Email Author Mikael Wood

2003 Stories by Mikael Wood

• Robert Randolph and the Family Band

  published December 25, 2003

  I'm not one to bow my head at the altar of false guitar-god idols. Actually, I'm not one to bow my head at the altar of true guitar-god idols.... More >>

• The Polyphonic Spree

  published December 18, 2003

  Between you and me, I'm beginning to tire ever so slightly of The Polyphonic Spree. Some days I get into my silver VW Bug, pump up the jams on my... More >>

• The Isley Brothers

  published December 11, 2003

  Sixty-two-year-old Ronald Isley is nearing the end of an unexpectedly busy year: a handsome reissue of the Isley Brothers' 1973 LP 3+3;... More >>

• Rocket From the Tombs

  published December 11, 2003

  Drinking coffee with Jason Pierce of Spiritualized one morning earlier this year (actually, I drank coffee; he drank Rolling Rock), I asked him... More >>

• Britney Spears

  published December 4, 2003

  If I were Britney Spears' mom, Lynne, I'd be...very rich! But I'd also be confused: The routine deluge of self-promotion that's accompanied the... More >>

• The Mavericks

  published December 4, 2003

  A couple of years ago I sat in a New York news channel's green room for an hour and a half waiting for Mavericks front man Raul Malo to finish... More >>

• Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis

  published December 4, 2003

  Well-regarded Texans Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis have given themselves an early Christmas present: Happy Holidays, a seven-song EP of... More >>

• Atmosphere

  published November 27, 2003

  Two weeks ago in these pages I called "Shh," the unlisted closing track of Minneapolis hip-hop duo Atmosphere's new Seven's Travels, one of... More >>

• Hilary Duff, Simple Plan and Black Eyed Peas

  published November 27, 2003

  There are four reasons it's safe to tell people you're going to KISS FM's Jingle Ball at Next Stage on Wednesday night: 1) All your friends are... More >>

• Mandy Moore

  published November 20, 2003

  As one of the 17 people who loved Sinéad O'Connor's Am I Not Your Girl?, the Irish oddball's much-reviled 1992 collection of... More >>

• Phantom Planet and Ben Lee

  published November 20, 2003

  L.A. power-popsters Phantom Planet and Australian guitar-strummer Ben Lee both know the value of friends in glitzy places: Until recently, PP... More >>

• Charlie Robison

  published November 20, 2003

  Texan rabble-rouser Charlie Robison's hell-raising has been outshined lately by that of his freedom-fighting wife, Dixie Chick Emily Erwin;... More >>

• Real Estate Agents

  published November 13, 2003

  Jeremy Enigk is much shorter than he sounds. On the string of records he made as the leader of the mythmaking (and now defunct) Seattle outfit... More >>

• Harry Connick Jr.

  published November 13, 2003

  What I like about you, Harry Connick Jr.: Your soundtrack for When Harry Met Sally proves how ahead of the times you were in 1989; since... More >>

• Tracy Byrd

  published November 13, 2003

  "Tiny Town," from native Texan Tracy Byrd's recent The Truth About Men, is the third-best tiny-town tune I've heard this year, behind... More >>

• Sheryl Crow|Lonestar

  published November 6, 2003

  Sheryl Crow left Las Vegas, but have the '90s given us a better recidivist than her? The singer's new, surprisingly great Greatest Hits is... More >>

• Obie Trice and Bubba Sparxxx

  published October 30, 2003

  Bubba Sparxxx might not have hit it big if Eminem hadn't done it before him, since Eminem's mainstream legitimization of the blue-collar white... More >>

• The Girlz Garage Tour

  published October 30, 2003

  This summer the Warped Tour featured an onstage man-to-woman ratio of approximately 876-to-2 (unless I'm wildly overestimating the female... More >>

• Howie Day

  published October 30, 2003

  Though I might conceivably covet his major-label record deal, his apple-cheeked cross-campus fan base and perhaps most of all his well-stocked... More >>

• Ludacris

  published October 23, 2003

  Like its more hirsute sister Southern rock, Southern rap is in the middle of an exceptionally high tide: Recent albums by Bubba Sparxxx, the Nappy... More >>

• Lynyrd Skynyrd |Alan Jackson with Joe Nichols

  published October 23, 2003

  As problematic musical responses to September 11 go, I'll take Alan Jackson's disarmingly honest "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)"... More >>

• Godsmack and Adema

  published October 23, 2003

  I've always considered agonized Boston alt-metallers Godsmack the poor man's Staind: bellowed vocals, no rapping, depressive guitar chug, moody... More >>

• The Nokia Unwired Tour

  published October 16, 2003

  I look forward to the day when this corporate branding of rock-and-roll tours gets truly out of hand: Captain D's Under the Sea Spectacular... More >>

• Nickelback and Trapt

  published October 16, 2003

  As an adulthood-long vegetarian, I don't much care for meat. But potatoes I love: boiled, broiled, roasted, baked, freedom fried, whatever.... More >>

• Hilary Duff

  published October 9, 2003

  Achtung, baby: I'm one of those soulless cranks who likes Liz Phair's new record. A few weeks ago I argued elsewhere that the album's four... More >>