In preparation for the highly anticipated Blood on the Moors show, I endeavored to speak with frontman LeMont Shockenbacker. He proved elusive, like any typical god of rock, and I was dependent upon Giles Rothchild, personal assistant to Mr. Shockenbacker, for some connection. A packed schedule of drunken debauchery and…
It’s beginning to look like anytime you attach the word “core” to the end of another word, something’s going to suck. Case in point: There was an article last week in The New York Times about “mumblecore,” a faddish subgenre of independent film that chronicles the young and existentially grumpy…
Over the course of the band’s 25-year career, the thrash-metal pioneers of Slayer have been accused of inspiring murder and necrophilia (check out www.elysemarie.org). They’ve covered “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” for the Less Than Zero movie soundtrack. And just last year they won a Grammy for the song “Eyes of the Insane,” off their…
Really? Us? Tour with Def Leppard? That’s what Tommy Shaw of Styx said to himself when he first heard the offer. “Mr. Roboto” aside, it seemed like a mismatch. Worse, he discovered that Foreigner was also on the proposed bill. But then he realized that he’d been humming “Pour Some…
Could someone please tell Daddy Yankee that reggaetón is supposed to be over? Because on his latest, El Cartel: The Big Boss, the fiery Puerto Rican rapper acts like the party’s just begun. While detractors continue to proclaim the genre’s premature death, this proper follow-up to 2004’s “Gasolina”-powered smash Barrio…
Agit-pop artist Ron English is lying low. For someone whose biggest hobby is a second-degree felony, it’s probably a wise move. English, a renowned culture jammer and artist whose anti-corporate artwork has illegally graced more than 1,000 billboards across the United States, is taking a breather, focusing on the recent…
What a long, strange trip it’s been for Peter Case. He’s gone from the proto-power pop of the Nerves and Plimsouls to several solo albums of reflective, spunky folk rock. Then it was back to the Plimsouls, and now he’s moved to the stark, virtually naked Let Us Now Praise…
Some day Spencer Krug will reveal some hint of human fallibility. Good news—it’s still yet to come. To follow the Sunset Rubdown full-length Shut Up I Am Dreaming with an equally great album just more than a year later is remarkable, especially considering he continues to write for and play…
Rubber Gloves is always worth the dough. Let’s face it, in the last week, we’ve seen Au Revoir Simone, Oh No! Oh My! and Sydney Confirm, all in one show, for a mere eight bones. So the idea of rolling out to the storied spot for free is nothing but…
It’s a fine line between retro and rehash, but the Black Crowes always manage to tread that precipitous divide with swagger and finesse. In the 17 years since they made their debut, the band, helmed by brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, remains relevant and resilient. With a new effort in…
More so than any genre, the blues embrace aging. Players in their 60s are kids to the stars who’ve made it to their 70s or 80s—the legendary Diamond Teeth Mary McClain played annual shows in Miami well into her 90s. So it’s pretty perfect that blues legend Buddy Guy, who…
The New Pornographers have a leg up on most groups, in that two of their members are accomplished solo artists: Neko Case has her alt-country thing, and Dan Bejar has Destroyer, his retro-weirdo Bowie thing. Together with New Porns’ principal A.C. Newman, they make near-perfect power-pop albums, culminating with 2005’s…
Like Explosions in the Sky before them, Denton instrumental duo Mom will probably have Hollywood beckoning in no time, begging for evocative new electroacoustic tracks to score the latest indie coming-of-age dramedy. But to relegate Little Brite to background status would be a crime, indeed—because Mom’s newest EP may also…
Rock ‘n’ roll history has a long tradition of bizarre incongruities: Sha Na Na at Woodstock—what was that all about? So when I first heard that Black Tie Dynasty was going to play at FireWater, that bastion of mid-cities metal, a place that boasts one of those cold Jägermeister machines,…
As you probably already know, the record industry is, to put it as mildly as possible, struggling. Other things you may already know: In the wake of Universal Music Group’s purchase of V2, which just purchased EMI, only three major labels remain: Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. CD stores are…
Au Revoir Simone’s synth-pop is as gorgeous as the three brunettes that make up the band. The Casio-centric outfit from Brooklyn began in 2003 when Erika Forster met Annie Hart on a train from Vermont to New York. Delivering lustrous harmonies, Au Revoir Simone has expanded the sonic palette on…
Judging by the near-incomprehensible liner notes in the debut release from his new Satellite Party project, Perry Farrell fancies himself an intergalactic prophet. The music on Ultra Payloaded sounds more like the work of a hippie magpie with a penchant for chaos and excess. The good news: It’s not the…
Weezer’s 1996 disc Pinkerton, which came on the heels of their hit debut, was much maligned. Critics held their noses, accusing the concept album (based on Madame Butterfly, of all things) of not just stinking of sophomore slump, but also of being one of the worst albums ever made. In…
In all the hoopla over the influence of ’60s and ’70s art rock on some of today’s most interesting bands, one salient fact is frequently overlooked: A lot of that stuff blew. For every Roxy Music and King Crimson, there was a Yes or an Emerson, Lake & Palmer (plus…
Looking satisfied but weary, local singer-songwriter Dylan Sneed sits in a coffee shop near his home in Lake Highlands and talks about his escape from the corporate world. “Man, I didn’t even know what my job was,” Sneed says about his two years spent writing instructional manuals for AT&T. “Ninety…
One of the last vestiges of the 1980s SST era, the Meat Puppets forged an independent punk-based sound that included elements of alternative country and psychedelic rock. Led by brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood and Derrick Bostrom, the group hit radio pay dirt in 1994 with “Backwater,” from Too High…
A lot has already been written about hip-hop’s most anticipated disc of the year. But not much of it is complimentary. Sure, the split-personality concept, which basically plays out the much-discussed divide between moving units and keeping it street, is totally obtuse. But give Atlanta rapper T.I. (and his alter…
