Around our house, a new Gourds album is anticipated like a sacred tablet coming down from the mountain — or, at the very least, a new unearthed episode of Kung Fu. If Quentin Tarantino were to make a movie based on a recording session for the Gourds’ latest analog-tracked album,…
Liza Oxnard could give Norah Jones a run for her money any day of the week. Straight out of the People’s Republic, the erstwhile Zuba frontwoman and new mother has a bewitching voice that’s easier on the ears than Katherine Heigl is on the eyes. Make no mistake, though: Liza,…
After establishing himself as one of the founding fathers of the East Coast rave scene during the early ’90s, New York’s DJ Micro became one of the most recognizable faces in American dance music. As founder of the seminal label Caffeine, Micro created one of the key underground forces that…
Picture yourself as singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. Now imagine that virtually every article written about you over the better part of a decade (even the complimentary ones) has portrayed you as something of an oddball — a gifted but fragile artist who thoroughly dislikes the interview process. If that’s the case,…
Maybe it was the complimentary Coors everyone was sucking down. Or perhaps it was the savory slabs of roast beef and turkey that folks were shoving into their gullets. Ultimately, I wasn’t sure exactly what had put everyone in such high, ahem, spirits this past Monday night at the twelfth…
The Coup’s Boots Riley sounds like he’s dying. “Naw, my voice always sounds like this in the mornings,” the rapper croaks. “It’s just part of it, for me — like riding in this van for ten weeks.” Riley is traveling with half a dozen other people in support of his…
What’s in a lead singer? Audioslave and Velvet Revolver have gotten along quite nicely without their prima donna leaders, thank you very much. Certainly, the Mark Burnett-produced reality series Rockstar has become the television equivalent of the world’s biggest band ad. After rescuing INXS’s remaining members from oblivion, the second…
L.A. rockers the Bronx have never had to work too hard to get noticed. After just a few gigs, the quartet was beating back A&R reps because of its brutal tunes and punishing live shows, until Island Def Jam finally got through. The major-label story often ends in broken promises…
The latest installment of Johnny Cash’s epic American series, American V: A Hundred Highways, is the most poignant, cohesive album in the collection to date. Released two and a half years after the singer’s death, the introspective American V centers on spirituality and mortality. The opening cover of Larry Gatlin’s…
Busta Rhymes has recently embarked on a career makeover. He’s got a new label, a new haircut and a new body. But his latest album, The Big Bang, is reminiscent of the Busta of the ’90s: hungry, charismatic and crazy. The Dr. Dre-produced opening salvo, “Get You Some,” finds Rhymes…
Brightblack Morning Light bears a rather striking, but not crippling, resemblance to the orchestral psychedelia of Spiritualized. Both bands have an affinity for taking a foggy blues riff and wrapping it in street-smack, slow-mo gospel. Nathan Shineywater even shares Jason Spaceman’s ghostly tendency to sing in long, crawling exhales that…
These days, few performers are capable of crafting long-lasting careers — but producers like Tim “Timbaland” Mosley are another story. More than a decade after emerging from the wilds of Virginia, Timbaland is as in-demand as ever, and his work on the unexpectedly pleasurable Loose ensures that his cell phone…
Toil Like Devils, the Tarmints’ fourth effort, is the musical equivalent of a James Ellroy novel: brutal, uncompromising in its artistic vision, and an unflinchingly honest exploration of the shadowy places of the human psyche. Music seething with such a palpable, exhilarating anger could easily come from dwelling on self-destructive…
The notorious book called The Turner Diaries concerns a worldwide race war won by Caucasians. The decision by guitarist Eddie Turner, an African-American, to give his latest recording the same handle may be entirely coincidental; the title track’s lyrics don’t overtly reference the other Diaries. Whatever the case, the CD…
Naim Amor, Exsanguine (Amormusic). Naim Amor’s Exsanguine is a joyously atmospheric 1960s soundtrack to a dinner party in a Tucson barrio hosted by a Parisian couple in a Peter Sellers film. Comprising outtakes from Amor’s upcoming disc, Sanguine, Exsanguine is a stellar avant-pop collection imbued with savoir faire. — Rogers…
The Court and Spark was originally lumped in with the alt-country movement largely because of the San Franciscans’ choice of instrumentation: Pedal-steel and acoustic guitars played prominent roles on the combo’s 1999 debut, Ventura Whites, with banjos, dobros and mandolins making cameo appearances. Several albums and years later, most of…
Mike Andrews, who handles six-string duties for the Greyboy Allstars, is well established in both the visual and aural mediums. His prolific composing credits include scoring the 1988 cult flick Donnie Darko, as well as songwriting contributions to Miranda July’s film Me and You and Everyone We Know and the…
DJ Greyboy As DJ Greyboy, Andreas Stevens will be forever known as the veritable father of American acid jazz, a sound he was exposed to during a trip to London in the late ’80s. On his 1994 debut, Freestylin’, the Long Beach-based DJ fused the sounds of jazz with contemporary…
Back in Pearl Jam’s ’90s heyday, frontman Eddie Vedder eschewed the machinery of the music industry; he refused to make videos, conduct interviews or participate in commonplace publicity chores that are on the to-do lists of virtually every successful pop performer. But when the Jammers’ CDs stopped selling in big…
The most impressive thing about Cowboy Troy is what it took to make a black country rapper feasible. Hip-hop, the great assimilationist art, had to become the dominant musical form. A long line of experiments, from Charlie Daniels’s spoken-word songs to Timbaland’s hoedowns with Bubba Sparxxx, had to lay the…
Like a pissed-off, mistreated dog, Travis Reilly yelps, “This is how downward spirals start!” Then he growls, “This is a convoluted attempt to find some source of hope.” Later, he barks, “This is the best and worst things will ever get.” Reilly’s Long Island-based hardcore outfit, This Is Hell, seems…
The side project/obsession of KMFDM collaborator Raymond Watts, PIG has long been a hero in the underground industrial scene. The band’s mix of orchestral drenched beats, references to pork products and proclivity for poking fun at its peers has made it a favorite with the Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch…
