East of El Segundo’s refineries and beachfront ghettos, Hawthorne, California, remains an unassuming musical bastion, home to the Beach Boys, pop wunderkind Emitt Rhodes, and Greg Ginn of Black Flag. It’s also the stomping grounds for dios (malos), Angelenos who share Brian Wilson’s love of druggy melodies and rich vocal…
Pop-punk boasts about as much intrigue these days as “blues-rock,” “rap-metal” and every other innocent-sounding compound that has grown into a stinky, world-dominating blob. For five years, Chicago’s Lawrence Arms have stayed interesting by being the Renaissance men of a genre that’s broader than our wary ears might recognize after…
Whereas most rappers make a name for themselves by slaying competitors in freestyle rhyme battles, MC Chris came up through strange circumstances: voicing a cartoon spider. Fans of the Cartoon Network’s cult favorite Adult Swim series should know Chris from his hyper-obnoxious voice as Hesh on Sealab 2021 and various…
Thursday 17Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Fire Room with DJ Tranzl8r (rock mash-ups) Garcia’s: Latin Dance Night (Spanish rock/pop, reggaeton, cumbia)…
“The blues is dying out here,” my friend Dale Baich told me recently when we were bullshitting about music. I was taken aback by his statement, but when I thought about it, I hadn’t hit up a blues show in quite some time — like many people of my generation…
Sometimes it takes a jarring catastrophe to make things right. When you’re My Morning Jacket, catastrophe takes the form of a breakup. It comes after three achingly beautiful albums and close to a decade of paying your dues, touring at increasingly large venues for growing crowds. It comes while critics…
Finding Americana music on Internet radio is like looking for a bucket of nails at Restoration Hardware: There’s just something that ain’t right about searching for stuff that basic and impervious to innovation in a place so slick, contemporary and self-consciously cool. Unless, that is, you stumble upon the stream…
The Greencards are probably one of the best examples of American bluegrass out there right now, which is why it’s so gosh-darned peculiar that the trio consists of two Australians (Kym Warner, Carol Young) and an Irishman (Eamon McLoughlin) who’ve only lived in this country for eight years. Onstage, they…
When taking stock of all the things we don’t have in Arizona (seasons; a caring, compassionate sheriff; viable New York pizza; etc.), you can finally scratch off the following item: a Latina trio who sing bilingually and can give Destiny’s Child a run for their pesos. ‘Cause now we got…
Maybe I’m shallow, but I’m still waiting for a band called Daughters of Fission that’s four women with Coke-bottle eyeglasses and hair up in hideous buns who magically transform into ravishing Amazons midway through their set. This unit is three gals short and way too serious to take this high-minded…
Filmmakers like to go on about how rhyme-slingers make such naturalistic actors, how the MCs’ innate intensity translates well to the big screen. Oakland-based Why? makes an equally convincing argument for the viability of undie backpackers as high-caliber, indie-rock front men. Anticon Records stalwart/everyman Jonathan “Yoni” Wolf started Why? a…
Charlie Sexton, having left home at 12 to storm Austin as a guitar prodigy, does not lack in heartland grit. Maybe that’s why his latest, Cruel and Gentle Things, harks back to an era before rootsy rock was called “alt-country” and required the prurient use of Dobro and banjo to…
When Vaux released its first album, There Must Be Some Way to Stop Them, on Volcom Recordings in 2003, we could sense something was percolating; this band was on the verge of something explosive. Fans waited to see the band perform live or release the next album, wanting to witness…
Bands change, fortunately, and so does the music they make. But that implies opinions must change, too. After describing MXPX as a pale Green Day imitation to the bass tech for MXPX’s front man Mike Herrera on this summer’s Warped Tour, a moment later, we were introduced to Herrera. Oops!…
It’s not often we get a living legend hitting the turntables in the ‘Nix, because, really, the art isn’t old enough to have that many pioneers. There are a few, though, and amongst those few, none ranks as high in the pantheon — except perhaps Kool Herc — as Grandmaster…
We are arbiters of music, not ideals. So all hail Crass, who made great music in spite of their goofball politics. From the silly socialism of Rage Against the Machine to the street capitalism of 50 Cent, the music is the message. So we do not deliver a fatwa against…
The Black Moods deliver powerful music with a positive message, but only if you like your cock rock mixed with kick-rock. On the band’s mini-album Laurel Canyon, there’s a post-rehab, Velvet Revolver vibe that screams “hedonistic maturity.” After weighing in with a song about diminished faculties (“I don’t know why…
Tempe one-man band Page the Village Idiot has been hosting Monday nights at Hollywood Alley forever, so I’m trusting you’re quasi-familiar with his brand of onstage lunacy and some of the subtler intricacies of the ‘lectric ukulele. But maybe you need to take him home to see what makes his…
Smooth-voiced R&B singer Eijay (pronounced A-J) is a rare breed — in his credits, he thanks “the haters for breaking into my studio and stealing my equipment. I really needed that reality check. Peace!!” His CD Embryonic Soul is a strong mix of Dre-ish grooves and old-school slow jams, occasionally…
Hi, this is Michael Sweet from Stryper. I’m either rockin’ a stage or deep in prayer right now, so leave your name and a brief message and I’ll call you back. [beep] Yeah, hi, Michael, it’s Jesus Christ. Sorry not to have ever gotten back to you, but I’ve been…
For every hundred bedroom guitar heroes, there’s a Bryce Avary, the kind of driven kid who doesn’t just dream it. Avary recorded an EP at 18, setting the stage for his terrific self-recorded and -produced debut, Calendar Days, which generated enormous buzz for the then-20-year-old. Channeling the pop impulses of…
The Format is what would happen if a congested Cat Stevens fronted an ’80s-influenced, synthed-up Beatles tribute band, and wrote lyrics as creatively true as “Snails see the benefits, the beauty in every inch of life” (“Snails”). Named as an inside jab at the recording industry’s habit of churning out…
