Before there was Norah Jones, garnering A’s and yays in Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone, there was Kelly Hogan–the brilliant singer unfettered by genre, the clever interpreter who riffles through the vinyl stacks and claims her discoveries as her own fresh invention. For 12 years she’s toiled in cult anonymity,…
Though complete artistic invention ranks pretty high on my list of potential reasons to like a band–this is where Wings would fit in, for example–a lot of times an effective interpretation of an existing form is good enough to do the trick. Friday night we’ll get two such interpreters at…
Look, it’s like this: I don’t really begrudge these kids their fame, their money, their glory or their Britney. However, it’s completely disturbing to me to turn on MTV (I could actually end this sentence right there) and see ‘N Sync centerpiece Justin Timberlake playing Elton John in a video…
By the time you read this, dear reader, we will be hip-deep in free hooch, assaulting our innards with various stripes and strengths of liquors, doing untold damage to our liver and kidneys and God knows what else for years to come. The hangover will be stupendous though, fortunately, slow…
Look in the used bin of any record store, and you’ll probably find a dusty copy of 1996’s Hee Saw Dhuh Kaet, the first–and might as well be only–record from Jersey City’s once precious Rye Coalition. It’s not a bad record. Well, it wasn’t a bad record when I heard…
No one was really interested in Sarah Shannon anymore. That much was clear to her. The interest ended in 1997, as far as she could tell, when her band, Velocity Girl, splintered apart. When Shannon decided to resume her career as a full-time musician, it wasn’t long before she realized…
There are many milestones on the way to being not-as-young-and-punk-rock-as-you-used-to-be. Turning 21 and being able to go to any show at any bar you want, legally, is kind of bittersweet. Talking to young, on-fire kids, however, is a much bigger reminder of the reality that you’re not as young or…
In the world of collectibles, it’s always the unique that’s the most valuable. Doug Ferguson was a collector. He would drive thousands of miles for the right keyboard. His collection of vintage synthesizers, and his ability to play them, was one-of-a-kind. So it was fitting that his prize Mellotron was…
Green Day and blink-182–who next month begin a joint U.S. tour that will take them into the middle of June–make a good pair onstage in front of screaming fans: Both bands boast three relatively amiable dudes with knacks for three-chord pop-punk more gooey than it seems and soft spots for…
“I was in People magazine, and I’m still busing tables at Stubb’s,” said Damnations singer-bassist-keyboardist Amy Boone as we stood together at an Austin club last spring, being bored to death by J. Mascis and Mike Watt. Grinning, she turned and added, “Isn’t there something wrong with that? I’m not…
Anyone who’s managed to turn on a radio or MTV or leaf through a magazine or a newspaper over the past couple of months won’t have trouble telling you that The Strokes have taken their scuzzy New York City shuffle way beyond the five boroughs, making a coast-to-coast sensation out…
After the fine-lined deluge of technically astute, occasionally bloodless post-rock that commanded the Chicago-based underground-rock scene in the late 1990s, I was beginning to wonder when that city would recultivate its devotion to the shamblingly polluted music that initially brought it attention, back when a young Drag City Records was…
At long last, it’s the world premiere of Rob Zombie’s movie House of 1000 Corpses and…sorry, still a bit premature on that announcement. My apologies–seems Universal’s determined to make you wait a little while longer (like, forever) to catch Rob’s directorial debut. (Which is a damn shame, since we’re all…
There’s been too much of this lately. Doug Ferguson, the musician behind Yeti and Ohm, passed away February 23 after slipping into a diabetic coma. J. Bone Cro, a friend and occasional collaborator, says that Ferguson wasn’t even aware he was diabetic until it was much too late; when Ferguson…
Travis Morrison could have this job if he wanted it. If he felt like giving up his day (and night) job fronting The Dismemberment Plan, he could step into a gig talking and writing about music with no trouble, with little discernible change in his routine. It’s something he would…
Usually you figure the rock star doesn’t want to be asked about his guitar solos–that it’s old hat, something he’s had to pontificate on countless times in his career as a professional musician, each time getting closer and closer to slipping into that glazed autopilot mode familiar to anyone who’s…
Because she covers Hank Williams (“Cold Cold Heart”) and songs made famous by Nina Simone (“Turn Me On”) and Hoagy Carmichael (“The Nearness of You”), because her debut comes courtesy of revered jazz label Blue Note, because Come Away With Me was produced by Arif Mardin (who’s worked on albums…
Since when has it been cool for dudes to cry? You turn around for a minute and suddenly the same kids who were frontin’ at the mall are weeping on each other’s shoulders. Did emo spawn the sensitivity of the new century or visa-versa? Either way, I guess I’d rather…
Old 97’s guitarist Ken Bethea is up and running with his new solo project, The Scrap Hotel. (Apparently, it’s a metaphor for your brain. We still prefer to call ours The Jack Daniel’s Museum of Bad Ideas and Cloudy Memories. Same idea, we guess.) Haven’t heard a note yet, but…
The history of country music is littered with guys like Riley Crabtree and Leroy Jenkins and Mitchell Torok and Frankie Miller–the coulda-beens and shoulda-beens fallen prey to bad deals and bad decisions, or men for whom being good just wasn’t good enough. If the history books are written by and…
Had the singular pleasure last week of hearing Is a Woman, the new album by the avant-country outfit Lambchop, in its perfect setting, standing in a 45-minute line at the post office, waiting to send a certified letter to my mom. If you’re not familiar with Lambchop, or only know…
John Dufilho = The Deathray Davies. Until The Deathray Davies recorded their third and latest album, the just-released The Day of the Ray, that statement was more or less fact, unless you felt like showing your work, in which case it would look more like: The Deathray Davies – live…
