Music

Unlike other European dance acts, Norwegian electro-rock outfit Datarock sets itself apart from the pack by forgoing a sense of cool and going straight for the geeky jugular. For proof, look no farther than the above music video for the band’s 2005 breakthrough hit, “Computer Camp Love,” which combines elements…

What a great week for posters this is turning out to be! Choosing which one to feature turned out to be a difficult decision indeed. But this poster, advertising Saturday’s Amsterdam Bar bill of Little Birds and Matthew Gray, Delves… is my favorite of the pieces I’ve seen. The designers…

If you’ve already inked your fingers on our paper edition this week, then you know a lot more about The Uptown Bums than that the band’s opening for Monotonix tonight at Rubber Gloves. But, ’cause I interviewed every member of the band individually for the piece, loads of material for…

In this week’s dead tree edition of DC9, Observer contributor Chris Parker extols the virtues of Los Angeles rapper Busdriver. Writes Parker:Busdriver’s rack and pinion elocution corners like an Indy car, reaching speeds that would induce whiplash in his hip-hop peers. He sub-references the pop culture more profusely than Dennis…

It’s hard to say whether Rock Band will result in more musical acts forming at some point down the line. But one would have to assume it would, right? Especially in these times, when the line between geeking out on music and making it is so thin. Surely, the members…

There’s no denying just how derivative and calculating the music of The Airborne Toxic Event is. And while it would be easy to loathe the band out of hand—as Pitchfork did with its infamous 1.6/10 review of the act’s self-titled debut—the fact remains that The Airborne Toxic Event is pretty…

The last time The Get Up Kids played the DFW area, they were second on a four-band bill at the Nokia Theatre. Just a few years before that, the band headlined (and packed) the original Door and the Ridglea Theater. But, sadly, for those who remember how powerful and impressionable…

The Secret Machines have been through a lot in the past two years. Although their first two albums received favorable reviews, disappointing sales cost them their major-label backing. Also came the news that founding member Benjamin Curtis was leaving the band to focus on his School of Seven Bells side…

When Asobi Seksu released its self-titled debut in 2004, the New York City band (whose name means “casual sex” in Japanese) was on the cusp of the Britpop-influenced shoegaze resurgence. But while tinges of that echo-laden, effects-driven aesthetic have found their way into the mainstream over the past half-decade, the…

Los Angeles rapper Busdriver’s rack and pinion elocution corners like an Indy car, reaching speeds that would induce whiplash in his hip-hop peers. He sub-references the pop culture more profusely than Dennis Miller in his heyday, spinning lyrical webs elegant enough to rival Charlotte’s barnyard creations, and as dense as…

In recent months, The Uptown Bums went from churning out catchy, yet sloppy garage pop to producing a more confident, streamlined brand of, well, technically speaking, kitchen punk. And the band’s performances, as well as recent recordings, are better for the change. Once The Uptown Bums wrapped up its tour…

Don’t let John Pedigo—or any of the Sues, really—fool you with their fronts about being a tongue-in-cheek, good-time party band content to simply perform goofy songs about drinking and partying and hanging out and, well, all that. Because while, OK, there’s a lot—a lot—of that on this disc, there’s more…

Grand Archives’ 2008 self-titled debut is all about tension created by crescendos and decrescendos. Echoing drums slowly morph into steady beats; gently plucked guitars rev into heavy strumming. A meandering folk song can turn into rollicking pop at any minute. The anticipation that a song might shift its pace every…