Music

Every syllable Tupac Shakur uttered near a microphone constitutes a potential sample, and a decade after he hit the grave, his estate’s caretakers are still finding ways to turn old recordings into “new” songs. But while the latest posthumous Shakur disc should enhance his brand, it diminishes his legacy by…

First impressions can be tough, especially given that we reportedly form an opinion within the initial three seconds of meeting someone. So it’s unfortunate that potential fans of Brand New, which debuted in 2001 with the easily overlooked pop-punk vehicle Your Favorite Weapon, may never know what five years of…

It’d be easy to dismiss 8traC as just another jam band in an area awash in groups fitting the same description — but resist the temptation. Whereas many acts of this ilk play loose with their grooves, these guys are tighter than the skin stretched across Joan Rivers’s cheekbones. This…

Singer-songwriters can be hard to swallow. There are few who can pull off winsome sappiness without looking like a total sap. Then there are guys like Dan Craig, who seem to hover somewhere between sentimental mush and genuine potential. Wirebird (due for release on Thursday, December 14, at the Walnut…

Bell Hollow, Sons of the Burgess Shale (Five03). While so many latter-day post-punk bands fall all over themselves trying to mimic the more danceable moments of a Gang of Four record, Bell Hollow chooses to embrace atmosphere and mood. The act’s songs — which sound like the Chameleons playing haunted…

Though the members of Division Day cite noise-rock auteurs Unwound and Drive Like Jehu as influences, their music has more in common with the atmospheric inclinations of acts such as Boards of Canada and Smog. Singer Rohner Segnitz’s voice carries a hint of Travis Morrison’s plaintive expressiveness, and Division Day…

Alabama-born Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay is best known for her vocal contributions to legendary Muscle Shoals Studios recordings by the likes of Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and, later, the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band. In 1980, shortly after leaving the Dead, she lost her first husband in…

Ah, Swedish death metal: Nothing rings sweeter than the combination of those three words. The adorable headbanging Scandinavians in Grave don the black uniform with a nihilistic fervor characteristic of their fellow countrymen in Entombed and Dismember (both of whom will also play this Saturday at Hubba’s, 13740 East Quincy…

Andre “A.G.” Barnes, also known as Andre the Giant, has paid his dues for so long, he deserves a free pass — not that he needs one. He was an original member of D.I.T.C. (Diggin’ in the Crates), a NYC outfit that included producer Rodney “Showbiz” Lemay; the two subsequently…

Croques monsieur. Ponderous films. Ennui. You can now add vicious, monstrous metal to the list of things for which France is famous. Bayonne’s own Gojira (the Japanese name for Godzilla) unloads a brimming bag of hefty, riff-tastic, thoroughly thunderous metal. The quartet — freres Joe and Mario Duplantier (guitarist/vocalist and…

Back in 1998, when she arrived on the national blues scene, Shemekia Copeland was promoted as a chip off the old block — that block being her father, famed bluesman Johnny Copeland, who had died the previous year after a long, very public struggle with heart disease. Since then, however,…

Nearing her fiftieth birthday, Lisa Germano has no reason to shy away from the tough stuff. Not that she ever has: Looking back to her early-’90s singer-songwriter beginnings, you’ll find the Indiana native tackling obsession, depression, addiction and death with a surprisingly straightforward and undaunted stoicism — and no shortage…

Spacemen 3 very well may have taken drugs in order to make music to take drugs to. Action Packed Thrill Ride, on the other hand, appears to drink to deal with problems caused by drinking. Although Thrill Ride is firmly rooted in the country tradition, its songs don’t twang as…

He wasn’t their original drummer, but Marky Ramone spent enough time beating the skins for the Ramones that he’s considered by many to be the drummer that mattered. One of the most visible and best-known drummers in the punk world, Marky has kept busy since the legendary punk band’s mid-’90s…

Dan Fong’s a bona fied shutterbug. Watching him saunter about last night, mingling with guests, with a camera slung over his shoulder during a sneak preview of ARTRock — an exhibition featuring his celebrated rock and roll photography over the years, which opens tonight at La Rumba before moving over…

Touring burns me out. Drive. Load. Play. Load. Drive or sleep, depending on what’s happening. Just a month before Blackout Pact called it quits, Justin Hackl posted those lines and other excerpts from Henry Rollins’s memoir, Get in the Van, on his MySpace blog. Although Rollins wrote those words over…

Oh, cool! A Curious George doll!” exclaims Dears frontman Murray Lightburn. “I’ve been wanting one of these for my kid for ages.” He pauses. “Sorry about that — I got sidetracked. I’m in a pharmacy right now in Winnipeg.” These are not exactly the first words you expect to hear…

Since forming in 1998, Washington, D.C.’s Dead Meadow has toured the globe relentlessly, doling out doses of dreamy, distortion-heavy psych rock in the key of Black Sabbath spiked with acid-infused Beatles. With sessions for a new album under wraps, drummer Stephen McCarty talked with us about escaping civilization by avoiding…

Despite a lukewarm reception in the States, romantics overseas are falling head over heels for Nebraska’s Eagle*Seagull. Given Europe’s predilection for artful music, it’s not hard to see why. There’s plenty to love about this sextet’s visceral chamber pop, which drips with raw emotion and unrequited love one moment and…

Folks fortunate enough to chat with electronic-music maestro Brian Transeau, who performs as BT, should keep a dictionary nearby, because they’ll probably need it. For instance, he explains a technique called circuit bending by noting that “it’s the first time, I think, that electronic musicians are able to work with…

Even sans the film, the Tenacious D-orchestrated soundtrack for its full-length feature The Pick of Destiny is a seriously marvelous three-act musical comedy. The album is like a spoofed-out Behind the Music, unraveling the fictitious story of folk-metal musicians Jables (aka Jack Black) and Kage (aka Kyle Gass), track by…