Unless you have an abnormal need for drink coasters, the demo CD is usually the music journalist’s worst nightmare. But every once in a while something uniquely interesting slips through and becomes something other than an inanimate companion to my late-night glass of Cristal. I was handed a CD by…
Ten-gallon hats off to Toby Keith. As the No. 1 ticket in America, the oil-riggin’ good ol’ boy-cum-new country badass has actualized the great American dream. He was well on his way to solidifying himself as country’s plain-talkin’ top dog even before his less-than-sensitive “Angry American” response to 9/11 kicked…
These days, any band that ventures into post-rock territory is bound to be compared with Mogwai, which is akin to every trip-hop/down-tempo/chill-out act being written off as a DJ Shadow knockoff. Although Canadian quintet Do Make Say Think shares its Scottish predecessors’ knack for stop-start commotion, the details in Winter…
“Durannies” have been waiting 18 years for the original Duran Duran — drummer Roger Taylor, guitarist Andy Taylor, bassist John Taylor, singer Simon LeBon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes — to reunite, tour and record. The recording has taken some time, so they decided to hit the road instead, and generate…
A lot of country singers seemingly adopt the title of American hero because they sing about the working class and national pride. But Craig Morgan truly can call himself that — a hero. During his 11 years of active duty in the U.S. Army, Morgan, who trained elite combat units,…
It’s not easy getting into Jay-Z’s recording home at Bassline Studios, tucked away on West 26th Street in Manhattan. I have to sneak in behind a woman walking into the building, take an elevator to the eighth floor, and knock on a pair of glass doors before a security guard…
There are certainly worse ways to end a long and fruitful career at a major record label than compiling 31 hard-to-find B-sides, outtakes and other rarities. But it’s hard to imagine Pearl Jam, whose decade-plus relationship with Epic Records ends with the release of this new double CD, choosing any…
What amazes women most about that contraption called man is his knack for never asking the pertinent questions. Like “How can a guy be friends with another guy for years and not know what he does for a living?” Or “How can we find it on Mapquest if you don’t…
There was a time when being a “greaser” was a sort of calling and not a pejorative reference to Mexicans. For greasers, like the Travolta caricature in Grease, the Fonz and Sly Stallone in The Lords of Flatbush, and the British “rockers,” every day was Halloween — the leather jackets,…
Tupac is dead. Long live Tupac! Never has a cliché rung so eerily true. Given the cTircumstances — he was mortally wounded in Las Vegas in 1996 — Tupac remains surprisingly prolific. Albums like The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory; R U Still Down? (Remember Me); Still I Rise;…
Talk about an overload! There’s so much action inside Kish Kash, the Basement Jaxx’s romper-stomper of a third album — bells, clicks, grunts and 808 squeals accenting every single beat atop the heavy strings, brass and accouterments — you don’t know whether to head-bang or have a heart attack. From…
Oh, the can of worms calling your record Yoko opens. Let’s break it down: Yoko is considered by many to be the evil force that broke up the Beatles. She’s also the inspiration and love interest of one of the great pop songwriters. So what exactly did Miles Kurosky and…
In space, no one can hear you scream, so you might as well chill the fuck out. That’s been the modus operandi of London’s Laika, named after the Russian dog that rode Sputnik II into orbit in 1957. Since the early ’90s, the band has offered a seductive and cosmic…
It’s no secret that nostalgia is a powerful reason rock ‘n’ roll has so much influence on its fans — you remember the hand-me-down, 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra you were riding in, who was driving and what you were smoking the first time you heard Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” You always will…
On the one hand, Drums and Tuba is just your average Austin power trio, logging 200 or so dates a year on the road. Typically, there’s guitar, there’s drums and . . . um, here’s where the analogy starts to fall apart. Instead of a bass, there’s a tuba, and…
There’s the dark, molten pit filled with mutilated carcasses from which metal first sprang — and then there are the hip-hop scratches, funky haircuts and whining about mommy. About time someone said it: Thank God for Slayer! The veteran thinking man’s speed-metalers remain true to the former, steadfast in their…
is 3, at. Come Out Swingin’
When an infamous public life disintegrates, does anybody care to hear the moan? Was it always expected to be this way, especially as the life in question has been kept running along for our collective amusement? Following the travails of Russell Jones since the rapper who’ll forever be remembered as…
Hating British trance DJ Paul Oakenfold is like hating Wal-Mart — it’s not that fun. Like the Arkansas-headquartered superstore, Oakenfold is officially the biggest and most successful at what he does, namely playing clubs all over the world, selling mix CDs, and producing remixes for top-shelf pop artists. In fact,…
Atllas is the phantom of the Phoenix hip-hop scene. Even when you can’t see him, he’s there, like a graffiti bomber taunting a train in the yard on successive nights. “I don’t sleep,” the crazily determined rapper says. “I get to work at 6:30 in the morning. I was out…
After the exhilarating one-two punch of last year’s Stereo/Mono, you might’ve expected a knockout single disc of Paul Westerberg, all killer and no filler, a disc that gave jaw-dropping ballads and inspired throwaways equal time and maybe revealed something about the cigar-chomping Minneapolitan you didn’t already know. What you’ve got…
As it must, the Strokes’ second LP registers as something of a disappointment. After all, Room on Fire sounds like the Strokes’ debut — and once they remade the world in their own prickly, swivel-hipped image, nothing that sounds vaguely similar to 2001’s Is This It could ever best its…
