The story you are about to read is basically true. The names have been changed because, shit, that’s what rappers do. It’s Sunday, July 23, and I’m wondering just how much of The Society of Invisibles’ veil of secrecy is for effect. Having two or three aliases per crew member…
Remember that movie Blast From the Past, where Christopher Walken barricades himself and Sissy Spacek in a backyard bunker, believing their home has been hit by a nuclear missile from Cuba? And then, after 35 years of eating Sissy’s meat loaf and raising that doofus from George of the Jungle,…
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always detested that heart-pentagram image that silly H.I.M. band uses as its logo. Hearts and Satan? I don’t get it. Nothing against heart logos; I just think that particular shit is stupid. If you want to see a good heart logo, check out…
When L.A. hip-hop outfit Jurassic 5 emerged in the mid-’90s with an alternative vision to gangsta rap, the group was among the decade’s biggest indie-to-major label success stories. Today, Jurassic 5 DJ Nu-Mark admits that he can’t think of any indie rap groups he likes. “I don’t know anything about…
My dearest Kelly Clarkson, We’ve been meaning to write you for quite some time now, but it’s taken us a while to put our fingers on just what it is about you, my love, that irks us so damn much. Is it your soaring voice? Nope. Your girl-next-door appeal? Loving…
We wish we could tell you that Rude Boy — to be released Tuesday, August 1, on Sony/Legacy DVD for the very first time in America — is a good movie, but we can’t. It isn’t. Billed as a “fictional documentary” set in a socially turbulent, pre-Thatcher Britain, the film…
Sometimes, with music, you’re lucky enough to be present to watch the first time that a collaboration among artists becomes greater than the sum of its parts. That happened to me recently when I saw the first four-piece practice of a country band that now calls itself the Rock Ridge…
On August 8, thrash metal legends Slayer will unleash Christ Illusion, a blistering, brutal atom bomb of an album that some critics are calling the band’s heaviest audio assault since the cataclysmic 1986 classic Reign in Blood. The record is also Slayer’s first studio album in 16 years to feature…
Singer/guitarist Nathan “Naybob” Shineywater and singer/Rhodes pianist Rachael “Raybob” Hughes form the core of anodyne groovers Brightblack Morning Light, whose new, self-titled Matador Records debut fuses the spaced-out shoegazer-gospel of Spiritualized, the mellow country-rock of Acetone, and the heavenly vocal harmonies of Mojave 3 together to create a stunningly hypnotic…
Like Donny Osmond, South Carolina singer-songwriter Edwin McCain is a little bit country, and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. He’s a whole lot of heartthrob, too, penning some of the most poetic tunes ever to make the women in the trailer parks swoon. Over the course of seven albums…
It’s laughable how many Valley bands still insist on using a “rising from the ashes like a phoenix” analogy in their bios when all they’ve struggled with is the climate change from the living room to the garage to the gig. But in the case of the Walnuts, it’s totally…
It’s a sticky Saturday evening on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and the CMJ Rock Hall Music Fest is in full swing. Head Automatica lead singer Daryl Palumbo wanders into the Record Revolution music store, wearing a scruffy tee. He flips through a trove of obscure DVDs and CDs…
I. Introduction Were I to saunter up to a podium and announce, through the condescending gaze of a monocle, that “Two-piece bands are really hot right now!” you might just roll your eyes and leave my lecture hall. Of course two-piece bands are hot right now. They’ve been hot for…
Ben Lee, the pop bard of Bondi, Australia, used to be known as that kid from punk band Noise Addict. Then he was known as Claire Danes’ boyfriend (and then as Danes’ ex). These days, he’s just Ben again, touring his ass off and churning out pop numbers as buoyant…
For me, coming up country was difficult under the auspices of Willie Nelson. This young buckaroo in south Texas received all sorts of life lessons and mixed messages from the Red Headed Stranger over the years, from the warning “Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” to…
To be completely blunt about it, ubiquity isn’t really an asset when it comes to playing around town. It’s good to have your name out there, to be recognizable. But if I see your name or your band’s name in the music section’s ads week after week for years, I’m…
Quintron and Miss Pussycat make happy music. Granted, it sounds very raw and punk. Quintron, a veritable one-man band who can pound on drums (or rather, a contraption he calls a “drum buddy”), play the organ, and sing simultaneously, produces records that sound as if they were made in a…
Who would’ve imagined that a poke in the eye during a pickup basketball game would have a profound effect on Doug Martsch’s life and music career? The Built to Spill front man didn’t think much of it when he sustained the injury earlier this year. An eventual trip to a…
What’s in a name? Depends, when your name is Elmo Kirkwood. At 22, he’s the singer and guitarist for locals Broken Robot. But his musical legacy is much older: Elmo’s the son of Meat Puppets guitarist Curt Kirkwood and nephew of troubled Puppets bass player Cris Kirkwood. “I was in…
If they ever again shoot a capsule into space containing artifacts designed to explain life on Earth to other worlds, they’ll have to make room on board for all 12 volumes of Hip-Hop Essentials. It’s hard to imagine a better explanation of hip-hop for an alien culture. Covering the years…
Independence Day is here again. Turns out we’ve been free for almost 230 years, which is a pretty kick-ass record when you think about it. So what is it that makes America . . . you know . . . America? Well, the best way to solve that mystery is…
In case you haven’t figured it out after all these years, Joan Jett is still the “tough girl.” When her name is mentioned in print, that phrase always follows, like magic, by rote. In an e-mail interview with New Times, Jett has her own take on the pigeonhole she first…
