It’s remarkable that after a half-decade of audacity, eccentricity and pulverizing hype, the White Stripes still manage to sneak up and genuinely surprise us. Get Behind Me Satan begins with the blasé “Dude, we’re rockin’ out, dude” single “Blue Orchid,” but from there it gets infinitely better, not to mention…
Here’s more proof that television eats its young. In the beginning, The Osbournes worked because of the spotlighted family’s near-complete obliviousness to what most of us regard as real life — but as fame intruded, so did the sort of self-consciousness that can ruin a good time faster than a…
It’s sadly appropriate that Oasis named its new record Don’t Believe the Truth. For the last decade, the group has been living in a state of denial: While publicly maintaining the swagger and arrogance of its mid-’90s heyday, the Liams and crew have been dribbling out the meekest music of…
During five years of relative post-millennial silence, Boredoms changed its name to Vooredoms, swapped out its guitarist and bassist for two more drummers and attached itself to sunny psychedelia like a rabid Rottweiler. Celebrating its eighteenth year of experimental surrealism, Lead Bore Yamataka Eye presents a pair of unedited, trance-inducing…
Lucero tries so hard that sometimes it’s difficult to watch. The Memphis group’s last two records, Tennessee and That Much Further West, were rousing exercises in roots rock that nonetheless left listeners wondering when singer/guitarist Ben Nichols and company might finally come into their own. Nobody’s Darlings is damned near…
Dressy Bessy’s debut full-length, 1999’s Pink Hearts Yellow Moons, was the sonic equivalent of a sugar rush — but after two similar followups, singer Tammy Ealom’s perky vivacity began to feel a bit overwhelming, like a laugh track turned up too loud. Fortunately, the combo’s new disc finds a happier…
A complete list of the exotic instruments used on Ido Ziv’s followup to Afro-Melt wouldn’t fit into this space. Integrating Assiya’s international-music sensibilities with congas, djembe, dunduns, woodblocks, wave drums and all assortment of shakers, Ziv, a Boulder-based percussionist who hails from Israel, employs a rotating, world-class lineup of players…
With an emphasis on lyrics and vocal harmony combined with restrained, well-crafted instrumental passages, Moonshine Still doesn’t initially seem to be cut from the typical jam-band cloth. But the group’s swirling keywork and Byzantine guitar figures layered over repetitive reggae-tinged beats verify that at least one of its feet is…
Although the Caucasian-centric mainstream press tends to see the manufacturing of musical idols as primarily a pop-music phenomenon, it’s prevalent in hip-hop and R&B, too. Consider Ciara Princess Harris, who was given an ultra-promotable name at birth and subsequently developed the sort of tough-but-tender voluptuousness that created such a demand…
It’s been more than three decades since hitmaker Al Green held court over secular soul — that is, since a former girlfriend, Mary Woodson, broke into Green’s home, poured boiling grits on him in the shower, then shot herself in an adjacent bedroom. With his baby-making music on indefinite hiatus,…
Some plants thrive in the shadows. Arlo Guthrie should know. Although he’s never reached his father’s iconic status, he has nonetheless enjoyed a long, successful career as a songwriter, bard and philanthropist in his own right, starting with his first public performance at age thirteen. Seven years later, his well-timed…
“Will the white noise of words survive a war declared on signs?” It’s lines like these, from “We’re All Going to Die,” the opening track of Make Believe’s eponymous debut EP, that have helped solidify leader Tim Kinsella’s notoriety as one of the most pretentious voices in indie rock. But…
Jenny Lewis, the centerpiece of Rilo Kiley (right), has a most uncommon resumé. She first earned attention as an actress who worked steadily between 1985, when she was just eight years old, and 2001. According to the Internet Movie Database, her credits include high-profile film appearances (she got seventh billing…
Doing its part to improve Franco-American relations, The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower (right) flaunts a high-art conceit that includes performing in spooky, faux-SS uniforms. Subtle as a sledgehammer, the San Diego-based noise outfit is clearly out to shock the folks whom it doesn’t already hack off –…
On the website belonging to Denver’s Filmstrip Series, leader John Common lists dozens of ludicrous band names that didn’t make the cut — his favorite being Walt Shitman. And while that wise-ass moniker might seem like a non sequitur at first, in a weird kind of way it almost fits…
Kill Memory Crash has spent the majority of the past ten years operating in relative obscurity, playing underground raves and clubs in Chicago and Detroit. Its style has developed from a pretty typical dance sound into a dark hybrid of Detroit techno, IDM and heavy industrial music reminiscent of Nitzer…
A household name among hard-core folkies, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott provides the musical conduit between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Born Elliot Charles Adnopoz in 1931 to a Jewish physician in Brooklyn, the unlikely saddle tramp reinvented himself as a rodeo rider and cowboy singer — one whose worldly exploits have…
Most musicians and record labels are like, ‘Yo, the masses are stupid,'” says New York rhymer C-Rayz Walz. “But I’ve got more love than that. I’ve got more love than that for humanity, and people who buy hip-hop. I don’t think they’re stupid, and I don’t care if it’s a…
Poorly recorded in a converted chicken coop called Mud Bay (“not the rectum of the world, but you can see it from there,” Buzz Osbourne writes in the liner notes of this uneven effort), Mangled Demos From 1983 is the only document of the Melvins’ original lineup: guitarist/vocalist King Buzzo,…
To call Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Smog’s Bill Callahan icons of indie rock is no mere hyperbole. But besides the fact that the two have birthed thousands of misfit, hyper-intellectual troubadours, the parallels in their careers are uncanny. Both began recording in the late ’80s; both released EPs on the…
Plenty of Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden buffs have been hoping Audioslave would produce a great album on its second try, but they’ll have to settle for pretty good. Although Out of Exile is solid and listenable, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford are ultimately pushing…
Talk about the triumph of the team concept. 534 is an intermittently entertaining listen, yet the limited success it achieves is owed not to Memphis Bleek, whose name is in front of the title, but to the formidable support staff assembled around him. Bleek isn’t a bad rapper, but he’s…
