When Dan Stone took his video camera to film the North Side Kings’ July 3 show in Tuba City, he hadn’t counted on capturing heavy-metal history. The Valley hardcore band didn’t get to play because Danzig, the headliner, went on at 10 p.m. instead of the originally scheduled midnight slot…
Great music is often born in obscurity, and, at least in this country, that’s where it usually dies. Thankfully, the members of Sloan reside in Canada (where they’re stars), which has afforded savvy Americans the opportunity to enjoy their steady stream of great albums. While united by rich melody and…
It’s hard to avoid words like “somber” and “melancholy” when describing the Velvet Teen’s music. The band brought in a string quartet for its latest album, Elysium, and the symphonic swelling behind singer Judah Nagler’s winsome falsetto makes the band sound rather like the bastard child of Pachelbel and Jeff…
TThe small brown vial I’m looking at has a sinister appearance to it, bearing only a white typewritten label identifying the powder inside as 5-MeO-DMT — 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine. It came via UPS from an American chemical company to three inner-space explorers I know; now, a couple days later at a house…
But will I be lost if I haven’t heard volumes 1 through 9? Unlike most compilations, which serve as little more than friendly handshakes with a dozen unfamiliar artists, King Size Dub is better taken as a cohesive whole than as a patchwork collection of tracks. Boiling electronic music down…
There’s the “space-rock” of Pink Floyd, Mogwai, and Flying Saucer Attack, and then there’s the music of instrumental-experimental Brooklyn trio Black Dice that very literally sounds like it comes from the cosmos — something the microphones onboard the Cassini Saturn probe might pick up if it discovered a well-stocked zoo…
Top 10 sellers at Swell, 414 South Mill, for July 3-9: 1. Z-Trip/Jim Mahfood, For Those About to Vote (Atak) 2. Oddio Audwell, Brainstorming (Mind Spit) 3. John B, In Transit (Beta Recordings) 4. Cut Throat Logic, The Mixtape (Self-released) 5. Anthony Rother, Popkiller (Datapunk Recordings) 6. Various Artists, Amalgam…
The East Village bar I used to frequent during my New York City days had a copy of Sonic Youth’s 1995 disc Washing Machine in the jukebox, and it was usually entertaining when the epic 20-minute closer “The Diamond Sea” would come on. (In my opinion, it’s one of the…
Before the pop punk wing took control of emo, the genre was influenced by the churning, contrapuntal guitar acrobatics of math rock and post-core vets such as Jawbox and Fugazi. In Braid, you can hear this uneasy clash of styles in songs such as “Never Will Come For Us” and…
Thursday 15 Acme Roadhouse: DJ J. Alan (house) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (Top 40, hip-hop) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Piranha Room/Area 51 with DJs Jeremy & Ricky (industrial, electroclash) Axis/Radius: Summer Nights with DJ MCB & Josh Royal (all genres) AZ 88: DJ Seduce (acid jazz lounge) Club Bash: Atomic…
THE NIGHT: Saturdays at Dwntwn Club THE DJS: Luis & Cesar 3ro THE SCENE: Minority rules at this upscale club. Before 1 a.m., most of the 300-plus people here are Latinos in baggy jeans and designer dress shirts, with dates in shrinking mini-skirts or tight dresses. The air is heavy…
Mark E. Smith: What a grouch. The grizzled limey bastard has already laid off two of the four musicians responsible for the creation of The Real New Fall LP, and is no doubt throwing the stink eye at the remaining pair. Historically, the dismissal is barely even a footnote. Smith…
How big a success has Eamon’s foul-mouthed breakup song “F*** It (I Don’t Want You Back)” become this year? Here’s all you need to know: Even the song’s subject — the ex-girlfriend addressed throughout as a “ho” and a “burnt bitch” — loves it. Of course, Eamon is quick to…
With Modest Mouse hitting town Friday, July 23, as well as sitting high on Billboard’s albums and modern rock tracks charts, and in heavy rotation on 103.9 The Edge, I feel a responsibility to let you know that, if you’ve recently glommed on to the Northwest troubadours’ latest LP, Good…
When At the Drive-In, the greatest multiracial post-punk band ever from El Paso, Texas, broke up three years ago, half of its members formed Sparta and began ambling down a road from Over the Top Town to Well-Meaning Dullsville. Wiretap Scars, Sparta’s 2002 debut, was At the Drive-In with none…
After helping create the genre-busting Southern hip-hop that fellow Georgian pioneers OutKast would ride to superstardom, Goodie Mob’s third album, 1999’s World Party, sounded like a discouraging dead end. The content-free rhymes were poorly received and led to the departure of the Mob’s most formidable weapon, the crooning, keening rapper-singer…
If you’re still in mourning over the demise of the mighty Jesus Lizard (five years removed, I know I am) and, to a lesser degree, At the Drive-In, then let the frenetic post-punk roar of Seattle’s These Arms Are Snakes salve some of those wounds. Like the former, these guys…
The voice that launched a thousand careers (from ATB to Paula Cole and dozens of other imitators), Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan took “Possession” of the female singer/songwriter crown in 1993 with her third album, the multi-platinum Fumbling Toward Ecstasy. One can hardly blame her that so many less talented…
For pop acts John Mayer and Maroon 5, touring together is like a class reunion. Mayer and Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine met while attending a summer music class at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. “They became friends and started jamming together and that kind of thing,” says…
He probably won’t be sporting yellow stitching, but Los Angeles-based house DJ Doc Martin is indeed the genuine article. Martin started spinning records back in ’86 — nearly two decades ago — and in the interim he’s held court at practically every legendary venue on both sides of the Atlantic,…
Of the seven trillion (and counting) members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man always has shown the most promise. From the get-go, the sandpaper-throated roughneck dazzled, with an exuberant flow and one head-spinning turn of phrase after another. His debut solo outing was a stunner, but Meth has never recovered…
The title of the Ponys’ debut, Laced With Romance, is as accurate as that Spears girl is chaste. With lines like “I only love ya ’cause you, ’cause you look like me,” the band is like that disheveled boyfriend who drinks too much at parties and never says he loves…
