In 1961, fledgling jazz label Impulse garnered considerable out-of-the-gate clout by landing an exclusive contract with John Coltrane. It was a brilliant coup because, at that time, the saxophonist was compiling the finest working band of the 1960s. The reed giant was about to take his new quartet with him…
Mr. Lif’s sophomore full-length is brilliantly structured to be a metaphor for the battle people endure to be heard. Mo’ Mega moves from a chaotic first half in which the Boston rapper’s frustrated voice cranes through the rubble of El-P’s production (every bit as suffocating as it was when Cannibal…
Thom Yorke’s first individual outing is about what you’d expect — a glitchy, primarily electronic excursion that mirrors Radiohead’s most recent work. The Eraser’s dour compositions conjure the icy, detached vibe of Kid A and Amnesiac, and were it not for Yorke’s beguiling melodies and consistently compelling fey falsetto, it…
As the U.K.’s most infectious punks, the Buzzcocks may one day be forced to take the fall for every lame-ass pop-punk band this side of Blink-182. But the Buzzcocks’ original blend of over-caffeinated pop and punk was always more adventurous than that. And more legitimately punk. While everyone from Hüsker…
Regardless of whether it’s a fair comparison, Muse, Britain’s second-favorite semi-atmospheric sensation, will always be the Jan Brady to Radiohead’s Marcia. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to read a Muse album review — including this one — that doesn’t mention the band’s sincere appreciation for, or outright thievery from, Thom…
Hailing from the shores of the California desert’s Salton Sea, a leviathan fed by agricultural runoff and ringed by crumbling ghost resorts, Throw Rag embodies a potent combination of punk and Podunk. The six-man band’s punk ‘n’ roll and boogie-core, salted with carnivalesque psychedelia, rips harder than almost any current…
As DJ BT, Los Angeles-based turntablist and electronics whiz kid Brian Transeau is known as one of the pioneers of trance music. He’s also credited with innovative techniques like the stutter edit and time correction, which tie samples together in mathematical rhythms. As a producer, DJ BT has mixed up…
Come within 10 feet of Marshall Chapman and she’ll likely tell you a story — which is not all that surprising since Nashville, Tennessee, is nothing if not a town full of stories, and “the tall girl” has called the Music City home for nearly four decades. Chapman might tell…
Like Popeye and Jonathan Richman, Steve Forbert is what he is. In 28 years of playing sun-dappled heartland rock with the occasional sidelong glance of cynicism, he’s only gotten to sound more like his own earnest self. But then, you don’t expect a lot of shape-shifting from a Mississippi kid…
Psalm One’s The Death of Frequent Flyer is an uneven but compelling mix of pure rhyme skills and casual songwriting. One of the best songs on the 14-track disc is “Rapper Girls,” a souled-out attack on untalented female MCs that wraps around Psalm One’s chorus, “This is for my rapper…
Whatever your politics, you have to admit that the title of Impeach My Bush, the third album by Berlin-based raunch-rap mistress Peaches, is a joke whose time has come. (Titles might be Peaches’ true talent — see also 2003’s Fatherfucker.) Whether or not Impeach offers more than exemplary wordplay comes…
Kalas is Matt Pike’s new outfit, and for the Bay Area quintet’s nine-track debut he wields his ax only on a single cut (“Frozen Sun”). That’s because Pike’s primary role is that of a lead vocalist, which is kinda fucked up. Think about it: The dude from Asbestos Death, Sleep,…
Gender identity and uncomfortable intimacy are just hazy phrases for Portland’s Parenthetical Girls to knead into song. The band’s recent release, Safe as Houses, traverses themes of sex and shame from various perspectives, sung by a male (Zac Pennington) with a fragile falsetto. Surrounded by hauntingly minimal electronic pop, Pennington…
“There’s just something about them,” Kristin Allen-Zito sings-mutters to open her 2004 album Helium. Sounds like yet another coffeehouse singer with cigarette-stained vocals, a strummed acoustic guitar and cute “ooh”s in the background, but then she finishes the sentence — “that makes me want to stick my dick in/I know…
Signed while still in high school, Slightly Stoopid’s Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald were probably the “raddest” of all dudes “gnarly,” smoking more weed than humanly possible and tossing out generic SoCal skate-punk. Nearly a decade later, the two may still love to party, but their sound has grown up…
Two well-established truisms are that Cleveland rocks, and that underground heroes Brandtson united all kids growing up on the skids with their massive back catalog on Deep Elm Records. However, on Hello, Control (the Clevo quartet’s sophomore effort for the Militia Group label), the band wonders why “Nobody Dances Anymore.”…
The nine gunshot wounds and subsequent bragging rights at Shady still belong to 50 Cent, but Obie Trice now carries in his skull a bullet (from a violent encounter last New Year’s Eve) and a memory (of his late labelmate Proof). Unlike the larger-than-life 50, Obie sounds genuinely scarred by…
The Raconteurs have the best Web site ever. Modeled in the style of the green-screen days of bulky supercomputers, the site (www.theraconteurs.com) is two-bit awesome, with text-heavy simplicity that ditches mouse controls in favor of keyboard-only commands. Nixing the Flash and the glitz, the Raconteurs do it old school, which…
Listening to Peregrine, the Appleseed Cast’s forthcoming album, you’d never know that the group got its start as an emo outfit named December’s Tragic Drive in Lawrence, Kansas, during the late ’90s. While peers such as the Get Up Kids have taken their adolescent emoting into alt-country territory, the Appleseed…
In the world of instrumental rock, Saxon Shore has little in common with the onanistic, sonically soulless noodling of Eric Johnson or the spaced-out, loosely constructed noise rock of Mogwai. For its latest album, the ensemble teamed with producer Dave Fridmann to produce ten tightly structured, richly layered instrumentals —…
1. Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere (Downtown) 2. Kool Keith, Return of Dr. Octagon (OCD Records) 3. Rise Against, The Sufferer and the Witness (Geffen Records) 4. Pearl Jam, Live at Easy Street (Exclusive) (J Records) 5. India Arie, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship (Umvd Labels) 6. The Black Angels,…
Many bands revel in their roots, but few amble as close to the heartland as the Missouri-based Bottle Rockets. Their no-frills approach is tough and tenacious, reflecting an underdog attitude that tends to downplay resignation in favor of an occasional upward glance. Zoysia, their eighth studio set, provides the ideal…
