Above – Chippy’s first drum set, 1971 Not to beat a dead country horse, but I was remiss yesterday in not mentioning that Chip Hanna, who I wrote about in my column Revolver this week, is playing at Mardi Gras tonight – the reason I mention this although I already…
I’m a little bit shocked that my ol’ homeboy Conor Oberst and his latest lineup for the ever-evolving Bright Eyes have actually debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, despite remaining on Omaha’s stalwart indie label Saddle Creek. The album, Cassadaga, is a step forward for Conor, Mike Mogis, and…
A strange email came to us lately that’s just so out there I’ve got to share it with you… this is what it said: Can a dead man win the American Idol songwriter contest? Maybe… I was co-writer with the late Kurt Mayberry. (research NT archives for Kurt Mayberry or…
A while back I issued a call to arms in my column (found here) for DJs to send me their mixtapes/mix-CDs… and I didn’t get much of a response. There was a little big, which I posted about here, but just a trickle. So I was stoked when DJentrification shot…
Last week, I promised to throw up some Runaway Diamonds tracks once I figured out how to do that with my new blogging software; all the glitches have been solved, so here’s the tunes for you. I’m torn in my opinion of the songs, I think Pomerenke’s lyrics are just…
Hopefully you saw my column this week on punk-rock-drummer-gone-country-troubadour Chip Hanna (if not, read it now, you’re obviously not working). I was under the weather a lot of this weekend and didn’t get out to any shows, but yesterday Chip and his wife Erin had me over for some steaks…
Yes, it’s the infamous 4/20, which means little to anyone except the legions of pot smokers out there who need yet another reason to get stoned. And it also means there’s a plethora of shitty jam band shows crackin’ off, but I wouldn’t recommend any of those unless you’re really…
Of course, we love the club life, but after so many weeks of hitting bar after bar, we needed a change of scenery. We found it on Friday, April 13, at Brand X Store, where local artists Disposable Hero, Family Soda, Mad One, and Fixer showcased their goods, spun some…
“As a drummer, let me tell you, in my experience it’s all the same,” says Chip Hanna, longtime skin hitter for punk stalwarts U.S. Bombs and One Man Army and, nowadays, country singer, songwriter, and guitar player. We’re discussing the similarities between punk rock and country. “If it’s on the…
My buddy B-Boy looks like he could kick some serious ass. At 6-foot-4 and 350 pounds, he strikes an imposing figure in his baggy Dickies pants and stained T-shirts. His shaved head and scraggly beard add to the intimidation factor, so it’s a good thing he’s not a bully. In…
After touring incessantly from 1996 to 2001, local trio Fred Green had an enviable fan base and horror stories from the road to prove it. Tons of ’em. The time their roadies unwittingly trashed Bruce Willis’ guesthouse. The time vocalist/guitarist Todd Minnix got hopelessly lost after a gig until drummer…
What the hell is a Limbeck? Short answer: a member of Limbeck, a So-Cal cocktail of Jayhawks roots rock and Shins dream-pop that often gets called alt-country. The long answer: Many moons ago, the Bastards of Limbeck were a teen pop-punk band named after Charles in Charge sidekick Buddy Lembeck,…
“For me, religion didn’t have a redemptive quality,” says Celtic Frost bassist and co-founder Martin Ain. “It didn’t help me to have a more positive outlook on life. It was a negative, oppressive kind of thing.” Speaking to New Times from his home in Zurich, Switzerland, Ain is describing his…
This Japanese rock band is huge in its home country, and it’s starting to make waves here in the States, despite being way too cool for us. Dir En Grey is seriously the hippest hard metal band to hit the Western world in a long time. Originally part of Japan’s…
The Blood Brothers make “come down” music for people who never want to come down. Testing the edges of various sonic turf with their toes, this is an unconventional band that tears through a multitude of genres, including hardcore, punk rock, screamo, No Wave and disco, in their teeth-gnashing, fist-forming…
The unkempt Aussie barroom brawlers in Jet are probably best known for making grungy, high-octane, adrenaline-fueled, testosterone-laden garage rock. The band first hit stateside in 2003 with the rough-edged, riff-heavy “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” and the lusty, drunken “Cold Hard Bitch,” both of which embraced the spirit of…
They have the glacial majesty of Sigur Rós, the swelling symphonic bluster of the Moody Blues, and a subtle metallic bent. Aereogramme are an intriguing Scottish quartet that combine an eclectic mesh of guitars and electronics with a variety of tempos and tones. At times, they will spiral off into…
Lots of artists get touted for being raw and uncompromising, but Texan hellraiser Scott H. Biram truly is. Put in perspective, Biram didn’t “compromise” when he was hit head-on by an 18-wheeler truck and took to the stage in a wheelchair a month later with two broken legs and an…
Bang! Bang! doesn’t waste any time living up to its name — exclamation points and all — on The Dirt That Makes You Drown. The opening track, “What We Need,” rocks the way you only wish the latest Stooges album would rock. It’s a sonic explosion touched off by a…
Rare is the indie rock band that inserts a bona fide mosh part into the middle of one of its songs. Rarer still is the band that can pull it off. Minneapolis four-piece Tapes ‘n Tapes not only pulls it off (in an epic show-closing number called “Jakov’s Suite”) but…
Over the past three years or so, the debauched dudes and dames of DJ collective Sadisco have served up countless salacious and surreal spectaculars, filled with industrial thrash and scandalous splash, where Valley night crawlers can let their freak flags fly. These prurient party monsters get even more pornographic with…
Thursday 19 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Bikini Lounge: Scratchy Rekkid Night with DJ Shane Kennedy (various) Blue Note: DJ Soloman, & Fredj (acid jazz, trip-hop, house) Bobby Cs: Willie B (old school, R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: DJs Tranzl8tr,…
