Axel Willner’s debut album stutters so much, sometimes it’s as if the speakers will wobble off the table’s edge and crash to the floor in pieces. As The Field, Willner casts his ubiquitous, reliable software looping techniques in a frequently satisfying light on From Here We Go Sublime, one of…
“I’ll await you, while you’re cheating/lightning strikes you when you’re moving,” sings Blonde Redhead frontwoman Kazu Mikino, whose vocals float atop rhythmic looping riffs in “The Dress,” as she delves into loving-you-less and proves that early-’90s dreamy art-rock can still survive in today’s power-pop-oriented world. The album’s title track opens…
West Coast electro-shoegaze outfit Languis took its already compelling sound to towering heights last year on the mysterious, electronically enhanced stoner pop of Other Desert Cities. For Split, their shared platform with Bay Area leftfield hip-hop duo Meanest Man Contest, Languis apparently developed the medicated-drone end of what comes out…
A recurring problem with many Americana/neo-roots-music performers can be summed up thusly: Terminal Earnestness, an affliction that compels a songster to prove how salt-of-the-earth “authentic” s/he is, no matter what graduate program they recently opted out of. Of course, some take the opposite (though equally tedious) tack of Excessive Irreverence,…
This band named its latest effort The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. And it sounds like the devil is getting all the better punches in as Jesse Lacey leads Brand New through moments as explosive as the chorus hook of “Sowing Season,” howling “Yeah” as though the word…
November 2000: With filming on the multimillion-dollar Lord of the Rings trilogy almost complete, New Line Cinema’s mercenary cavalry teams silently scour the moors and mountain peaks of New Zealand in a desperate search for the three experimental vat-grown hobbits who have escaped the top-secret holding pen. Raised on a…
Combining the dulcet tones of the Beach Boys with melodies so infectious the Beatles might turn green with envy, The Shins typify what’s right with early 21st-century pop music. This is not Clear Channel’s contrived cookie-cutter pop. This is indie pop, complete with ’80s nods, country flourishes, and truly clever…
They were able to sell more than five million copies of their bottom-shaking, New Wave-flavored debut, Hot Fuss. But the Killers clearly learned a thing or two about playing the long odds in their Vegas stomping grounds, returning last October with a second effort, Sam’s Town, that, surprisingly, owes less…
Although he’s already won a Grammy, remixed such folks as Madonna and the Rolling Stones, and sold out dance clubs around the world, superstar spinster Ali Shirazinia (a.k.a. Dubfire) ain’t about to rest on his laurels just yet. The Iranian-born turntablist, who serves as one half of DJ duo Deep…
Fu Manchu’s King of the Road was a modern-day stoner-rock classic, kicking off the new millennium with a shit-eating grin that said “Maybe we’re joking and maybe we’re not, but either way you will be rocked beyond all recognition by the time we’re through.” And get this: Nearly every song…
Tucson native Roger Clyne had some amount of success in the mid-’90s with his rock band The Refreshments, whose sound fit well with the post-college rock explosion of the decade. But with the Peacemakers, Clyne’s songwriting is culled from three similar styles — Americana, Tejano, and the ol’ “white man…
Since turning irony-minded heads in 2002 with its debut single “Losing My Edge,” LCD Soundsystem has made a name for itself as the leading purveyor of winking dance tracks. With big dumb beats, lyrics skewering all that is hip, and plenty of a-go-go bells, the Soundsystem and its production alter…
Aside from his role as music educator, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra director, and “yes man” of Ken Burns’ criminally incomplete Jazz documentary, the apparent soothsayer of the genre’s modern movement — trumpeter/bandleader Wynton Marsalis — is also the master of wallpaper jazz — compositions with easygoing tempos, robotic time signatures,…
With its childlike cover art, intimate bedroom-recording style, and front woman Shana Levy’s wispy, girlish vocals, Let’s Go Sailing’s full-length debut risks alienating anyone who detests preciousness. But while The Chaos in Order is a soft, small-scale affair, Levy’s songs consistently find the universal in ordinary singer-songwriter topics: first loves,…
Fans of such neo-swingers as Squirrel Nut Zippers and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies should take note: Austin’s Asylum Street Spankers are the real deal. A mixture of old school jazz, folk, swing, honky-tonk, and blues, the Spankers’ music is delightfully tongue-in-cheek. In the 12 years since the band’s inception, it has…
When you think about it, skanking is one of the most ridiculous things you can do with a human body. You pump your elbows back and forth like a pregnant gorilla running the mile and you hurl your legs out from under you like a drunken cabaret girl on her…
“Cold, remotely desolate, permanent.” That’s how Denali (the Richmond, Virginia-based band, not the Alaskan mountain) described its brand of spooky, down-tempo pop during its four-year lifespan. Formed with her older brother Keeley in 2000, Maura Davis’ former band (R.I.P.) released a pair of highly regarded albums before calling it quits…
“Little Dutch sailor boy” takes on an entirely new context when Harry Merry takes the stage. The Holland-based, one-man band, dressed in full nautical regalia, puts on a bizarre freakout circus that’s both riveting and uncomfortable to watch. Goofball lyrics modulate from a high Pee Wee Herman-inspired timbre to Draculian…
Mixing Beth Orton’s electronic grooves, Lisa Germano’s eclecticism, and the smooth confessional tenor of Suzanne Vega, Birmingham, Alabama’s Maria Taylor has gained notoriety with her debut, 11:11, and her latest effort, Lynn Teeter Flower. Discovered by Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and signed to his Saddle Creek label, Taylor fronted the…
Hate techno? Pablo Gomez sure doesn’t, and neither do his buds Joe Bear or Shane Silkey. In fact, the DJ trio (also known as AreFriendsElectrik?) partnered up with .anti_space’s Justin McBee to present ^UP, their weekly Saturday dance night in the upstairs lounge of Homme, 138 West Camelback, to showcase…
This week, Club Candids decided to skip the weekend debauchery because we had the opportunity to hang with some Phoenix Suns on Wednesday, March 21, at Axis/Radius in Scottsdale, where everyone was celebrating Raja Bell’s new reality TV show, Beyond the Court. Before we even had our camera ready, we…
British post-punks/pre-New Wavers Echo & The Bunnymen released Songs to Learn and Sing in 1985, and 10 of the tracks that made the first comp are included here, most notably hit singles like “Rescue,” “Do It Clean,” “The Cutter” and “The Killing Moon.” But this new collection contains 10 more…
