Email Author Mikael Wood

2002 Stories by Mikael Wood

• Saint Etienne

  published December 26, 2002

  Saint Etienne traffic in opposites: A product of dismal Thatcher-era England, the trio buried its late-'80s angst in candied dance-pop that... More >>

• Various Artists

  published December 26, 2002

  The New York-based dance label Ultra excels at neat summations of current electronic-music fads: Its recent electroclash compilation pitted young... More >>

• Jam Sandwich

  published December 19, 2002

  Electric Circus, the new album by the Chicago-bred rapper Common, is a late contender for hip-hop album of the year: It's a wildly... More >>

• Whitney Houston

  published December 19, 2002

  Whitney Houston's return after an eight-year absence, 1998's My Love Is Your Love, should not have worked as well as it did: Houston had... More >>

• Ride

  published December 19, 2002

  No. 17 on my List of Things I'd Like to Someday Know: why every other band of young British guys partial to swirly guitars and with a thing for... More >>

• Sigur Rós / Godspeed You! Black Emperor

  published December 12, 2002

  If you think incensed player haters restrict their animosity to large-living hip-hop stars, mentally unstable R&B songbirds and Fred Durst, you... More >>

• In the Black

  published December 5, 2002

  Alt-rock pace car Frank Black simultaneously released his seventh and eighth solo albums this summer, proving to Pixies lovers,... More >>

• 3 Doors Down; 30 Seconds to Mars

  published December 5, 2002

  Mississippi's 3 Doors Down make top-notch second-notch rock: "Kryptonite," the big one from their debut, 2000's The Better Life, married... More >>

• Mudvayne, Taproot

  published November 28, 2002

  Need a shot of pure Midwestern rage this week, but can't find anyone willing to go see 8 Mile for the eighth time? Take your tortured ass... More >>

• TLC

  published November 28, 2002

  The new TLC record feels less icky to me than the last Who tour, but I'm not sure why. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey explained their quick... More >>

• Shania Twain

  published November 21, 2002

  Everybody knows that Shania Twain and Mutt Lange got married forever ago (did you see the picture? Mutt looks like Patrick Swayze with Melissa... More >>

• Kim Richey

  published November 21, 2002

  It's been a good year for gently genre-jamming albums by rangy roots-music ladies--recent discs from Allison Moorer, Patty Griffin, Norah Jones... More >>

• Chris Robinson

  published November 21, 2002

  Chris Robinson's learned a lot since his days fronting America's best jam-band-that-actually-wrote-great-songs, the Black Crowes: "Your California... More >>

• Diana Krall

  published November 21, 2002

  I don't really put much stock in the concept of the guilty pleasure, but if you're gonna feel guilty about liking something, shouldn't it be... More >>

• Matt Pond PA, the Mayflies USA; the Damn Personals

  published November 21, 2002

  Lots of revised-history indie rock in town this week. Matt Pond PA, a sextet from Pennsylvania built around a dude named Matt Pond, wonders what... More >>

• Ivy

  published November 14, 2002

  There's nothing wrong with self-consciously lightweight pop records that seem to exist solely to spark a smile or a warm flutter in the... More >>

• Sondre Lerche

  published November 14, 2002

  Wondering what Beck's gonna sound like with Oklahoma psych-pop nuts the Flaming Lips as his backing band? This 20-year-old Norwegian kid's already... More >>

• New Found Glory

  published November 14, 2002

  Every time I accidentally catch the twin brothers who front Good Charlotte hosting MTV2's All Things Rock (which is never more than twice a... More >>

• The Strokes

  published November 14, 2002

  Though they've spent the past year playing relatively big-ass rooms like the one they'll play here Saturday night, don't the Strokes seem like a... More >>

• India.Arie, Slum Village, Floetry

  published November 14, 2002

  Thursday night's the night for rounded-edge hip-hop that soothes as much as it moves. When Atlanta-based headliner India.Arie appeared last year... More >>

• Rilo Kiley

  published November 14, 2002

  For all the problems the mainstreaming of emo has created--the validation of high school whining as high art, say, or the Get Up Kids' and the... More >>

• Stereo Total, Soviet

  published November 7, 2002

  Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring weren't exaggerating when they named their band Stereo Total: A French-German duo based in Berlin... More >>

• Cex

  published November 7, 2002

  The 21-year-old Baltimore kid who's headlining this traveling tour of artists affiliated with the Bay Area electronic-music indie Tigerbeat6 calls... More >>

• Les Savy Fav, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Ex Models; Hella

  published November 7, 2002

  The new post-punk descends upon Denton. New York's Ex Models have a new split EP out with the Seconds, a band that features one of the dudes from... More >>

• No Doubt, Garbage, The Distillers

  published October 31, 2002

  Surprising to see No Doubt still hard at work behind Rock Steady, the surprisingly excellent album the surprisingly long-running Orange... More >>