“I look like Fred Durst in this fucking hat,” says Jakob Sereno, lead singer of the Uncontrollable Urge, as he tosses the offending cap to drummer Chris Galbraith. Sereno fidgets in his chair as he listens to a newly recorded track in a studio in northwest Dallas. Excited by the…

Although working in similar veins of country and folk, singer-songwriters Slaid Cleaves and Hayes Carll come to greatness from remarkably divergent paths. Cleaves is a more traditional tunesmith, parlaying friendships with Lucinda Williams and Gurf Morlix into a decade’s worth of solid releases–all pleasant, mannered and respectable. Carll brings a…

In 2000, lauded producer, remixer, DJ and label owner Peter Rauhofer won a Grammy for Remixer of the Year. For all those who even knew such a category existed (and for the even fewer who believe a Grammy bestows any merit whatsoever), Rauhofer (who splits his time between New York…

Taking their name from Jerry Lee Lewis’ best country song, one might wrongly assume Austin’s What Made Milwaukee Famous would fall squarely into the alt-country camp. Instead, this quirky quartet draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Television, Jeff Buckley and the Cars while still remaining contemporarily stylish in a…

While her eerie alt-country creations with the Geraldine Fibbers were moody to say the least, Carla Bozulich’s second solo release, Evangelista, is another matter altogether. Largely improvisational, the nine lengthy compositions are dark and harrowing tales of religious and personal disintegration set to a pace only a snail could love…

Londoners Will Kennard and Saul Milton spent their snotty, late teenage years tagging bridges with the moniker “Chase and Status.” Luckily for dance fans, they traded their graffiti for gyrating hips in 1996. Renowned in dance clubs across Europe for their rumbling drum ‘n’ bass remixes and use of classic…

Country music has always found room for both the shitkicker and the guy who falls in shit. Even Buck Owens and Roy Clark suffered through the cornpone of Hee Haw and actually made a haul poking fun at rural folk. Walking that line between humor and oafishness hasn’t proved easy,…

“I have the emo bangs,” laughs Donnie DeBoer, pulling his lengthy locks away from his face. The singer and main songwriter for local rockers Auto Escape smiles mischievously as he makes fun of the genre in which he plies his own craft–though he’s the first (and loudest) to disagree with…

As part of a ’70s cultural exchange program with the former Soviet Union, the band selected as most representative of American music was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. If that selection committee met today, Los Lobos would be the logical choice as American emissaries. For more than 25 years, the…

When Ian McCulloch said that his band’s 1984 release Ocean Rain was the best record ever made, he wasn’t joking. But unlike so many pompous pop prognosticators, McCulloch has always had the chutzpah–and talent–to back up his claims. Since their inception in 1978 until their initial breakup 10 years later,…

Forget Hooked on Phonics; Japanese rock trio Electric Eel Shock claims to have learned English by listening to Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Song titles like “I Love Fish but Fish Hate Me” and “Don’t Say Fuck,” both from the group’s recent Beat Me, suggest that the school of rock…

In what remains of old Yugoslavia, what most folks call the Balkans, there exists a subculture, a group of wayward gypsies called Romani. Treated poorly by both authorities and the native population, Romani are segregated into inferior schools and restricted from working in worthwhile jobs. Surprisingly, the Romani culture has…

Brett and Rennie Sparks have to be one of the most peculiar couples working in alt-country. She writes the lyrics, he handles the melodies and together, they create twisted and distinctly traditional takes on folk and honky-tonk. Working in the same bizarro-Americana universe as Lambchop and Will Oldham, the Sparks…

“At the time I was as depressed as Nick Drake,” singer-songwriter Richard Swift says about the recording of Walking Without Effort, the dark half of his dual 2005 release (along with The Novelist). Speaking from San Francisco at the beginning of his latest tour, Swift is anxious to talk about…

These days, being French doesn’t provide the advantages it once could. Riots in Paris, political scandals, “Freedom Fries” and, hell, even Lance Armstrong are parts of the recent anti-Franco backlash, but DJ/Mixer/Producer Franck Roger wants to change some of these perceptions. In the late ’90s, Roger was part of hip-hop…

California County, the third effort from this oddly named roots quartet from the sunshine state, is heavily indebted to The Flying Burrito Brothers, the early Eagles and probably some kind of psychedelic drug. Full of sweet, Byrds-like harmonizing, songs like “Slash from Guns N’ Roses” and “Motorcycle Mama” are peculiar…

Longtime leader of Austin’s Asylum Street Spankers, Guy Forsyth might be too versatile for his own good. His latest solo effort, Love Songs: For and Against, features sturdy blues and reggae grooves, along with touches of folk and jazz. Forsyth’s an excellent player, but he doesn’t have to work so…

Spector 45 is a trio in their late teens who revel in the three-chord simplicity and silly, leather-clad fashion sense of the Ramones, but they add a menacing, shit-kicker’s mentality to the fast-paced proceedings. Wonderfully unpretentious, We Wanna Go, the band’s third release, is an immature, funny–but not at all…

Of all the infernal questions to have wormed their way into rock’s subconscious, the merits of David Lee Roth versus Sammy Hagar as front men for Van Halen has to be one of the most dim-witted debates still circulating in frat houses and gentlemen’s clubs across this great land. Let…

Three Dog Night weren’t exactly hip even in their late ’60s heyday. Nearly dated before they formed, Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells were a trio of good harmony singers who actually knew a good song when they found one. Hell, they made a hit out of “Mama Told…

Neil Diamond (who in his later years has come to resemble a Soho clothing retailer) has always been an unlikely lightning rod, bringing forth scorn from rockers and adoration from housewives and AOR program directors. Sadly, most detractors associate Diamond with his ’70s and ’80s dross period: shit like “You…

Aging heavy-metal acts might take solace in claiming to be “big in Japan,” but DJ Tiësto (just plain Tijs Verwest to his parents) has achieved an international renown that borders on megalomania. Despite the recent drug overdose of a fan at an April 22 show in Jarkarta, Tiësto brings his…