When we heard about the grand opening of Lady Luck Tattoo Gallery in Tempe, we packed our camera and hit the party for some freaky photo-ops. After all, tattoos and Tempe go together like drunk girls and frat parties; both are necessities for the college experience and may lead to…
It’s difficult to describe — even after spending a third of my life employed doing exactly that — the music on the Lymbyc Systym’s new LP, Love Your Abuser, to be released on the 23rd of this month. The duo, local brothers Jared and Michael Bell (Michael’s currently living in…
The digital age has become a major curse to the major labels: Album sales fell 4 percent in 2005, 4.6 percent in 2006. But for rock ‘n’ rolling indie entrepreneurs with access to editing gear, digital cameras and life-rights, a brand-new art form has descended upon the industry’s carcass —…
What’s cool about Gorillaz is you don’t need Jamie Hewlett’s animation to appreciate the genius of the music. But what’s even cooler is the way that animation steals the show on any number of the highlights in the awe-inspiring Gorillaz compilation DVD Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades (Virgin Records U.S.)…
The members of Boys Like Girls live at home in the suburbs with their parents and write vague, emotionally charged songs sugarcoated with precision pop hooks. Add Martin Johnson’s wavering, pained voice, a requisite ambiguous name, and producer Matt Squire (Panic! At the Disco), and the band fits emo to,…
In addition to boasting the slickest use of samples and instrumentation this side of a Moby/Diddy collaboration, Tomorrow’s Last Try also contains the most hardcore local hip-hop song ever recorded, in the form of track nine, “Zombie Jesus.” The song opens with some psychotic Latino threatening to fuck another guy…
The members of Liverpool’s Clinic are up to their surgical masks in Nuggets-worthy psychedelic splendor here, from the bass-driven pulse of an opening track whose instrumental section could practically pass for The Yardbirds paying tribute to the Far East, to the dark narcotic haze that hovers over “Gideon.” On “Animal/Human,”…
If you like The Glimmers’ penchant for spinning the best in disco punk, but just haven’t warmed to the Belgian DJ duo’s sense of rhythm, check out this album. The Glimmers’ new contribution to the indomitable Fabric series is an improvement over their 2005 DJ-Kicks mix CD. It starts out,…
Ever since Buena Vista Social Club, Afro-Cuban music has been on the radar of mainstream trend spotters both old and young. Yet the majority of new releases and rereleases since BVSC have concentrated on the Caribbean side of the equation (with the possible exception of Senegal’s Orchestre Baobab), to the…
How’s this for self-confidence: After finishing sessions for its debut album, Richmond, Virginia-based baby band Cassius was apparently so convinced of its own ass-kickingness that the band members broke their leases, bought a tour van and started booking gigs at any club that’d have them. Luckily for the band, I…
This diverting five-song EP inaugurates ex-Libertine Pete Doherty’s new contract with the only American label brave enough to sign a world-renowned junkie hell-bent on seeing how far the English judicial system can be pushed before it throws him in the clink. (Recently, Doherty was fined 770 pounds and ordered not…
Wanda Jackson dated Elvis Presley in the ’50s, and even if she may not have slept with him (“There were things you could and couldn’t do, and my daddy made sure I never crossed that line,” Jackson’s said of the period), just having shared a milk shake with Elvis is…
So you say you’ve been holding your breath in the hopes that some young band would put out a record that sounds even more like the great lost Duran Duran album than The Killers’ Hot Fuss? Well, in that case, you should breathe and check out Popularity, Jonezetta’s hook-filled Tooth…
When Kevin Barnes started Of Montreal in the mid-1990s, he was a bit late to the Athens, GA, scene’s retro pop-rock party. At that time, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Olivia Tremor Control ruled the roost of the ripening Elephant 6 Collective, beguiling indie-rock audiences and tastemakers by…
Blessed with an uncommon power to transform a sort of jovial brotherhood into eclectic, rootsy rock songs, Marah has always attracted fans with the prowess of its live performances, aiming not to replicate its albums onstage but rather to infuse its albums with the vigor of its stage show. The…
L.A.’s Moving Units worship at the altar of Robert Smith, injecting their very of-the-moment dance rock with a fat dose of post-punk. Like comrades in arms Interpol, The Faint, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Moving Units will get your skinny ass shaking with disco-chic ditties about dance clubs, drama, and…
If you were hankering for many happy returns in 2007, looks like you’re gonna get your wish, bub. Namely, the dope drum ‘n’ bass DJs of Essential Wednesdays, who were dumped from their longtime weekly gig at Sky Lounge late last year, are making a comeback with Liquid Heat on…
1. Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (Geffen) 2. Various Artists, Dreamgirls: Music From the Motion Picture (Col/Urban Soundtrax) 3. Young Jeezy, The Inspiration (Def Jam) 4. Akon, Konvicted (Umvd) 5. Beyonc, B’day (Sony) 6. Omarion, 21 (Sony) 7. Nas, Hip-Hop Is Dead (Def Jam) 8. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive)…
Thursday 18 Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cat Eye: Punk Rock Thursdays with DJ Diesel (rock, punk) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) e4: “Passport” with DJ Tranzl8r (hip-hop mash-ups) E-Lounge: DJ Domenica (hip-hop, house) GLAM: DJ Vertigo (goth, industrial) Grilled Expedition: DJ Jeff (hip-hop) Hard Rock Cafe: Skandilis…
Damn, a glitch in the interweb prevented this from going up with the previous post about the swell kids in Peachcake, Stefan Pruett and Johnny O’Keefe. Stefan sent me over these tracks for all you fans and haters out in the blogosphere to scope out. But also, besides the nifty…
I always enjoy the little missives I’m sent from Stefan of weirdo duo Peachcake, but this one was so exceptional I had to share it with everybody, ’cause it’s a damn thoughtful and interesting idea. Check it… 2007 has gotten off to a relatively slow start. We’ve been home now…
We Fly Our Kites at Night I don’t ordinarily get vindictive towards bands that I actually like, but I’ve got to solicit y’all’s assistance in lighting a fire under the arses of the guys in spazz/punk outfit We Fly Our Kites at Night. The boys, who I wrote about more…
