Vader? I thought you said Veda, that chirpy adult pop band that sounds like Cocteau Twins if they left the reverb pots alone and stopped being so doggone ethereal. What? Veda is playing the Marquee on Saturday? Sheesh, what are the odds that Indian chanteuse Mira Veda is also playing…
People who bewail shiny, happy new country music but don’t wanna water down their beer with tears should check out this Vancouver quintet, which blurs the line of whatever traditional music you’ve got with its every-song-can-have-banjo-and-fiddle credo. And on this year’s offering, Smart Kid, resident singer-songwriter Trevor Rogers demonstrates he…
It’s been called dance music for people who like rock, but the tag’s too reductive. While The Crystal Method’s “big beat” sound has often featured a rock roar (including guitarists Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello), it also accompanies layered loops of pop, soul…
Funny they’re calling this union of nü-metal refugees (and one newcomer) the “Fall Brawl” tour, since none of the bands could really be associated with the hateful, ultra-aggressive wing of the nü-metal movement so rightfully maligned and hardly missed. Even while they were sucking up to mentor Fred Durst (from…
Poor Paul McCartney: a Knight of the Realm, with a personal fortune of more than $1 billion, a new wife (an ex-model) and kid (to join his other three), and an early career so monumental that journalists still manage to perform critical fellatio while bashing him. You’ve got to feel…
Get geared up for a turkey coma by sampling some of the Valley’s most delicious bands, pitch in to feed the hungry, and get a scrumptious DVD of the show mailed right to your door — all for 10 bucks. Hosted by longtime Valley promoter Harold Morales, the first AZ…
East of El Segundo’s refineries and beachfront ghettos, Hawthorne, California, remains an unassuming musical bastion, home to the Beach Boys, pop wunderkind Emitt Rhodes, and Greg Ginn of Black Flag. It’s also the stomping grounds for dios (malos), Angelenos who share Brian Wilson’s love of druggy melodies and rich vocal…
Pop-punk boasts about as much intrigue these days as “blues-rock,” “rap-metal” and every other innocent-sounding compound that has grown into a stinky, world-dominating blob. For five years, Chicago’s Lawrence Arms have stayed interesting by being the Renaissance men of a genre that’s broader than our wary ears might recognize after…
Whereas most rappers make a name for themselves by slaying competitors in freestyle rhyme battles, MC Chris came up through strange circumstances: voicing a cartoon spider. Fans of the Cartoon Network’s cult favorite Adult Swim series should know Chris from his hyper-obnoxious voice as Hesh on Sealab 2021 and various…
Thursday 17Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Fire Room with DJ Tranzl8r (rock mash-ups) Garcia’s: Latin Dance Night (Spanish rock/pop, reggaeton, cumbia)…
“The blues is dying out here,” my friend Dale Baich told me recently when we were bullshitting about music. I was taken aback by his statement, but when I thought about it, I hadn’t hit up a blues show in quite some time — like many people of my generation…
Sometimes it takes a jarring catastrophe to make things right. When you’re My Morning Jacket, catastrophe takes the form of a breakup. It comes after three achingly beautiful albums and close to a decade of paying your dues, touring at increasingly large venues for growing crowds. It comes while critics…
Finding Americana music on Internet radio is like looking for a bucket of nails at Restoration Hardware: There’s just something that ain’t right about searching for stuff that basic and impervious to innovation in a place so slick, contemporary and self-consciously cool. Unless, that is, you stumble upon the stream…
The Greencards are probably one of the best examples of American bluegrass out there right now, which is why it’s so gosh-darned peculiar that the trio consists of two Australians (Kym Warner, Carol Young) and an Irishman (Eamon McLoughlin) who’ve only lived in this country for eight years. Onstage, they…
When taking stock of all the things we don’t have in Arizona (seasons; a caring, compassionate sheriff; viable New York pizza; etc.), you can finally scratch off the following item: a Latina trio who sing bilingually and can give Destiny’s Child a run for their pesos. ‘Cause now we got…
Maybe I’m shallow, but I’m still waiting for a band called Daughters of Fission that’s four women with Coke-bottle eyeglasses and hair up in hideous buns who magically transform into ravishing Amazons midway through their set. This unit is three gals short and way too serious to take this high-minded…
Filmmakers like to go on about how rhyme-slingers make such naturalistic actors, how the MCs’ innate intensity translates well to the big screen. Oakland-based Why? makes an equally convincing argument for the viability of undie backpackers as high-caliber, indie-rock front men. Anticon Records stalwart/everyman Jonathan “Yoni” Wolf started Why? a…
Charlie Sexton, having left home at 12 to storm Austin as a guitar prodigy, does not lack in heartland grit. Maybe that’s why his latest, Cruel and Gentle Things, harks back to an era before rootsy rock was called “alt-country” and required the prurient use of Dobro and banjo to…
When Vaux released its first album, There Must Be Some Way to Stop Them, on Volcom Recordings in 2003, we could sense something was percolating; this band was on the verge of something explosive. Fans waited to see the band perform live or release the next album, wanting to witness…
Bands change, fortunately, and so does the music they make. But that implies opinions must change, too. After describing MXPX as a pale Green Day imitation to the bass tech for MXPX’s front man Mike Herrera on this summer’s Warped Tour, a moment later, we were introduced to Herrera. Oops!…
It’s not often we get a living legend hitting the turntables in the ‘Nix, because, really, the art isn’t old enough to have that many pioneers. There are a few, though, and amongst those few, none ranks as high in the pantheon — except perhaps Kool Herc — as Grandmaster…
We are arbiters of music, not ideals. So all hail Crass, who made great music in spite of their goofball politics. From the silly socialism of Rage Against the Machine to the street capitalism of 50 Cent, the music is the message. So we do not deliver a fatwa against…
