From the sound of things, Pink Mountaintops frontman Steve McBean will convert to conservative Christianity the day that George W. Bush turns into an Iranian Mullah. Throughout Axis of Evol, the Vancouver songwriter (who also fronts Black Mountain) references Christian imagery with a detached laziness that is clearly insincere, setting…
This affable Bay Area rapper has toiled in the no-man’s land separating hip-hop’s under- and overground for the past decade. His stature among fellow MCs and his unflagging work ethic mark him as an industry heavyweight, yet commercially he’s never given stars like 50 Cent or the Game cause to…
Roller derby? I’ve had enough. Technically, I shouldn’t give a crap whether tattoo-coated chicks want to don kneepads and rollerskates and re-enact the derby leagues that bored me on TV in the ’80s and ’90s, but the punk- and rockabilly-obsessed leagues throw so many benefit concerts around Dallas that I…
Thursday, March 30, at the Metrognome Collective
Whether or not psychedelics are your cup of altered tea, The Gris Gris will take you on a trip with their horn-frenzied build-ups and mind-bending meltdowns. Favoring chant-like singing and less often, but most potent, mystical melodies and instrumentation without the self-indulgent virtuosity of ye olde psych-rock, the San Francisco…
Six years ago, Shooter Jennings, son of outlaw-country legend Waylon, ditched Nashville for Los Angeles and rock-and-roll dreams with his band, Stargunn. It wasn’t long before the past caught up with him; recent years have seen Jennings reclaim his country roots, which he says has as much to do with…
Dax Riggs has one of those lived-in voices that occasionally makes him sound several decades older than he actually is. The 30-something Louisiana native first gained notoriety as the frontman for soot-black cult-metalists Acid Bath, where Riggs’ weathered, world-weary voice added some welcome soul to the band’s acidic thrash. But…
SXSW by the Numbers: Times we overheard people mention MySpace at SXSW: 4 (admittedly, we didn’t attend the My Chemical Romance show, which affects our count) People who looked at our badges, realized we weren’t trendy or in a band and walked away: 15 White people at Pikahsso’s Friday night…
On Wednesday afternoon, Austin’s Beerland was dark, humid and barren. The punk and rockabilly music club isn’t meant for the daytime, let alone daytime concerts, let alone daytime concerts by the acoustic, thoughtful cast of Fort Worth’s Theater Fire. At the sparse afternoon show, the odds were against the out-of-towners…
Biz Markie has got what I need…except for convenient contact information. So I hooked up with Drill Sergeant Harvey Walden IV, Biz’s former ass-kicker from his time on VH-1’s Celebrity Fit Club, to “talk” about the longtime rapper’s Dallas tour stop. I found Harvey online at the V-Spot (vh1.com) pimping…
Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis should be thrilled. After all, the February edition of Spin features a multipage profile of her by notable scribe Chuck Klosterman. Unfortunately, though, the spread shortchanges Rabbit Fur Coat–a new side-project CD (made with the Watson Twins) that qualifies as her finest platter to date–in…
Last year’s return of Dinosaur Jr.’s classic lineup was one of the least expected reunions since John Lydon reanimated the Sex Pistols. After hitting bandmate Lou Barlow with a guitar as a prelude to dumping his ass in the late ’80s, temperamental frontman J. Mascis (sometimes with drummer Murph) carried…
True to the album title, the songs on the latest from Chicago’s Low Skies all address love, but don’t play it to set the mood for a romantic evening. All the Love I Could Find chronicles the bleakest consequences of love, confronting painful loneliness and juvenile obsession at a snail’s…
It’s easier to dance without Foucault looming over your shoulder. If only the bands of the recent dance-punk scare had reached for Scottish funk-pop boys Apb rather than Leeds theoreticians Gang of Four, they might have grasped something. Not that Apb have much on Gang of Four except guilelessness, but…
In 1972, David Bowie gave Ian Hunter a song called “All the Young Dudes” and talked the reclusive, bitter Hunter into resurrecting the literate and tragically unsuccessful Mott the Hoople. For better and worse, Bowie turned the band into the forefathers of glam, complete with knee-high boots and a fashionable…
Even though they’re meant to celebrate songs, let’s face it–most musical boxed sets wind up becoming coffee-table books. Thankfully, the five-disc The Life and Music of Richard Thompson is for the British singer/songwriter/guitar-hero what Tracks was for Springsteen: a compulsively listenable trove of unreleased work that complements, and often outshines,…
Whether a Mekon, a Waco Brother or solo, Jon Langford’s three-decade commitment to the proletarian aesthetic of punk and roots has never wavered. His hoarse, Strummeresque hue and cry has proven equally adept at anthem shouting, dub-inflected pop and ageless Americana. Gold Brick, while decidedly rootsy, features elements from throughout…
On occasion, butt-nasty venue Tom Cat’s lands shows so fitting for its out-of-the-way underground status that I’m simultaneously baffled and impressed. Wednesday’s hip-hop showcase is a perfect example, touting under-the-radar MCs like MED, Count Bass D and, most important, Percee P, a 35-year-old veteran who still hasn’t released a debut…
At its peak, Stereolab was among the most distinctive combos on the planet. Throughout a succession of discs capped by 1996’s unimpeachable Emperor Tomato Ketchup, the act, led by multi-instrumentalist Tim Gane and beguiling French-born singer Laetitia Sadier, offered up an irresistible blend of electro-dabblings, twisted kitsch and left-wing ideology…
Dilated Peoples is the rap equivalent of a Honda–nothing fancy, just a solid, dependable ride that’s as reliable as Rip Hamilton curling off a screen. You know when you step into a DP show that you’ll get thoughtful lyrics inspired by soul snippets bouncing off of dusted boom bap. You…
In “Django’s Lullaby,” gypsy songman Jerry Jeff Walker sings about his young son to a sappy-sweet good-night melody. “I hope the music that I play while he’s dreaming stays with him all the rest of his days,” he sings. Well, it’s been 20 years since Jerry Jeff recorded that song,…
After amping it up on World Without Tears and Live @ The Fillmore, Lucinda Williams brings it all back home to her folkie roots. By stripping her stage show down to just her and masterful guitar foil Doug Pettibone (as much the star of the aforementioned albums as Williams herself)…
