At 14 years old, nothing stirred me like 10,000 Maniacs–the righteousness of their songs, the style and unmistakable alto of Natalie Merchant, like a cool senior girl in funky tights and vintage clothes. Listening to their two-CD boxed set, all I can say is: What was I thinking? Songs about…
The New New York Rock Scene needs the Fiery Furnaces for two reasons: 1) Singer/guitarist Eleanor Friedberger is a woman, and 2) she and her brother Matthew are as uncool as they are cool, which is very. The first fact is important because, despite the plentiful and deserved attention received…
They’re all waiting for her–the soccer moms who find her soothing, the Pottery Barn bohos who think her appealing, the elitist jazzbos who wonder if she isn’t just Roberta Flack with a pedigree and everyone else for whom Norah Jones proves it possible that talent can still trump all else…
As almost every one-hit wonder or label-jilted band can tell you, the vicissitudes of the music industry work in mysterious ways. Just ask the Los Angeles quartet Metric, who found their space-age synthpop tune “Grow Up and Blow Away” featured prominently in a Polaroid commercial even as their Stephen Hague-produced…
If I somehow found myself in the clutches of a malevolent one-eyed despot who refused to let me rejoin my family in his poisonous custom-made dungeon lair unless I decided upon John Mellencamp or the Impossible Shapes as my favorite-ever Indiana-based musical artist, I’d have no problem whatsoever choosing Mellencamp…
On Wednesday night, the smart drunks come out. And for good reason: Bars have perks during the week, including cheaper drinks, easier parking and less annoying crowds. There isn’t much music during the hump, however, and the few musicians who do land weeknight gigs are often open-mike lackeys or, um,…
Let me guess: You don’t like classical music. The very words make you itch like a new church suit, make you check to see if your shirttail is hanging out. It’s not that classical music is terrible; it’s just one of those fine art forms–like modern dance or abstract art–that…
At 7:10 last Thursday night, Davíd Garza took the stage at Club Dada. With just a guitar and a glass of red wine, he began playing through a handful of what he jokingly called “old geezer Deep Ellum classics”–Sara Hickman’s “Simply” and Edie Brickell and the New Bohemian’s “Little Miss…
Pray that John Darnielle’s friends don’t come to your party. Pray that they won’t show up on your doorstep all strung out, pissed off and half-wasted, ready to kill or die or fuck anything in their path. The Catholic convenience-store clerk is a real buzzkill when he starts bragging about…
For some of us, the phrase “adult contemporary jazz trumpeter” is about as inviting as watching Kenny G dry hump his soprano sax. Indeed, at first glance, Chris Botti’s music seems like the kind of lame, manufactured pap to which we avoid giving ink. But this guy’s for real–our unyielding…
If this were a perfect world, VH1’s Behind the Music series would cover worthwhile bands all the time. Since VH1 doesn’t cater to my tastes, however, I have to seek out books for underground music stories. I don’t get the lulling voiceover commentary or video footage of concerts while learning…
This weekend you have two chances to see two very cool rock bands. Single Frame is all ’80s synth chords washed over gyroscopic indie fuzz. With Henry Dent on drums, Brendan Reilly on guitar, Jason Schleter on keyboards/bass and all three singing, the music of this Austin band zings, whistles…
Everybody was drunk, the Weary Boys were tearing it up, and no one knew which one came first. But the floor trembled with foot stomps, and couples poured onto the dance floor, tumbling into each other and spilling their drinks. Old men at the bar looked up from their Jack…
A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a reader. “I think you have a great spark,” it began. (Or was it, “Shut yer pie hole, you stinking hack”? I get them all confused.) “And I would love to see you write about the Democratic Party candidates for 2004.”…
“Our motto: anything but Bush,” Lou Reed recently told Rolling Stone, voicing a refrain that’s becoming increasingly common among musicians. Not since the Reagan administration has a president catalyzed so much protest music: In the past year, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Don Henley, Moby, Willie Nelson and Tom Morello have…
In a South Austin coffeehouse, Patrice Pike locks eyes with her interviewer as she talks about herself and her career. It’s a gaze that’s direct but intense, with a warmth that feels almost seductive. It’s similar to the way Pike, a seasoned performer at the age of 33, addresses an…
“Speedtrucker, motherfucker!” shouted the crowd normally foreign to Club Clearview. These men and women were armed not with facial piercings but with bottles of Lone Star, and they donned not Urban Outfitters threads but Justin boots and cowboy hats. Still, the only surprise bigger than the good ol’ country crowd…
Although prefab teen pop is no longer a dominant force in the cultural zeitgeist, the idea of musical authenticity still overshadows the popular canon. Are shaggy hipster bands really starving Lower East Side garage rats, or does Daddy bankroll their bohemian, post-liberal arts lives? Do pretty girls still validate the…
The warm-and-fuzzy Glaswegian band Camera Obscura probably inspires lots of memories of lazy summers spent strolling through sunflower fields in the burnt-out survivors of the 1960s. Like their mates Belle & Sebastian (whose front man Stuart Murdoch helped produce the band’s 2001 debut, Biggest Blue Hi-Fi), they strum guitars gingerly…
In the past decade, former punk rockers The Notwist have evolved from raw anguish to smooth indie-pop electronica. The German quartet began in 1989 with two aggressive punk LPs, but their third album, 12, found them experimenting with keyboards and drum machines. Their latest EP, Different Cars and Trains, stretches…
At the moment, has-been pop stars like Rod Stewart and Michael McDonald have the interpretation of unlikely source material on lockdown; Stewart’s two Great American Songbook discs and McDonald’s Motown are attracting attention (and actual dollar bills) from folks who last bought a CD back when people thought Rod Stewart…
Chip Taylor was an answer on Jeopardy the other day. The question–for 500 points, Alex–was this: Who penned the Troggs’ hit record, “Wild Thing,” in the ’60s? The question also could have been: Who penned Juice Newton’s hit record, “Angel of the Morning,” in the ’70s? Or perhaps: What successful…
