Swati, a thirtysomething lesbian from Manhattan, is a powerful singer/songwriter, but her amazing guitar technique is winning her as many critical raves as her songs. Her 12-string guitar has been restrung as an 8-string with doubled B and high E strings, and the sounds she wrings out of the instrument…
Rai (pronounced “rye”) is the name given to the popular music that dominates Algeria’s streets and nightclubs and that is present among immigrant communities throughout America. In its original form, rai was a simple folk music made with improvised lyrics and accompanied by flute. The genre evolved over the years,…
Musicians who invent stuff are way cool. There’s Boston’s Tom Scholz, who developed the hugely popular Rockman headphone amplifier; New Orleans soul-punker Quintron and his bizarro, light-activated Drum Buddy; and, of course, Junior Brown, who, two decades ago, came up with his signature “guit-steel” — a Frankensteinian double-necked instrument that’s…
The most powerful introduction to Lucinda Williams’ new record, West, comes not from the languid, repetitive opener “Are You Alright?” but from the liner-note inscription by her poet father, Miller Williams: “You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.” As one…
Apparently, breaking up helped Black Rebel Motorcyle Club more than it hurt. After losing drummer Nick Jago, remaining members Peter Hayes and Robert Been took an abrupt, well-received detour into acoustic-based folk on 2005’s Howl, which soon led to Jago’s return. The time apart must have worked some sort of…
Reflecting the urban polyglot of its Los Angeles home, Ozomatli purveys a Latin dance party fueled by horns and covering a seamless expanse of hip-hop, jazz, rock, funk, and salsa. The vibrant sound is impressive live, and the band won a Grammy for its third album, 2004’s Street Signs. Like…
Bright Eyes’ latest effort, Cassadaga, takes its name from a psychic community. The first voice you hear as the orchestra makes like “Revolution 9” is a clairvoyant going on about centers of energy, and there are references to cleansing and communing with the dead. Although there’s nothing here as obviously…
The piñatas and Patrón will be poppin’ as the yearly case of Cinco de Mayo fever grips the Valley this weekend, with an eff-load of fetes and fiestas planned for Saturday, May 5 (peep our guide for proof). We’ve planned out our whole day, wey, and it gonna be muy…
Popularity, in a Yogi Berra-esque paradox, alienates some music fans. They either don’t want to be sheep or they simply want to avoid being trampled by the existing sheep in an eerie frenzy inspired by, let’s say, the bouncy sweatball of performing energy that is Treasure Mammal’s Abelardo Gil III…
A patchwork of film and TV samples, scratches, and elegant baroque instrumentation on Hope & Sorrow follows French turntablist/producer Wax Tailor’s 2005 debut, which isn’t entirely different from this latest effort. Two years ago, Tailor employed looped keyboard melodies and cello flourishes on his breakout Tales of Forgotten Melodies LP,…
At some point in rock ‘n’ roll, creativity got confused with originality — bands and singers were suspect if their songs weren’t self-penned. Performers recording others’ songs were often seen as less “genuine” by the terminally hip. That kind of thinking is responsible for tons of rock albums containing two…
Compulsion is one of those albums that makes you scratch your head with wonder at how it could ever have gone out of print in the first place. Maybe we can blame the overabundance of jazz albums in the stratosphere, or maybe it’s because the late pianist Andrew Hill didn’t…
Airily pretty, vicariously depressing, and just plain emotionally exhausting, the Velvet Underground & Nico tune “Sunday Morning” nailed comedown bummer rock with such precision that most later efforts in that direction have been left wanting. Some 30-plus years later, the Baltimore duo Beach House has recovered and lethargically twirled this…
Nick Cave hasn’t played electric guitar for years and his primitive, grinding approach to the instrument inspired the name of the band and the thrashing, primal, punky noise it spits out on its debut album. With Bad Seeds Warren Ellis (violin, keyboards, bouzouki, guitar), Martyn Casey (bass), and Jim Sclavunos…
Perhaps only The New York Times could have written this headline: “Bluegrass That Can Twang and Be Cool Too.” Excuse me? Somebody inform the Gray Lady that all bluegrass is cool. Nickel Creek, the subject of the above header, is just different. The twang’s there, but forget everything you think…
Although the men of Air have never been the most explosive Frenchmen on the planet, there are times on the album Pocket Symphony where they feel more like air with a lowercase “a” than Air, the brains behind the sad yet swanky space-pop classic Moon Safari. The title itself is…
At a Gwen Stefani show, you are not a citizen of the world, but the subject of a commanding cultural empress whose red-lipped orders are your new desires. That is because Gwen Stefani publicly exists in and presents as her aesthetic a hugely successful, colorful and fun Gwen Nation. Not…
Of all forms of music, you’re most likely to catch two complementary bands on the same bill at a jamband show. In this case, San Francisco four-piece Tea Leaf Green and rural New Jersey sextet Railroad Earth both take the indelible influence of the Band in divergent directions that, when…
Wanna rave on without having to worry about whether the abandoned warehouse you’re dancing at is about to get busted by the cops? Then throw on your club-kid duds and head for Tumbleweed Park, 2250 South McQueen Road in Chandler, where Nightowl Entertainment will present the “100 percent legal” event…
Of course, we love the club life, but after so many weeks of hitting bar after bar, we needed a change of scenery. We found it on Friday, April 13, at Brand X Store, where local artists Disposable Hero, Family Soda, Mad One, and Fixer showcased their goods, spun some…
My buddy B-Boy looks like he could kick some serious ass. At 6-foot-4 and 350 pounds, he strikes an imposing figure in his baggy Dickies pants and stained T-shirts. His shaved head and scraggly beard add to the intimidation factor, so it’s a good thing he’s not a bully. In…
This Japanese rock band is huge in its home country, and it’s starting to make waves here in the States, despite being way too cool for us. Dir En Grey is seriously the hippest hard metal band to hit the Western world in a long time. Originally part of Japan’s…
