I’d love to say that I have a huge grudge against Marshall Beck and his heavy metal band, Rebirth. That would make this rant a lot more straightforward, because then I would just pinch him out of the air with my chopsticks, like an annoying fly. But the thing is,…
“Zeitgeist” Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit) — the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era. Yeah, it’s a loaded word, one that knots sober Teutonic gravity around dramatic academic loft. But Merriam-Webster’s definition couldn’t be more on point in describing the music of U.K. quartet…
Relationship drama doesn’t always have to play out to a complicated, overproduced soundtrack. In the case of Phoenix quartet Huskies’ debut EP, the good fight, straightforward instrumentation only intensifies the soul-baring. Front woman Natalie Espinosa sings about love, betrayal, regret and longing in a low, velvety voice, accompanied by upbeat…
Spending time with the Starlight Mints’ latest release, Drowaton, is like wandering through a carnival fun house, bouncing down rippling hallways past mind-bending mirrors to the bipolar accompaniment of lusty keyboard swirls, dagger-wielding lyrics, and sighed choruses. The foursome has been mutating conceptual pop since the ’90s, and Drowaton is…
Mike Skinner’s cockney argot and squirrelly cynicism always play well stateside — even if the U.S. audience consists of more hipsters than hip-hop heads — but back in the land of boiled meat he’s huge. Maybe that’s the problem. The woes of superstardom dominate Skinner’s third release, finding the once-affable…
Toby Keith may not really be a dick, but he plays one on CD. He generally comes across as ultra-smug, as if flaunting his popularity in the faces of intellectual elitists was half the fun of success. Yet the attitudinal aggressiveness that dominates White Trash is vastly preferable to the…
Although L.A. boy-girl duo Giant Drag say on their MySpace page that they sound like “crap,” you can rest assured that, in actuality, they don’t. Singer/guitarist Annie Hardy and drummer-synth player Micah Calabrese create brutally honest, clever little numbers with titles like “You’re Full of Shit (Check Out My Sweet…
For a band based in Baltimore, Wilderness sure is in touch with its British side. The band’s just-released Vessel States and self-titled debut — which garnered the quartet considerable acclaim from Pitchfork and its readers last year — draw as heavily from the other side of the pond as they…
In reviewing last year’s The Devil’s Rejects — the incredibly twisted gore flick written and directed by horror/metal renaissance man Rob Zombie — critic Roger Ebert ended his piece thusly: “I don’t want to get any e-mail messages from readers complaining that I gave the movie three stars, and so…
A show combining two of the most talented female singers in contemporary indie rock is like an oasis in a musical desert devoid of the second sex. Brooklyn trio Rainer Maria, fresh from the release of a new album, Catastrophe Keeps Us Together, combines slow, atmospheric instrumentals with singer Caithlin…
It’s been two and a half decades since Cocteau Twins concocted the formula, but there’s still something thrilling about a moody chanteuse backed by soaring, symphonic ambiance. Headlights is the newest avatar of the form — and while its sound soars and sighs with the best of them, the trio…
Osunlade, a veteran house music DJ hailing from Los Angeles, drops his Afro-Cuban/jazz/funk-influenced groove on downtown this weekend, thanks to the folks behind StraightNoChaser. Heading up his own label Yoruba Records, Osunlade’s been making waves in the dance-music community since the ’80s, working with musical geniuses from every genre that…
As of press time, New Times got word of a tragic loss suffered by the Valley’s punk rock scene: Sid Copeland, 33, proprietor of Jugheads bar and music venue, suffered a fatal heart attack on Saturday, April 22, reportedly while lifting weights at a commercial gym. He is survived by…
John Ringhofer, a.k.a. Half-Handed Cloud, gives the impression of being a bit of an eccentric. He turns his songs into a series of sacred psalms and then spears the sentiments with an irrepressible blend of wit and whimsy. At less than 30 minutes long, Halos & Lassos unfolds in a…
The five members of Eisley are irrefutable proof that some familial gene pools are just better than others. Consider the four siblings and one cousin who all share the name DuPree: With fanciful, elegant arrangements and luminous vocal harmonies, they elevate what would otherwise be basic dream pop into something…
1. Built to Spill, You in Reverse (Warner Bros.) 2. Calexico, Garden Ruin (Dig) (Quarter Stick) 3. Band of Horses, Everything All the Time (Sub Pop) 4. Flaming Lips, At War With the Mystics (Warner Bros.) 5. 2Mex & Life Rexall Are $martyr, Money Symbol Martyrs (Cornerstone Ras Inc.) 6…
Damn, brah, what to do on 4/20, yo? The magically puffalicious date only rolls around once a year, and any hardcore smoke aficionado uses it as an excuse for a day filled with bong rips and heavy snacking — kind of funny, since according to Snopes.com, our favorite urban-legend debunker,…
Not that long ago, my friend Jason and I got ourselves in hot water with our girlfriends when we went on a double date to a nice restaurant and, after several shots, began acting like drunken jackasses — literally. We were running through all of the farm animal noises we…
In 1986, it didn’t matter if you supported the anti-rock mothers of the PMRC, loved pop playboy Robert Palmer, or subsisted on a no-carb diet of hardcore punk; there were two kinds of people: 1) those who bowed and worshiped Metallica’s new thrash-metal masterpiece Master of Puppets, and 2) infidel…
The Phoenix hardcore scene just can’t seem to get a break. Between bad press about feisty hardcore gangs and more venues refusing to book bands that have a reputation for attracting violent fans, now the scene has taken another hit — high-profile local posi act Where Eagles Dare is closing…
The voice crackling over the cell phone belongs to a cat with three days left to live: D12 rapper Proof, Slim Shady’s right-hand man, and a respected hip-hop artist in his own right, who was slain early Tuesday, April 11, in a three-way shootout that the Detroit po-po are still…
In a past life, the arena-striding Goo Goo Dolls were thought quaint by their critics and artsier alt peers: too in love with their punk heroes, too working-class sentimental, too straight rock. Well, they got the last laugh when the money rolled in. But while re-creating the success of the…
