By Brendan Joel Kelley If you saw my column this week, you might wonder exactly what a guitar/drums/vocals metal three piece like John Wayne Jefferson sounds like. You can find the answer below, although you should be warned that the songs come off much better live and the production on…
By Brendan Joel Kelley Last week I blogged here about the film Once, starring the Frames’ Glen Hansard and Czech pianist Markéta Irglová. Apparently, the New York Times and myself aren’t the only fans of the film, which is pretty much a musical about two talented people who express their…
By Brendan Joel Kelley Drunken Immortals I ran into a dude who calls himself Letscherous Larry (yeah, it’s spelled wrong, but that’s how he spells it) recently, and he hit me off with a numbered “magic ticket” for a party he’s throwing at the Phix on Sunday, May 27. He…
By Brendan Joel Kelley Just a reminder for you that tonight’s the second installment of the Summer of Sound series; tonight you can hear (and vote for) the bands in the Americana category. That’s Flathead, the Liar’s Handshake, Andrew Jackson Jihad, and Wormwood Brothers, with Deadbolt as the national headliner…
By Brendan Joel Kelley Tempe singer/songwriter J.D. Stooks hit me off with one of his new tracks a couple days ago, “10 Lb Coat,” which you’ll find below. J.D.’s an incredibly talented kid, which you’ll hear below and you can hear more of on his Myspace. He’s actually out in…
In e-mails and comments on my blog, Ear Infection, I’ve gotten into it with the metal kids in town. They’ve criticized me for my opinions about metal or for my not paying attention to it. It’s generally people like Marshall Beck, a musician in several metal bands who got butt-hurt…
Even armed with an illustrated libretto, it’s hard to divine most rock opera story lines. Before Ken Russell’s film adaptation of Tommy revealed the importance of champagne, Marilyn Monroe, and baked beans to the plot, betcha just assumed it was about a deaf, dumb and blind kid pinball-messiah who gets…
Jackson Ellis is freaking out. In late April, the 26-year-old publisher of the independent music and fiction magazine Verbicide got word that starting on July 15, his shipping rates would increase by somewhere between 30 and 40 percent. “It’s not going be the thing that kills me, but coupled with…
Job for a Cowboy sounds like a good name for a country band, but this Glendale combo is in the vanguard of today’s extreme metal movement. The intense grindcore/death metal sound of Doom, their indie EP, and their relentless touring has generated a rabid following — 6 million MySpace plays…
The battle cry of the rawest punk rock and proto-hardcore bands circa 1978-84 was “louder, faster, shorter” and the attitude behind that ethos was about shearing away rock and roll’s accumulated excesses (tedious and/or showoff instrumental soloing, meandering songs). That premise is the bread and butter, the meat and cheese,…
After hearing the debut disc by local lesbian punk/dance trio The Pübes, the only thing left to say is “Oh, hell, fuck yeah!” Led by local folkstress Cameo Hill (who becomes Ivana Pluchya in this band), The Pübes combine the bouncy bad-girl vibe of artists like Suzi Quatro and Bikini…
Tori Amos is the blue-chip stock of the female singer-songwriter boom of the ’90s: Investing in her art has only become more expensive (read: demanding) over the years. With hooks disappearing, her albums have grown longer, while her lyrics have turned increasingly oblique. More memorable than 2005’s The Beekeeper, American…
If Wilco put together a greatest hits album, it probably would contain only two or three songs from Sky Blue Sky — and although that may sound like a criticism, it’s actually more of a testament to the band’s impressive body of work. Whereas 2004’s A Ghost Is Born was…
Although her flamboyant outfits may never be polite, Björk’s last few albums certainly were. The ice-crystal percussion and melodies on Vespertine were stunning but mannered, like an immaculately decorated parlor, while the nearly a cappella Medulla — an album in which beatboxing and throat-singing replaced traditional instrumentation — felt too…
Total chaos. Upon initial inspection, that’s what the songs of local duo Get Down! To Brass Tacks are built upon — synthesizers careen through the compositions like a blind man driving a Mack truck through a carnival of cowbells and fatass basslines, while singer/bassist Aarik Miller shrieks and wails through…
Jimmy LaValle has made music in the past with some interesting bands (Tristeza and Black Heart Procession chief among them), but the best thing that ever happened to him — and listeners, too — was when members of cosmic art-rockers Sigur Rós discovered one of the discs he’d recorded under…
Voxtrot’s eponymous 2006 EP may be the best indie-rock debut since, oh, the Pixies’ Come On Pilgrim. Each of the five songs on Voxtrot is nigh on perfect — a crystalline distillation of the band’s love of ’80s British pop. That’s not to say that the Austin quintet’s disc is…
Matt and Kim are just totally fun. Totally. Like a power-pop take on They Might Be Giants, with a (simulated) accordion and everything. They’re even from Brooklyn, where they’ve developed a loyal following at loft parties, basements, art galleries, and clubs. They accurately describe their live sets as having the…
Two songs on The Shapes We Make show the influence moving back to Washington, D.C., has had on Mary Timony’s writing. The spritely “Sharpshooter” — as close as the ex-Helium frontwoman gets to out-and-out indie-pop these days — sees wildlife turning the tables on trigger-happy hunters (“Ted Nugent, hey whatcha…
Club DJs of the P-Town, we feel your pain. You endlessly work the same local joints week after endless week, slaving over the turntables and beat-matching your brains out for a bunch of selfish and snotty hotties, all the while dreaming of blowing this burg for far-flung destinations and superstardom…
Thursday 24 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (various) Bobby Cs: Willie B (old-school R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: DJs Tranzl8tr, & Earth (rock, ’80s, old school, hip-hop) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (rock, hip-hop, dance) Club Central:…
Duders. That’s what the Coach House in Scottsdale had to offer on Saturday, May 19. (Click here for more photos.) The ratio of post-adolescent ex-football players to cutesy Scottsdale ladies was about 2 to 1. Although the vibe was relaxed, we spied some scattered single sirens on the prowl, taking…
