Amidst the bombast of Nirvana-influenced alternative rock in the ’90s, a handful of Chicago-based musicians pioneered the genre of music tagged by critics as “post rock.” Mixing a heady compound of jazz improvisation and outsider indie mentality, post rock provocateurs established quiet musicianship as the overarching aesthetic in the face…
San Francisco mixmaster extraordinaire Lorin Ashton, a.k.a. Bassnectar, has spent the past decade in the Bay Area’s underground scene amassing a legion of fans who dig his exotic sonic concoctions, which blend thickly warbling bass lines, spastic techno glitchery, and throbbing breakbeats with generous dollops of funk, hip-hop, and freestyle…
It seems like ages since we’ve been able to sit at a bar and enjoy a cigarette with our booze. This weekend, we may well have found the coolest patio in town. Bar Smith in central Phoenix has a real city vibe with its open-air bar, wedged between two other…
On a recent Thursday afternoon, disgruntled by the heat, Phoenix drivers, and the smell of my pants, I drop my Boston terrier, Murray, at home and high-tail it to a small bar in a strip mall marked by a fuzzy neon orange-red glow. I arrive at the Dilly Dally ready…
Who coined the term “world music?” Was it foreigners, resigned to Yankee cultural imperialism, who created it for Americans to signify “music you aren’t expected to like”? Or was it Westerners themselves, who like to tap their toes to a snappy melody but are traumatized by any instrumental music more…
There’s a hippie hiding in here somewhere. Behind the dreamy, intentionally off-key harmonies, under the shuffling, soft snare drums, inside the closet with the plucky guitar that’s trying to fade out of all the songs, there’s something very sloppy-’60s-stumbling-into-silly-’70s going on. It’s pop, but it’s confused, as if somebody dosed…
More than the Grateful Dead, San Francisco’s Jefferson Airplane defined the summer of love’s hippie ethos: lysergic lyrics (“White Rabbit”), an anti-authoritarian, us-versus-them attitude, and sonic eclecticism (rock, folk, jazz, blues, and world music). Sweeping Up captures all this, with the original Airplane at the peak of its powers. Guitarist…
Of Rhode Island MC Paul “Sage” Francis’ fourth solo album, Filter magazine wrote, “You can call it emo or you can call it hip-hop.” (Cue the sound of squealing brakes.) Huh? Francis may have been a member of Midwest emo-rap group Atmosphere, but there is nothing emo about this album…
Effortless projects seem to be kissed by fate, just like the newly released EP by local indie-electronica trio Number Sine. Formed after a chance meeting at Pita Jungle, and signed after sending out only one CD, they’re gearing up for a national tour. Their self-titled EP is the quintessential summer…
Stand Still, Look Pretty is an apt title for pop-country duo The Wreckers. Not only are Michelle Branch and her former backup singer, Jennifer Harp, easy on the eyes, but their lilting, almost childlike harmonies are gorgeous. With practically interchangeable vocals on their debut CD, Branch and Harp chirp their…
Reality does bear out this theorem: The smaller the band, the greater the intensity. Trios have generated some of the loudest, most intense, most volatile squall: Cream, Blue Cheer, Minutemen, Painkiller (John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and ex-Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris), and Hüsker Dü. (Taking the point further: Japan’s math-core…
As the guitarist of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Jason Trachtenburg swaps singing duties with his teenage daughter (and drummer), Rachel, while his wife, Tina, operates a slide projector, casting old images of other families’ birthday parties and vacations to time with the music. Trachtenburg is equally quirky and innovative…
Hyphenates abound in Phoenix’s downtown art scene — it’s relatively commonplace that bohemian types hawking paintings during First Friday or plucking guitars at Modified Arts probably have a record-spinning gig at a nearby bar or nightclub. Hence the meaning behind Everyones a Fucking DJ, which takes over the Upstairs Bar…
Our biggest complaint about the First Friday art walks is the lack of venues for getting stinking drunk. Carly’s has a huge waiting list, The Roosevelt is packed beyond capacity, and Bikini Lounge’s cash machine is usually tapped out by 10 p.m. The situation is so desperate, we’ve had friends…
What’s worse than Worser? Lots of stuff, because Worser is way better than just okay. This six-song EP shows some serious prog-rock tendencies — polyrhythmic timing changes, irregular tuning, unconventional chord progressions, and meandering melodies — but the fat guitar riffs and roiling bass lines give the band a burly…
Betty Davis spent the 1970s setting a towering standard for future freak-funk broads. Her strong come-ons in the growly vox department could still scare modern wanna-fucks back to the Stone Age. The brief, volatile relationship with her then-hubby Miles Davis might’ve thrown some wrenches into her music industry desires, though,…
Forget the Foo Fighters. The true champ when it comes to blending melody and mayhem is a tumultuous trio known as Dinosaur Jr. The prototypical hardcore heroes were making heads bop and torsos flail back when Dave Grohl was still taking his cues from Kurt Cobain. The group’s bassist, Lou…
Greetings, Earth humans, and welcome to the future. Your tour guide today will be Icy Core of Jupiter, a band so confident about its futuristic origin that it even wrote a song about the subject (“I’m From the Future”). The most accurate categorization of Icy Core’s music would have to…
The Hold Steady is not only one of the most critically acclaimed bands in the United States (their past three albums have landed on year-end best-of lists for three years running, including their latest, Boys and Girls in America), but they’re also one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands…
The downside of achieving massive success is becoming typecast. After leaving the airwaves, many of the original Star Trek cast found it difficult to secure work because of their association with the series; Chumbawamba has a 20-year career but is remembered by most for “Tubthumping”; and, despite having appeared in…
When it comes to straddling genres, few artists have the crossover breadth of Citizen Cope (a.k.a. Clarence Greenwood). He’s listed with granola-heavy Web site Jambase.com, and he certainly has the lazy acoustic-guitar appeal of Ben Harper or Jack Johnson. But his lyrics also have a gritty, street-worn sensibility reminiscent of…
One’s interpretation of Clutch, the mostly metal and sometimes funk-soaked ensemble, depends on where in the game a listener was made hip to the band’s interpretation of Led Zeppelin doing the nasty with Black Sabbath. Fans of their 1993 debut, Transnational Speedway League: Anthems, Anecdotes and Undeniable Truths, still muse…
