This is a collaboration between blues noise guitarist/singer Jon Spencer and Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, another band that knows a thing or two about laying down a primal blues squall. The legendary Jim Dickson produced, but the music has the sloppy, uncontained feel of a…
No doubt about it, The HorrorPops are headed for Hades. Not because the fearsome foursome of Holland-born hipster hellcats committed any mass murders (that we know of), but simply because we’re certain they’ve somehow sold their souls to Satan. How else would you explain the devilish fervor in which punky…
Is Mary J. Blige still the reigning queen of hip-hop soul? It was looking iffy a few years ago, when she released her lukewarm Love & Life, an awkward attempt to reconcile her usual gritty themes of abusive relationships and ghetto drama with an increasingly happy personal life — newly…
Although Missouri native Will Johnson splits his time among Undertow Orchestra, South San Gabriel, and solo projects, he’s best known as the leader of Denton, Texas’ Centro-Matic, a band that wraps Johnson’s sometimes fragile (and sometimes raucous) songs in a gauze of country feedback and big-sky rock ‘n’ roll. For…
Henry Rollins’ personal multimedia campaign, based on his ripped abs and smart ass, has made him the closest thing to a mainstream celebrity American punk rock has produced. But that extra-caffeinated personality obscures some genuine musical accomplishments. It was his fury that stoked Black Flag into the band that punk…
Long before he became known as the “Sultan of Sickness,” the drum ‘n’ bass devotee known as Dylan began his career spinning records over the pirate radio airwaves in his native London. Since those quasi-legal days, this dope DJ has risen to international fame and fortune, with his mixes covering…
The cloaking of A Lazarus Taxon in immaculate, arty, black-and-white photographs of car accidents seems antithetical to this boxed set’s methodically crafted contents: 15 years’ worth of hard-to-track-down Tortoise droppings confined to three discs and a single DVD. An indeed-geek drinking game could be built around the Chicago post-rockers’ persistent…
When we heard Rakim (of Eric B. and Rakim fame) was coming to town, we bopped our collective heads while listening to his last release, 1999’s The Master, and also cocked our heads in confusion. What’s the dude doing going on an album tour for the first time since 1999?…
Scott H. Biram bills himself as “the Dirty Old One Man Band,” and he lives up to the moniker by cranking his Gibson through a fuzzy old amp, blowing primordial blues harp with the aid of a harmonica rack, and providing relentless rhythms with an amplified homemade foot stomp board…
The Derailers’ Honky-Tonk Checklist: Songs about women — check. Song about beer — check. Song about guns — check. Song about a pickup truck — miss. Three out of four ain’t bad, and neither is Soldiers of Love, the sixth album from The Derailers. It’s good for what it is,…
It’s probably fair to say that every rock band secretly pines for a breakout record, and local dub-punks Authority Zero are no exception. AZ has just finished its self-titled third LP (due out in October), an album guitarist Bill Marcks says will be to its last record, Andiamo, what AFI’s…
San Diego foursome Pistolita is just beginning to stand on its own feet, but its roster of experience speaks volumes more than its members’ ages. Not only is the piano-driven rock band the very first signing to powerhouse booking agent Andrew Ellis’ Montalban Hotel label, but it’s already toured with…
It would be difficult to imagine two artists who better embody the spirit of authentic Americana than John Fogerty and Willie Nelson. Each has established an indelible imprint, from the relentless refrains that framed Fogerty’s Creedence Clearwater Revival hits to the rugged, backwoods drawl Nelson navigated. Likewise, their careers paralleled…
Britt Daniel fans who cut their teeth on “Girls Can Tell” and “Kill the Moonlight” may be shocked to hear how freely Daniel borrows from The Pixies and Nirvana on these first two Spoon releases, back on the streets for the first time since more than a handful of hipsters…
Get these motherfucking emo bands off this motherfucking album. No, really — get these motherfucking emo bands off this motherfucking album. The soundtrack accompanying what’s arguably the year’s most anticipated cheese-horror flick is a giant mess — namely because it’s full of pounding, stuttering dance remixes of songs by new-punk…
Is the world ready for a Dirty South rap single that’s not about ostentatious automotive modifications or garish cosmetic dentistry? Waco’s Strange Fruit Project is banking on it. “Soul Clap” marries funky brass (arranged by Denton funk-rockers Mingo Fishtrap) and jazz guitars to a handclap beat. The deceptively simple beat…
The fourth release from Danish alt-pop stars Mew seems ripe for success in an American market currently embracing Coldplay/Keane epics and its indie flipside of slacker lullabies by The Shins and Rogue Wave. And the Glass Handed Kites opener “Circuitry of the Wolf” comes churning out with stuttered strums, spooky…
Like many of their contemporaries from the bygone dance-rock era, Ratatat’s Mike Stroud and Evan Mast are trying to expand beyond the fizzy, body-moving instrumentals for which they first gained attention. Ratatat’s 2004 self-titled debut gained admirers alongside accusations of cranking out sound-alike tracks, so Classics offers some variety alongside…
Here’s a real-life kind of needle exchange for you: A decade ago, superstar lesbian DJ Irene was shooting up meth and living out of her car in between gigs working the wheels of steel at L.A. dance clubs like Arena. Thankfully, the spiky-haired Sapphic spinstress eventually swapped out the tracks…
Remarkably lovely U.K. trio The Clientele, whose sound primarily falls somewhere between the bright psych-pop of late-’60s Britain and the lush jangle-chime of L.A.’s ’80s Paisley Underground scene, pulls off the rare, swell trick of reminding you of literally dozens of artists — the late Arthur Lee, Dream Syndicate, Mercury…
Pity the poor music journalist charged with the task of describing the enticingly exotic and eccentric music created by DeVotchKa. Over its six years of existence, scribes and screed-slingers (including this one) have used a plethora of hyphen-laced phrases to describe the Denver foursome’s strangely sumptuous sound, including such idioms…
If Gary Numan had to be remembered as a one-hit wonder, well, at least he gets to be remembered as the one who gave the world “Cars,” a paranoid portrait in icy detachment that finds him alone in his car and enjoying it not because he’s doing something twisted like…
