“I just don’t see the point of being in a rock band,” New Jersey’s John Murphy says. “I love rock. I was raised on rock. But especially now that there’s so many bands, it’s just been reduced to an effort of ego; to ‘Let me tell you how I feel.’…
Rhode Island’s Lightning Bolt approached 2003’s Wonderful Rainbow like two ski-masked horsemen of the Apocalypse, frenzied metal-punk harriers hellbent on the merciless ravaging of all available eardrums. Allied in studio-annihilating forward thrust, Brian Chippendale’s meth-freak drums and Brian Gibson’s amazingly versatile bass were calibrated to reduce listeners’ inhibitions (and brains)…
These are the Earlies: A band that began with four men tinkering with samples and strange compositions in bedrooms, studios and e-mail songwriting swaps has become a British sensation. More than 20,000 copies of These Were The Earlies, their 679 Records debut, have sold overseas. The group has nabbed rave…
Back From the Dead Rigor Mortis were once “Condemned to Hell”–and irrelevance–but the Dallas metal legends have risen By 1991, Rigor Mortis was through. The Dallas band didn’t just part ways–after signing with Capitol Records only five years before, they were booted off the popular music radar, along with most…
On Saturday, I was supposed to attend the Dallas Observer’s 25th Anniversary/Best of Dallas extravaganza. It was one of those invite-only, chic-attire things with martinis, hors d’oeuvres, fancy outfits and so on. Not my bag, really–I’m still not sure how to even pronounce the word chic–but I heard there would…
Call a band’s style of music “freak-folk” for long enough, and eventually they’ll get tired of it. That’s the lesson to take from Animal Collective’s Feels, an album that sees the New York quartet not only excising the acoustic elements that dominated last year’s Sung Tongs but also reaching a…
Marah used to be an easy band to fall in love with. Their first two albums were shambling folk rock masterpieces held together with duct tape and bubble gum, and their sweaty live shows were equally legendary. But the Philly band took a Brit-pop-inspired turn for the worse with 2002’s…
As the Silver Jews’ poet in residence, Dave Berman has always been a master at wrestling the humor out of melancholy. Uncommonly literate, his take on the usual indie rock themes of anomie, loneliness and longing was especially unusual insofar as Berman constantly seemed to be making fun of his…
In a dream world, John Dufilho’s first “solo” album would be hailed by the major music media as a “return to form” for the songwriter behind the Deathray Davies and I Love Math. Rolling Stone and Spin would dedicate full pages of their October issues to the release, recapping the…
Slug (aka Sean Daley) is the focal point of this Minneapolis hip-hop collective, dispensing his unique version of street wisdom and male bravado. Genuinely old school, Slug is definitely influenced by prime early rap movers such as Ice-T and Ice Cube. His anti-drug “Panic Attack” is a first cousin to…
“Looks like Sting, sings like Bing” was how SCTV ribbed Billy Idol in the early 1980s when his punk-goes-pop rise to MTV fame stoked much derision. In the ’90s, he tumbled into self-parody thanks to his debauched romps through the L.A. party scene and highly publicized overdoses. But contrary to…
Amy Rigby’s 1996 solo debut, Diary of a Mod Housewife, was an acclaimed assimilation of pop, country and folk. Rigby’s fifth and most recent effort, Little Fugitive, quickly recorded in two days in New York City, abandons the rural influence, concentrating instead on roughed-up, deliberate pop-rock. Whether it’s a somber-yet-witty…
Someone once wrote me a letter with the words “DEATH METAL” in big, bold caps. It might as well have read “DEATH THREAT,” because I had committed an unforgivable sin by labeling the mighty Opeth a black metal band. This is a capital offense in Gothenburg, Sweden, you see, so…
In 2002, amidst a flurry of ironic, retro-referencing new-new-wave and electoclash offerings, Metro Area (Morgan Geist & Darshan Jesrani) proved to be the era’s exception. Melding the black disco sound of the early ’80s with Detroit techno’s gritty cold futurism and Chicago house’s abstract track modes, they created a true…
Name one, just one. Name one band that truly, actually, seriously sounds like Gang of Four. Plenty have been said to be heirs to their throne, which was abandoned in 1981, more or less, when the original Four dwindled to three, two and then none at all. The names of…
Crowe’s Songs This week’s Elizabethtown is only the latest to reveal a director’s love affair with soundtracks By Robert Wilonsky Cameron Crowe recalls how, in 1982, he had to fight with Universal Studios execs over the soundtrack to this little movie he had written called Fast Times at Ridgemont High…
You’re a winner: The best local concert this week, without question, is Saturday’s Rock Lottery 7 at Dan’s Silverleaf. You may as well put this newspaper down right now and head to Denton to get in line, because this concert will undoubtedly sell out. The Lottery, a relic from Denton’s…
The Constantines’ first two albums cast a very long shadow. Combining post-punk instrumental smarts with dark, Springsteen-style anthems, their self-titled debut and Shine a Light are two of the best rock records of the aughts, so it’s not surprising that the Ontario band’s third album, Tournament of Hearts, arrives with…
Calla’s brooding front man, Aurelio Valle, possesses a deliciously menacing tone; part resignation, part betrayal. His melodramatic persona dominates Collisions, an appealing collection of dour post-punk with obvious nods to gloomy godfathers such as The Cure and Joy Division. Valle’s skill is in making the dynamic sound unhurried as his…
You have to concede a certain amount of praise automatically for the massive imaginative output in Princess Superstar’s My Machine. At the very least, you’ll be thoroughly bewildered by this dystopic sci-fi hip-hop concept album about a future celebrity who takes over the world with the help of a cloning…
“I know you built something last night/Is it a cage? Is it a bridge?” With this question, sung on Blind Spot’s title track, Nashville’s Mack Starks doesn’t waste any time making his emotions known on this touching and attentive album. Straddling a line between classic singer-songwriters of the ’70s (Jackson…
Sounds Eclctico isnt the first compilation to try to translate the Latin alternative spirit for a wider English-speaking audience, but rarely has the case been made as clearly or as forcefully as it has here. Featuring an all-star lineup and recorded at Santa Monicas KCRW, Sounds Eclctico juxtaposes the electric…
