Max Cady is a rock band. It’s not punk, glam or emo. There are no prefixes here. It’s just rock and roll. It takes the standard rock format–one singer, two guitarists, one bass player and one drummer–and makes the kind of straightforward music that, these days, would be considered a…
Last year’s breakup of locals LCC broke my heart. Sure, any band’s split can be tough for its fans, but what cut me the deepest was the idea that a great album would never come out. See, LCC had debuted amazing songs in concert before calling it quits, and after…
Let’s face it. There is a hollow pocket of woe somewhere in your chest, a sharp pang that takes you to task three times a week for missing that Cure show. Of course, the boss man, your brain, reminds you that $40 for a lawn seat means you did the…
There’s no drummer in Guster. Instead, a standing percussionist hits skins and even cymbals with just his taped-up fingers. It may not make a huge difference in the band’s sound–there’s still a kick drum after all–but it’s the first clue that the band is a little out of the ordinary…
Though front man Brandon Boyd’s lyrics on current album A Crow Left of the Murder leave something to be desired–you know, sense–I wouldn’t mind at all if California’s Incubus becomes a model for the modern alt-metal band: They muster muscular daybreak guitar fuzz without forgoing pretty parts or roses on…
Blue October is about a decade late. The Houston band now signed to Brando/Universal Records would have been a perfect match with the mid-’90s (fleeting) success of Better Than Ezra and Deep Blue Something, their brothers in white, college-age, men-unafraid-to-show-their-emotions rock. In fact, Blue October’s hit, “Calling You,” is this…
These days, everyone’s a DJ, right? The iPod, not to mention the sheer availability of all kinds of music, has transformed everyone’s bulky CD and album collection into one tiny portable party mix. If, perhaps, you long for more discipline, schools offering classes in DJing are cropping up all over…
At first glance, Clay Aiken seems innocuous enough. Thin and boyish, the American Idol crooner looks like a cross between Thom Yorke and Opie Taylor. A native of North Carolina, he’s all Southern charm, forever donning a goofy grin like an infant who just passed gas. Aiken’s flaws are part…
Wild on E! is a travel show on E! Entertainment Television known for its exhaustive portraits of pole-dancing women and neck-licking drunks. On Friday, August 27, the crew filmed a segment on Dallas, visiting the Denton rodeo that afternoon and at night, three clubs: Firewater, Suede and the newly opened…
Apparently I’m not the only one who’s secretly listening to the new free-format 100.3 Jack FM. On Sunday, a horribly unscientific poll of Lower Greenville stores unearthed three (three!) businesses with their radio dials tuned to 100.3. Though the playlist does veer toward cheese, it’s accommodating enough for most tastes,…
It’s that time of year again: another Drive-By Truckers album, another wad of lyrically incisive, liberally rocking Southern-fried swamp-rock. Last year’s Decoration Day saw the Truckers selling their local morality tales to an increasingly universal audience hungry for “authenticity” accented by uplift and hope. The Dirty South, as the title…
I can already hear Gibby Haynes fans bitching about how his new band, His Problem, sounds nothing like The Butthole Surfers’ insane psychedelia of yore. It’s not that I don’t agree; I, too, miss the crazy days of Locust Abortion Technician. But come on. The Surfers lost their acid-drenched edge…
In 1996, when Norah Jones was still singing for her supper in Preston Royal, Madeleine Peyroux came from nowhere (New York, actually, by way of Paris by way of Georgia) and disappeared just as quickly, so fazed by critical acclaim she discovered she preferred street-corner anonymity. Her Atlantic debut, Dreamland,…
Five mothers tuck in their kids at night, sneak out to bars and play garage-rock. Sounds like an Archie comic rip-off, but Frump really exists, and I had to see what the band sounded like. Too bad I stupidly overestimated their start time on Friday. When I walked into Bar…
As Rhino’s long-running reissue campaign winds down, it’s fitting that three of Elvis Costello’s most misunderstood and unappreciated albums are among the last to be chosen, like awkward, chubby kids waiting to get picked for kickball. It’s a testament to Costello’s commitment to the project and Rhino’s skill at repackaging…
If the fate of cowboy swing rested solely on singer-guitarist Wayne Hancock’s shoulders, there’d be nothing to worry about for a good long while. Many artists embrace a musical style, but Wayne “The Train” seems to have internalized his. A nasal vocal twang just this side of Hank Sr.’s and…
Paris, Texas shouldn’t be playing the Gypsy Tea Room. In fact, there shouldn’t be any tour dates booked anywhere. Paris, Texas has broken up, fallen down and cheated death so many times that the members stopped believing. But other people didn’t–bookers, clubs, friends who passed around demos and the labels…
Oil and water. Michael Jackson and children. Punk rock and popularity. They all mix badly, but no combination is worse than the watered-down punk rock that thrives at Hot Topic and TRL. The best punk sticks to the DIY ethos and requires a little digging to find, but that doesn’t…
History is written by the victors or, in the case of pop-music history, by the people who heard the victors. We know the hits, and we know the records that sold terribly at the time but became influential later on. It’s interesting, however, to look between the cracks of history…
The story of one of the great lost rock documentaries begins with a phone call from a member of Triumph, the Canadian power trio most notable for its uncanny resemblance to Spinal Tap. About six years ago, that band’s singer and drummer, Gil Moore, phoned up Eddie Kramer, the producer…
At first glance, the renovated Granada Theater looks mostly unchanged–the same stage orientation and bar areas, the same murals of movie icons up on the wall. Yet, a few beers into the evening, and the differences start to creep in. There’s that huge sign hanging above the rafters, bright as…
This just in: The Polyphonic Spree will perform at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, along with OutKast, Usher, Jessica Simpson, Jet and Hoobastank. Don’t worry if you miss the show; MTV will replay it somewhere between five and 3,000 times over the next month. On Thursday, there will…
