Anyone confused by 2003’s worldwide Darkness phenomenon–How does a band this goofy compete with U2 on the charts?–shall remain so. The Darkness still has nothing up its spandex sleeve but exuberant hard rock and satire. Nevertheless, One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back does differ from the debut, Permission to Land,…

The hip-hop of everyday life is rare these days–that is, unless your “everydays” are spent hustling, bullet-dodging and achieving mythic sex. For the rest of us, an unpretentious record like Feeding Einstein is just the prescription. This Brooklyn-based collaboration by MC Baje One and DJ Snafu is full of funky,…

How strange–in a musical climate that gives a new Neil Diamond CD all the promotion in the world, the newly released soul-throwback I Believe To My Soul is already collecting dust. Maybe it’s just that this music doesn’t yell, “Look at me, I’m important!” but these 13 grooveful tunes are…

When it comes to good music that’s best in small doses, the problem is one of extremes–consider They Might Be Giants (too cute), Zappa (too cerebral), Sonic Youth (too abrasive). San Francisco’s Deerhoof is all of the above, but they pull it off with one other extreme–too catchy. Since sweetening…

No doubt, gentle reader, reports of violence elicit in you the appropriate sense of sympathy for the victim. Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, however, has pleaded no contest to two charges of misdemeanor battery against the Dwarves’ Blag Dahlia, the singer known for drunken 15-minute shows, sexist cover…

The first meeting of the Posies’ co-frontmen, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, seemed to have gone well enough. Age 13 and 14 respectively, they met in a music store in their hometown of Bellingham, Wash. “I was the annoying kid who would go to the local music store and play…

As a founding member of the Knitters, John Doe is often credited as one of the inventors of alt-country. Just don’t tell him that. “Hogwash,” says Doe when informed of his status. “No one band can be credited for anything. I mean, even the Beatles were trying to write songs…

Here’s a cultural riddle: Take an icon of a major pop movement and pretend the movement never happened: Ice Cube without gangsta rap, Ken Kesey without LSD, John Lydon without punk. What’s left? Would we ever even have heard of these guys? Like Lydon, Joe Strummer rose with punk and…

Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian may not be the first to have read media critic Danny Schechter while pumping Slayer. But on Mezmerize, System of a Down’s third and most consistent album, the front men take a threadbare theme–the anesthetizing effect of mass media–and have more fun aiming their piss…

The dark constellation of singer-songwriters formed by Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Tom Waits is no place to go poking around if you can’t stand a little self-indulgence. So pomp-averse listeners beware: Crooked Fingers may well get on your nerves. The third installment of this earnest enterprise from former Archers…

Much mediocre music is the product of dilettantes feigning artistry in order to get laid. This may be truer of bad folk music or indie rock than sorry specimens of other genres, as both subcultures eschew commercialism. So it’s almost a revelation to find a truly unassuming and creative soul…

In the mid- and late ’60s, Dave Davies’ riffs sprouted switchblades in brother Ray’s sad, literate pop gardens for tunes as tough, soulful, crisp, compact and brilliant as anything from the British invasion or subsequent rock incursions and coups. Give the People What We Want sports the good taste to…