In press interviews for his new album, Kiss of Death, Jadakiss, a member of the Lox, asserts that he wants to be thought of as one of the greatest MCs of all time. Though it seems like bravado, the fact that New York’s hip-hop community has taken his statements seriously…
Of all the “The” bands swearing devotion to the Sonics/Stones/Stooges holy trinity of garage rock, the Hives have always seemed to have the most fun. Unhindered by the Strokes’ penchant for rock star clich or the White Stripes’ Machiavellian creepiness, the Hives reveled in the simple pleasures of three chords,…
This English dance-pop outfit is one of the world’s biggest electronic acts in countries that aren’t the United States, where we prefer our techno nerds white, bald and annoying. This is despite the fact that Rollo Armstrong, the producing mastermind behind Faithless, is Dido’s brother and helped construct her easy-drinking…
Ani DiFranco sent me a Christmas card back in 1996, along with a note listing her New Year’s resolutions: “Do more,” “Be more,” “Give more” and “Sleep at night.” She’s certainly done, been and given more in the past eight years, but I doubt she’s been sleeping at night. A…
Who’s your favorite two-piece act? The White Stripes? Mates of State? Local H? Donny and Marie? After this show, it might be the Portland duo Helio Sequence — singer/guitarist/harmonica player Brandon Summers and drummer/keyboardist Benjamin Weikel (late of Modest Mouse, where he spent a year subbing on the skins for…
Accidental supergroups make great rock ‘n’ roll. Take, for example, the Burden Brothers, whose founding members — vocalist/guitarist Vaden Todd Lewis (ex-Toadies) and drummer Taz Bentley (ex-Reverend Horton Heat) — got together to jam on some songs Bentley had written. The two liked the songs so much that they posted…
There’s certainly no shortage of sex in pop music. Hyperactive adolescents who, once upon a time, had to squint to make sense of a scrambled Playboy Channel can now find fulfillment from the first 30 seconds of a Nelly video. What they can’t get, though, is the technique. Enter Chicago…
For someone who’s considered one of the forefathers of hardcore hip-hop, KRS-One sure gets into a lot of scuffles with his progeny. While many artists readily admit the influence KRS-One had on their music (Sublime even gave props to the rapper with its song “KRS-One”), other artists such as Nelly…
1. Lloyd Banks, Hunger for More (Universal) 2. NB Ridaz, NBRidaz.com(Upstairs) 3. Devin the Dude, To Tha X-Treme (Rap-A-Lot) 4. Jadakiss, Kiss of Death (Universal) 5. Angie Stone, Stone Love (BMG) 6. The Roots, Tipping Point (MCA) 7. Los Lonely Boys, Los Lonely Boys (Epic) 8. Authority Zero, Andiamo (Atlantic)…
He rose from humble beginnings to conquer the pop music charts, indulged in all the excesses that celebrity affords, walked away at the height of his fame to embrace religion, and then, years later, made a triumphant return to the mainstream music world. Ladies and gentlemen . . . the…
CLUBS ACME Roadhouse: In its original Scottsdale location, ACME catered to Harley-Davidson weekend warriors. In its new Tempe incarnation, it entertains the college set with dancing and, on Sundays, local rock bands. Dance space is at a minimum, but there’s plenty of room for other social rites. Sun: Live music…
Dear Diary, Here I am on the tour bus. It’s been a while since my last entry, but I’ve been so busy. We played L.A. tonight, and the show was great. The kids were really into it. Saturday we’re in Scottsdale. I don’t know if I’ll have time before sound…
You might already be familiar with “Lausd,” the track off Jurassic 5’s 2000 classic Quality Control, but you probably don’t know what the hell the song title means. It’s an acronym for Los Angeles Unified Skills District, which is also the name of J-5 rapper Akil’s new, totally underground side…
Leaving us jonesing since 2001’s pop-perfect Satellite Rides, Dallas’ Old 97’s finally give us a Drag, shaking up the jukebox with a more spontaneous sound this go-around — melding spicy zydeco, plaintive ballads and power rock, plus the ‘tude and the twang that made them the kings of the alt-country…
If The Tipping Point, the sixth studio album by Philadelphia hip-hop crew the Roots, sounds like it lacks the genre-busting centerpiece each of the band’s previous albums has featured, it’s because it does. There’s nothing here as instantly ear-catching as “You Got Me,” the svelte hyperballad from 1999’s Things Fall…
For his long-awaited follow-up to Under the Crazy Hat, Tempe guitar virtuoso Joe Myers, his artist/writer wife Casebeer and their two children set up shop in a legendary New York landmark for little more than a year, until the events of 9/11 cut short their stay. It’d be hard to…
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…
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…
