Music

There’s nothing wrong with being a singles act, but that doesn’t stop performers like Fabolous from trying to show they can do more than make radio fodder. For proof, check out Real Talk, which places a couple of first-rate hits alongside some ill-conceived misses. Although the opening track, a spoken-word…

Not many songwriters are able to juxtapose Sunday-school hymns with a modest proposal that involves feeding unruly children to jungle cats. Neko Case, however, pulls it off beautifully. The Tigers Have Spoken, her third full-length, seesaws from country psalms to indie sass as it channels all the rapturous hoot-and-holler of…

The power of association cannot be denied. Whether Mikey likes it or not (and I can guarantee that he does not), the prevalence of tabloid headlines and news reports about his allegedly freaky behavior makes it well nigh impossible to assess this four-CD boxed set objectively. After all, nearly every…

On Leaders Not Followers: Part 2, nineteen of the most brutal speedcore, Satanic-metal and thrash songs ever recorded are drained of all life and transformed into uninspired, generic filler. Grindcore progenitor Napalm Death takes time off from its usual relentless assault to pay tribute once again to some of the…

Given the difficulty of making disparate musical elements cohere, it’s no wonder that most bands stick to a single style. Indeed, acts that can pull off the difficult mission of genre-blending are few and far between, which only makes the New Ancient Astronauts’ accomplishment that much more impressive. The various…

From ska to rock to hip-hop to funk and back again, Soapbox Jive slaps genre classification in the face with licked fingers. At one end of the spectrum is “Jump Blues,” where Jason Duffy’s sultry lower register and Michael Smith’s splashing cymbals oppose funk and bebop guitars in a frenzy…

Blag Dahlia wants to have his cake and eat you, too. The pop records that the slim, shady Dwarves frontman (who compares himself to both Jesus Christ and Jack the Ripper) makes with pop producers often sound sweet — until you pay attention to the words. With sing-alongs about statutory…

Uriah Heep woke up one morning to find itself reincarnated as two skinny Americans from Seattle who grew up on too much hardcore and Conan movies. These two men, drummer Coady Willis and bassist/vocalist Jared Warren, had previously served in a plethora of notable Northwest bands, including downright legendary ones…

Once upon a time, disc jockeys perched behind their turntable pulpits were worshiped like gods. Effortlessly blending one bone-rattling beat into another, they somehow managed to miraculously set thousands of wallflowers into nearly perpetual motion. Now that DJs are a dime a dozen, though, electronic musicians who perform some portion…

An illegitimate reminder of a barely legal one-night stand between Slayer and Botch, or the grandchild Judas Priest and Iron Maiden never knew they had, Himsa is frequently lumped into the overpopulated world of metalcore, but these five Seattle sickos have more in common with the best ’70s British metal…

Every type of music has its share of inaccurate stereotypes, but few styles are more plagued by misconceptions than hard rock. Those who aren’t sympathetic to this subset tend to view its practitioners as stimulation-craving cretins — the musical equivalent of tots who can’t stop sticking their tongues into electrical…

If only Repeater-era Fugazi had sounded like the members were actually having fun, or (International) Noise Conspiracy had come from freezing Regina, Saskatchewan, instead of freezing Ume, Sweden, then Despistado’s twitchy take on obliquely political hardcore might not sound so fresh. As it is, these four friends — the first…

Before the BoDeans became annoyingly omnipresent — thanks largely to TV’s Party of Five using “Closer to Free” as its theme song — the blue-collar band from Milwaukee was a regular on college radio, with more critical acclaim than mass-market appeal. Although the BoDeans’ roots-rock music, with its barbed hooks…

Atmosphere with brutality isn’t an easy combination to pull off. But the Autokinoton makes it look effortless — that is, as effortless as a brain-bruising eruption of noise and menace could possibly be. After forming two years ago and undergoing a ton of lineup changes, the quintet has finally settled…

Blending music styles is a tricky and often unwelcome feat, because each genre of dance music has its hard-core audience firmly in place. Crossovers seldom happen, and artists who actually make it work are often regarded as a novelty, at best. The Netherlands’ Marco V (at the Church this Thursday,…

When death pulls into most towns, sadness permeates everything and everybody it touches. In the Big Easy, however, grief is as unwelcome as a vice cop in a brothel. “In New Orleans, we celebrate death,” says Efrem Towns, the exuberant trumpet and flugelhorn player for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band…

KMFDM is not that different today,” says Sascha Konietzko. “We’re still not serious. There’s still a lot of cheeky stuff going on.” These are not exactly words you expect to hear from one of industrial music’s most uncompromising and outrageous trailblazers. Even those with a passing familiarity with KMFDM might…

In conversation, singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt, whose innumerable musical projects include the Magnetic Fields, takes deliberation to extremes. He reacts to most questions with a lengthy pause, and if the phrasing of a query doesn’t meet his standards for precision, he’ll pick it apart like a slightly dyspeptic linguistics professor rather…

Before A.F.I. hit punk pay dirt in 2003 with Sing the Sorrow, the quartet built a bloodthirsty following on Dexter Holland’s Nitro Records. AFI documents the band’s pre-Rolling Stone years with a balanced selection of fifteen of the band’s best early tracks. For longtime fans, there’s little to get frothy…

In the wake of 2002’s Spend the Night, the biggest-selling platter of their career, the Donnas have discovered maturity the way some seekers find religion. The ladies from Palo Alto recently ditched their Ramones-like pseudonyms in favor of their given names and transitioned musically from semi-novelty punkettes to sturdy pros…

Talib Kweli has struggled with finding a way to merge his lyrical gifts with his commercial aspirations. On his latest effort, The Beautiful Struggle, he succeeds with songs like “Ghetto Show” (with Common and Anthony Hamilton), “Black Girl Pain” (with Jean Grae) and the first single, the Kanye West-produced “I…