Three years ago, I was part of what’s now one of the hottest, most talked about bands in the country. “So we’re just walking down the street in Lawrence, Kansas,” recalls Daniel Sproul, “and some chick comes up to us and says, ‘Are you Rose Hill Drive?'” Shocked to be…
Pain is the great motivator, anguish the most compelling muse. In other words, a world of hurt can go a long way. Just ask Chris Fogal, singer/guitarist of Denver’s the Gamits. His group’s brand-new disc is called Antidote, and it’s meant to be exactly that: an anodyne for crushing agony,…
According to the calendar, New Year’s Eve is still six months away. But you’d never know it from the faces at Herman’s Hideaway on this steamy Friday night. The place is packed, with a line pouring out onto the sidewalk. Inhibitions are stacked at the door like so many unneeded…
The female singer-songwriters of today can be lumped together into two convenient camps. There’s Camp Norah Jones, in which every sensitive, hushed-tone lullaby is safe passage to chart-topping success. Sarah McLachlan and Alicia Keys are camp counselors, while Jewel reads from a book of poems. They aren’t looking to rock…
Sonic Youth remains one of the great names in rock, but it may be a bit past its expiration date. After all, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley celebrated the big 4-0 a while back, and Kim Gordon hit the half-century mark last year, leaving relative newbie Jim O’Rourke…
Few things could be as emotionally stunning as a mute suddenly opening his mouth and speaking. Over the course of the past five years, San Diego’s Jimmy LaVelle, who records under the name The Album Leaf, has honored an almost monastic vow of silence; barring the occasional collaboration with luminaries…
It’s no secret that Neurosis is a changeling. Masters of mixtures and daredevils of disparity, guitarists Steve Von Tills and Scott Kelly, bassist Dave Edwardson, percussionist Jason Roeder and keyboardist Noah Landis have fifteen years of genre-bending music to their credit. Drawing on hardcore, industrial, metal, ambient and folk music,…
Chicks with dicks love the Symptoms. So do dudes with pussies. In fact, anyone who’s ever felt the pull between the masculine and the feminine within them might get a little wet between the legs upon their first exposure to this six-song debut. Founded in 2003, the group is new,…
On paper, Scott’s approach to music-making — members of his ten-piece Bowed Piano Ensemble saw, hammer and pick at the strings of an open grand piano — seems like little more than a stunt. On CD, it’s anything but. Scott, a professor at Colorado College, has found a way to…
This time last year, on Westword Music Showcase weekend, I took the reins from Laura Bond and doled out my first Beatdown. And, my, how Mootown has changed since then. Hip-hop is finally getting some respect, with organic crews like the Break Mechanics and Dojo leading the way and clubs…
Straight outta Omaha, Joel Petersen made his name playing bass for the Faint — but his side project, Broken Spindles, is every bit as intriguing as his main gig. The Spindles’ self-titled debut, issued in 2002, comprises a series of trippy numbers that pit electronics from yesterday and today against…
While the half-baked genre of electroclash cashed in its chips almost quicker than it could ante up, its echoes resound. One such reverberation is Oakland, California’s Gravy Train!!!! (below). Although the coed quartet’s music is far removed from the contrived, plasticky kitsch of electroclash, it shares an affinity for the…
Al Green is a bit like former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders — an all-time great who took himself out of the game prematurely, leaving fans to wonder what might have been. After issuing one brilliant side after another throughout the first half of the ’70s, this most effortless…
For twenty years, Skinny Puppy has combined horror-film samples, dark synthesizers and dance-floor-friendly beats to produce some of the most terrifying electronic music to come out of North America. Albums such as 1988’s VIVISect VI and 1990’s Too Dark Park are the apotheosis of the group’s sinister vision. Originally the…
Yeah, Mm is from Iceland, but let’s forgo all the snow similes for a minute. As goosebump-raising as the group’s music can be, it’s anything but frigid; in fact, Mm’s new album is called Summer Make Good, and it’s infused more with warmth and friskiness than chill and desolation. Formed…
This week, Loverboy roars out of rock and roll’s past to romance us once again. An ’80s act from north of the border, this ‘boy band cranked out a slew of solid hits and got us “Workin’ for the Weekend.” Aside from a doleful-voiced ballad from the chart-topping Top Gun…
While some bands build an admirable following by busily marketing and selling the image of baby-doll sweetness, Erin Roberts of Porlolo (playing with Rogue Wave and Born in the Flood, Thursday, June 24, at the hi-dive) effortlessly embodies it. The vocalist/guitarist’s modest demeanor, complete lack of pretension and stark sincerity…
The first time I went on tour with Planes Mistaken for Stars, I came close to dying. It was the band’s first trek across the country, in the summer of 1998, way before it had signed with the eminent indie label No Idea or perfected its vicious collision of punk,…
As country tunesmith Rodney Crowell prepared to make what would become one of 2001’s best discs, The Houston Kid, he discovered that no major label was willing to finance the project. In the end, Crowell paid for the recording himself — by draining his checking account. “Thank goodness my wife…
Ray Charles may have been blind, but he could see through more bullshit than any American musician who ever lived. Early on in his career, there were those within his own race who told him that his use of black gospel music to back secular, often blatantly sexual lyrics was…
After a six-year hiatus, the Beastie Boys return with To the 5 Boroughs and alternately position themselves as pop-culture bottom feeders and political pedants. While anti-Bush screeds “That’s It That’s All” and “Time to Build” come across as heavy-handed, the terse “Open Letter to NYC” does manage to channel that…
Morrissey, the last, great postmodern Englishman, lives in Hollywood now. His concerts in Southern California are well attended by Chicano gangbangers. The cover of his new record depicts that most rarefied of pansies — himself — sporting a zoot suit and a tommy gun. Ever get the feeling you’ve been…
