Like Public Enemy and the Wu-Tang Clan, the five pioneering group members in N.W.A were a revolutionary bunch that changed music with unabated street rhymes composed within the framework of gangster rap. However, no rappers were oppressed like Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Yella, and the late Eazy-E —…
After six or so years on Jade Tree Records, the Richmond, Virginia, melodic hardcore quintet Strike Anywhere — which formed in 1999 from the ashes of Inquisition — jumped ship to Fat Wreck Chords for 2006’s Dead FM, their third full-length. Makes sense, really, as SA’s primary influences (Avail, Sick…
Who invited you? The Donnas may not think you’re cool enough to get into their pajama party, but the five females in Austin-based band The Applicators will not only let you into their pop-punk bash, they’ll probably shove a beer bong down your throat to boot. With songs that sound…
Albert Hammond Jr. is The Strokes’ Ron Wood, or maybe its Izzy Stradlin, or . . . y’know, the guy who’s content to bash out a few chords and look cool while leaving the bulk of the flashy soloing and histrionics to someone else, but who’s usually the band’s secret…
Some things are just awesome together: chocolate and peanut butter, Britney Spears and drunken rampages, trance music and belly dancing. Local DJ collective Overmind Works serves up the latter in spades at its monthly laid-back dance spectacular Aura, which goes down at belly dancing joint the Mystic Jewell Studio, 524…
Live From the MTC, the debut release on Phoenix-based DIY label onewordlong, isn’t exactly music because the conceptual art piece doesn’t abide by any familiar formula. Project founder JRC, co-owner of the Trunk Space art gallery and performance venue, recruited four local artists/musicians (Archbishop Jason Polland, The Coitus, Zach Burba,…
“Dude, I got the awesomest idea for our rave on Saturday, January 6!” “What?” “We should call it Yoshi’s Island.” “Don’tcha think that’s kinda ghey?” “Naw, everyone played Super Mario Bros. back in the day and will dig it. We can call our drum ‘n’ bass stage ‘Bowser’s Dungeon’ and…
When Sgt. Pepper first came out, one reviewer called it “George Martin’s finest hour.” He’s had several cracks at cheapening that high-water mark, from producing the disastrous Sgt. Pepper movie soundtrack to the George Martin: In My Life album on which he gave everyone from Sean Connery to Goldie Hawn…
Long before morphing into a three-headed disco machine, the Brothers Gibb recorded some of the weirdest head albums ever made. Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices ranked Bee Gees 1st among his all-time favorite albums. Imagine how many acid trips went awry with morbid advice like “Don’t go talking too…
It’s hard to say why anyone would think to cover Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats, a cover-heavy oddity whose appeal is based more on the spirit of friendship and drunken abandon producer John Lennon was able to capture on his way to passing out than on what he and his drinking…
The cover shot shows Nas about to drop a black rose into hip-hop’s open grave. But this is more a wake-up call than a eulogy, as though he’s saying hip-hop may be going down, but it’s not going down without a fight from Nas, who pronounces it dead here with…
Gwen Stefani is still pushing the limits of ridiculousness on The Sweet Escape; after all, it takes a person quite secure in her self-confidence to bring back yodeling as a viable chorus hook. But the aforementioned von Trapp-fest (“Wind It Up”) is actually the worst song on her second solo…
By the time My Morning Jacket dropped the reverb-laden Southern art-rock classic Z in late 2005, they’d reached the point where Rolling Stone could safely proclaim them America’s answer to Radiohead. But for many longtime fans, the quintessential MMJ experience will always be the live show, which explains their latest…
Tom VandenAvond embodies everything that makes alt-country awesome. He’s got a surly, drank-too-much-last-night-and-now-I-gotta-perform attitude, a killer take-no-shit slogan (“You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas”), and even an authentic trucker cap (no Hot Topic poseury here). One can hear wisps of such late greats as…
Y’all might be going to some fancy-ass party or hipster hootenanny on Sunday, December 31, but as for us, we’re going to Hell. More specifically, Club Hell’s nocturnal New Year’s Eve affair known as Hell’s Bells. The freaky fetishists, disturbing divas, and other assorted creatures of the night scene who…
Soundtrack CD release
After a few weeks of hanging with crowds of casual kids, Club Candids needed to spice it up with something slightly more sophisticated, like Club io’s Million Dollar Mingle on Saturday, December 23. The patrons were polished, stylish and mackin’ like mad. This VIP night may be a weekly gig,…
“My meals are ravioli out of the can, and ramen. I came in here tonight with eight dollars in my pocket. I am so white trash.” Keith Mallette’s telling me all this to drive home that he’s not making any money with Hillgrass Bluebilly Entertainment, a local roots music promotion…
When we coughed up the seven bucks to get in the door at PHiX for the “Gothabilly Nitemare Before X-Mas!” show on Saturday, December 16, Grand Avenue was pretty damn quiet. Refusing to be discouraged, we entered the former motorcycle garage turned art and music venue to find an anorexic…
If it weren’t for Hillgrass Bluebilly, I might not have found this fantastic fictional band, which was featured (and murdered) in Rob Zombie’s movie The Devil’s Rejects. The songs here were actually written and recorded by Texas troubadour Jesse Dayton, whom I saw perform at a Hillgrass show this past…
If all that happens to us skin dolls after we die is an underground picnic for insects, well, my guess is that Blessedbethyname’s Eddie Kelly would have a lot of empty space on his hard drive. In the time that it took him to put his personal demons behind him,…
While it’s tempting to compare the Hidden Cameras’ Joel Gibb with other literate gay singer-songwriters, if Rufus Wainwright or Stephin Merritt were to sing about the joys of anal penetration or swallowing urine, it would be nothing short of hilarious. When Gibb does it, though, it’s barely even ironic; rather,…
