As a bed of acoustic guitar is lazily strummed below Charles Westmoreland’s vocal gymnastics on “Driver,” the opening track off Portland-based band The Kingdom’s new LP, one may recall another NW purveyor of bliss-pop, The Shins. But it becomes clear early on that The Kingdom is more keen on injecting…
Thursday 28Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) The Biz: DJ Robbie Rob (hip-hop, Top 40) Bunkhouse Lounge: DJ Doom (dance) Camus: KURRENT_affairs with Pablo Gomez (electronic, rock, pop, avant-garde) Cash Inn: DJ Kat (country) Club Central: DJs Ernie G…
1. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive) 2. New Found Glory, Coming Home (Geffen Records) 3. Fergie, The Dutchess (Interscope Records) 4. Ben Kweller, Ben Kweller (Red Int/Red Ink) 5. Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor (Atlantic/Wea) 6. Mars Volta, Amputechture (Umvd Labels) 7. Fear Before the March of Flames, The Always Open…
Back in the ’90s, when I was a young adult, I desperately wanted to start a small record label. It was the age of awesome and inspirational labels like Kill Rock Stars, the heyday of indie stalwarts like Dischord and Lookout, and a time when you could watch a small…
Author Chuck Bukowski probably never imagined Hot Water Music, the title of a collection of his short stories, would become synonymous with the post-hardcore scene. But so it is, thanks to Hot Water Music, the Gainesville, Florida, proto-punk quartet that took its name from Buk’s tome and spent the past…
When it comes to rock ‘n’ roll theatrics, Rob Zombie may not have drawn up the blueprint, but he’s definitely remodeled his own house of horrors, from directing instant cult classic horror movies like House of 1000 Corpses to his catalogue of ghoulish industrial metal albums (the latest being this…
Hippies, though admirable and well-intentioned, often compensate for their excellent politics with profoundly lousy art. Which is a real bummer, as our current political situation is profoundly lousy — as you might have heard, we’re living through one epic backlash against the ’60s and liberal democracy and yadda yadda. Meanwhile,…
Nick Luca, front man of his namesake band Luca, sounds a little confused, and like he might need a hug. The Tucson group’s latest album, Sick of Love, has an abundance of lovelorn laments and a strange mixture of rock genres. Luca and his bandmates, Chris Giambelluca (bass and vocals)…
The guys of Kingfish Fiasco are weird. They cite beer and porn among their musical influences, but that is probably because they frequent the Yucca Tap Room in Tempe. They also claim to have bought their drummer, John Earl Gilmore, for $20 on eBay. Actually, the story goes that they…
If the contrapuntal Al Green-meets-Skynyrd soul-groove of My Morning Jacket’s 2005 heavy-hitter Z didn’t convince you MMJ was breaking into the mainstream side of the music biz, the band’s inside-joke cameo appearance performing “Free Bird” in Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown should have. Either way, MMJ disciples will no doubt fall on…
Motörhead’s 27th album (and its 19th studio offering), Kiss of Death, doesn’t deviate from the heavy guitars, breakneck beats, and hoarse vocals that made the British band one of the most influential groups in the heavy metal genre. With the departure of guitarist Würzel, Motörhead’s been pared down to a…
Toronto-based post-punkers The Creeping Nobodies might have started as a one-off collaboration at a tribute show for The Fall, but the band’s come a long way from imitating The Fall’s Mark E. Smith for kicks. The Creeping Nobodies celebrate their fifth anniversary on Thursday, and while lead Creep Derek Westerholm…
While you can credit (or blame) The Pixies for kicking off this whole reunion thing of the past couple of years, it’s nice to see the trend extending beyond just graying college-rock outfits (and a few ’70s arena-rock groups, too). Now back from the band graveyard is Nitzer Ebb, the…
One can’t help but chuckle at the Red Elvises’ appropriation of cheesy American culture — the colorful bow-tie tuxedos, the lopsided pompadours, singer Igor Yuzov’s lounge-lizard panache. The band’s flair for fusing Russian folk music with American surf, rockabilly, and even disco led to interesting concoctions like “I Wanna See…
Long before mall punk bands like Fall Out Boy and New Found Glory were all the panic at the disco, there was a time in the ’80s when punk fans were often called “fags” and targeted for ass-kickings by jocks and good ol’ boys. So it made sense in 1982…
Holy crap — Cyndi Lauper is 53 years old! This bit of trivia is shocking but true. The girl who just wanted to have fun is all grown up now. Somehow she managed to survive the ’80s, but the same cannot be said for some of her decade-of-decadence contemporaries (whatever…
If you want to see the best and brightest of the Valley’s turntablist scene (without having to hit up a dozen different nightclubs), beat feet down to this ginormous rave and music shindig at the Icehouse, 429 West Jackson Street, on Friday, September 22. In addition to appearances by Philly’s…
Bob Dylan sang “to live outside the law you must be honest.” Waylon Jennings covered Dylan on his first independent album, cut in Phoenix in 1964. His sound was born here, and it was here that he died, in February 2002, but the Texas-born Jennings was known as the Nashville…
Thursday 21Axis/Radius: Nightlife Revisited with DJs J. Alan, & Phanton (hip-hop, dance) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Baja Tilly’s: DJs Richy Rich and Big Latin (reggaeton, hip-hop) Bunkhouse Lounge: DJ Doom (dance) Camus: KURRENT_affairs with Pablo Gomez (electronic, rock, pop, avant-garde) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (hip-hop, dance) Club…
Skin shows aren’t usually on my agenda for quiet Thursday nights, so I’m a bit startled to find myself watching a band with the drummer banging away wearing only a pair of peach-colored jockey shorts from American Apparel on a recent Thursday. Needless to say, my dollars are staying in…
Christina Aguilera’s new double disc, Back to Basics (RCA), is a sonic nod to the music of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. But a closer look reveals how the album also draws inspiration from classic double albums of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Blonde on Blonde (1966) On Back to…
You’ll find no hit singles as big as “Psychotic Reaction” or “96 Tears” in The Knights of Fuzz: The Garage & Psychedelic Music Explosion, 1980 to Now DVD (Dionysus), historian Timothy Gassen’s fanboy’s-eye view of the post-Nuggets wave of garage bands Little Steven’s always going on about. But it’s certainly…
