Voxtrot’s eponymous 2006 EP may be the best indie-rock debut since, oh, the Pixies’ Come On Pilgrim. Each of the five songs on Voxtrot is nigh on perfect — a crystalline distillation of the band’s love of ’80s British pop. That’s not to say that the Austin quintet’s disc is…
Matt and Kim are just totally fun. Totally. Like a power-pop take on They Might Be Giants, with a (simulated) accordion and everything. They’re even from Brooklyn, where they’ve developed a loyal following at loft parties, basements, art galleries, and clubs. They accurately describe their live sets as having the…
Two songs on The Shapes We Make show the influence moving back to Washington, D.C., has had on Mary Timony’s writing. The spritely “Sharpshooter” — as close as the ex-Helium frontwoman gets to out-and-out indie-pop these days — sees wildlife turning the tables on trigger-happy hunters (“Ted Nugent, hey whatcha…
Club DJs of the P-Town, we feel your pain. You endlessly work the same local joints week after endless week, slaving over the turntables and beat-matching your brains out for a bunch of selfish and snotty hotties, all the while dreaming of blowing this burg for far-flung destinations and superstardom…
Thursday 24 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (various) Bobby Cs: Willie B (old-school R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: DJs Tranzl8tr, & Earth (rock, ’80s, old school, hip-hop) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (rock, hip-hop, dance) Club Central:…
Duders. That’s what the Coach House in Scottsdale had to offer on Saturday, May 19. (Click here for more photos.) The ratio of post-adolescent ex-football players to cutesy Scottsdale ladies was about 2 to 1. Although the vibe was relaxed, we spied some scattered single sirens on the prowl, taking…
By Brendan Joel Kelley A while back I wrote a column about Violet Wild, the band fronted by former Mink Rebellion singer Bobby Scott and Black Moods guitarist Josh Kennedy, along with drummer Joey Schwegler and bassist Phil Fenix. At the time they’d just completed the band’s first full length…
Apologies for my absence from the blogosphere; prior to the weekend I went on a camping/hiking/swimming trip to Fossil Creek in the Mogollon Rim, and there was no wireless internet up there. Before I left though I went on Thursday night to see my cowboy crony Andy Hersey play his…
I’ve got a friend who showed up at the bar recently with his arm in a sling and stitches on his chin from an ass-whippin’. I asked him if he’d deserved it, and he said he didn’t think so. But some dude bigger than him was talking bad about his…
“Well, even if he just sits down and licks his balls, it’ll still be fun.” It’s Cinco de Mayo, and my buddy B-Boy is trying to talk me into going to the annual Chihuahua races in Chandler. My companion wants to enter Blanquito, his sister’s cream-colored Chihuahua, in the races…
Yes, it seems as if we can’t get away from the typical DJ . . . spinning relatively hot tunes and taking his headphones way too seriously in an obvious, pathetic attempt to get laid. So, it was great to hit Homme Lounge on a Thursday night, when they embrace…
“I really don’t like looking at the back of a record and seeing the word featuring a million times,” says Brooklyn rapper/producer/label overlord El-P. Incidentally, his new album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, features cameos from members of the Mars Volta, TV on the Radio, and Yo La Tengo, not…
The difference between a cover band and a tribute band is the difference between a slut and a prostitute — one just plays with all sorts of people’s stuff because it’s fun and they like it. The other plays with particular people’s stuff only because it’s a profession with a…
Skinny Puppy’s known for its dark industrial sound and psycho-techno compositions that don’t follow a linear progression. The doomy machines are still present on Mythmaker, but the songs here are SP’s most danceable yet, from the infernal pulse and processed vocals of the leadoff track, “Magnifishit,” to the KMFDM-feel and…
You wouldn’t think a guy who dusted off Artie Shaw’s arrangement of Cole Porter’s classic “Begin the Beguine” — on pedal steel, no less — would say his third release for Bloodshot Records was inspired by the advent of the iPod age. But that’s exactly how Phoenix native Jon Rauhouse…
What hath Nile Rodgers wrought? Or was it Giorgio Moroder? Whoever was the wizard who figured out how to make records without musicians has a lot to answer for. True, sampled beats and programmed rhythms come a lot cheaper than those who can actually play instruments, but pop and dance…
Although Dahl’s the closest thing the Valley has to a punk elder statesman, the bulk of Jeff Dahl’s extensive “three chords and a bad attitude” discography has always had more of a kinship with the glam precursors of punk (Mott the Hoople, the New York Dolls, the Stooges) than any…
Once upon a time, singers and songwriters told stories. Back before Bob Dylan plugged in, “folk” music was just that — music about folks, some stemming from oral traditions, others steeped in a performer’s personal stories. That was before the “confessional” folk of people like Ani DiFranco took hold and…
Charlie Mingus — bass player, composer, bandleader — was one of America’s greatest jazz musicians. His ability to bring out the best in his sidemen is legendary, as is the passion and fury he put into every note he played. He cut Tijuana Moods — the soundtrack for a wild,…
“Avant-garde” isn’t the most appropriate label to place on eco new music percussionist Jeph Jerman and his approach to producing sound. Sure, his uniquely captured artistry — which doesn’t rely upon popular time signatures, written notations, and detectable meter — can be placed in the, ahem, “acquired taste” category. But…
A band that calls its album Examples of the Cataclysmic is obviously thinking big. Walter Alias, a Kansas City transplant from Branson, Missouri, describes its sweeping sound as “cinematic,” and it’s not hard to imagine the quartet’s swelling choruses set against some critical moment in a movie about the apocalypse,…
Last year, in these very pages, I noted that the fabulously suave, poetic, and pillowy English band The Clientele “pulls off the rare, swell trick of reminding you of literally dozens of artists — the late Arthur Lee, Dream Syndicate, Mercury Rev, Felt, Lightning Seeds, Galaxie 500, Nick Drake, The…
