 16 minutes of recorded music shot the Canadian kids in Tokyo Police Club into the indie-rock spotlight. Since the release of the seven-song EP A Lesson in Crime in 2006, Dave Monks (vocals, bass), Josh Hook (guitar), Graham Wright (keyboards), and Greg Alsop (drums) have amassed an impressive…
Naming no names, but after listening to an album by a certain “alt-bluegrass” combo, a mini-epiphany alighted: Why listen to a half-assed, smug-hipster version of bluegrass when the real thing — Ralph Stanley, Gibson Brothers, even Alison Krauss — is available? Listening to the Avett Brothers posed a similar argument…
Before punk rock worked its way onto the airwaves via pop-infused bands who paid more for a single pair of pants than all four Ramones spent on their entire wardrobes, diehard fans of the genre could be downright scary — volatile creatures with safety pins through their noses who used…
After scoring a couple of songs on TV shows like Smallville and One Tree Hill (and briefly frolicking with Mandy Moore), one would think Greg Laswell might be a pretty cheerful guy. But this San Diego singer-songwriter’s latest six-song EP, How the Day Sounds, is dripping with melancholy and tension…
Ode to the Ghetto is Guilty Simpson’s debut LP, but independent hip-hop heads will be familiar with the cocksure delivery from this Detroit-raised affiliate of the late J Dilla. Check “Clap Your Hands” from the Chrome Children comp for an airtight testimony of a guest spots-heavy résumé, or even beatmaker/emcee…
Times New Viking takes a cue from fellow Ohioans Guided by Voices, recording its fuzzy indie rock under a thick gauze of guitar noise. There’s little to no production on the feedback-soaked Rip It Off, which includes zero bottom end to balance out the meter-tipping squall. It’s an inspired move…
While musicians who play “old time” music tend to be reverent toward bygone traditions, reverence is just about the last thing the Asylum Street Spankers have on their minds. An almost entirely acoustic ensemble that revisits old-timey forms and updates (read: skewers) them with a modern twist, the Spankers come…
Punk Bunny peddles smutty, slutty, über-cheesy ear candy that sticks to orifices like a pink feather boa on a fresh fly strip. But the Hollywood trio’s throbbing love songs about blowjobs, prostitution, and mustache rides are too silly to sicken — their odes to oral joy would fall in the…
There are some sort of natural bridges among prog rock, thrash and heavy metal, and grunge, and Phoenix trio Sectas attempts to cross them. The band’s latest album, Voices of the Damaged, manages to mix disparate elements from each genre and still sound cohesive. From the prog-rock world, we have…
Your social schedule for this weekend is looking quite barren, and the probability of you scoring with that hottie from that costume party is running about 2:1 against. But don’t panic! There’s still a possibility of having a really hoopy time on Saturday, March 22, at The DJ’s Guide to…
When we hear The Lisps — the sassy sound of wind blowing through a melodica, the jangly gypsy guitars, the coed vocal harmonies sung with the speed of auctioneers — we can see a caravan in our mind’s eye, trekking across some unsettled plane at dusk, on its way to…
We love Art Detour weekend. Not only does it bring out the best of downtown, but it’s also one event we can cover that doesn’t result in a hangover the next morning. On Friday, March 7, the weekend kicked off with an evening tour of the galleries. And while there…
“We can talk about anything you want, long as you’re naked.” — Congressman David Dilbeck (Burt Reynolds) in the 1996 movie Striptease Striptease is a terrible movie. And there are, without a doubt, a lot of terrible strip clubs. But why is it that we feel we can say anything…
In a world, as Elvis Costello recently described it, full of noisy things, it takes a lot of perseverance and guts to be quiet. If Ceilings, the Equal Vision debut album from local four-piece Alive In Wild Paint is any indication, the band is on a mission to spread tranquility…
Despite An Abstract Love Story’s playfully ribald themes, orgasmic vocal snippets, and big-person talk of wine and toking cabbage, one just can’t shake a rather juvenile image: that indecisive protagonist from childhood cartoons, the voices of heavenly reason and deviltry whispering in each of his ears. On one shoulder there’s…
