Spune me: Don’t shoot your wad at the ACL Fest this September, as Spune Productions Wall of Sound Festival is slated for the weekend after (Saturday, September 22, to be exact). In their ever-teasing ways, the Spune-ites are revealing the lineup in a series of announcements rather than all at…
Somewhere in Helsinki, Jyrki 69 is stoked: He’s leaving momentarily to see Mötley Crüe. “The world can’t be bad after all,” he muses. Take some Danzig, some Iggy, some Nick Cave. Throw in an Elvis hiccup and drop it what seems like an octave, and you no longer have a…
For almost 20 years, the Supersuckers have been playing their brand of full-throttle punkabilly, praising everything associated with sex, Satan, booze and drugs with a rancorous glee that borders on psychopathic. Over the course of a dozen releases, Eddie Spaghetti, Rontrose Heathman and Dan “Thunder” Bolton have made up for…
Ah, Independence Day. It’s a day to reflect on America’s freedom, watch fireworks and stuff our faces with as much grilled meat as humanly possible. So, obviously we need a holiday playlist for the inevitable barbecue. As we all know, barbecue sauce is better in Texas. Grilling is better in…
While absorbing the Blueshammer ersatz and pheromone-scented metallurgy of Icky Thump, the White Stripes’ sixth record, it’s hard not to long for the candy-stripped sibs who once sat in that little room, working on something good. Remember them? Way back before the supermodel weddings, Nashville mansions and sundry side projects?…
Longtime friends Bucky Goldstein and Poppa John Tucker formed Sodajerk in Pittsburgh in the late ’90s, intent on proving that country music didn’t have to suck. Very reminiscent of local legends Slobberbone and Old 97’s (when Rhett Miller and crew worshipped Johnny Cash more than the Beatles), Sodajerk has remained…
Former Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul hasn’t made much noise of late, and for good reason: His brother and bandmate, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, was shot and murdered onstage in late 2004. Hellyeah marks Paul’s return, and his stick work is as fierce as ever. If only this would-be supergroup were as…
Not sure what the deal is with the Dallas Christian bands’ tradition of insisting on reverb-drenched guitar that echoes—literally—the Edge, circa 1988. It’s fine most of the time, if derivative (what isn’t these days), and when well-executed can actually be quite enjoyable, as Dallas’ Strike Four demonstrates. But the real…
Dante DeCaro (Hot Hot Heat and Wolf Parade) fronts Johnny and the Moon, a pleasantly engaging and sloppy folk/rock ensemble from Canada that doesn’t recall much of DeCaro’s previous associations. Featuring such unconventional instrumentation as toy piano and wind chimes, the band’s self-titled debut is a beautifully cluttered mess, with…
Boasting a deliciously sloppy, feedback-peppered oeuvre, Dallas’ the Sheena Militia has found that magical, unexplainable chemistry wherein the familiar becomes new again. Exene Cervenka-esque vocals lurk deep in the mix as fetching guitarwork kicks post-Joan Jett ass. There’s a tinge of riot grrl sensibility sneaking through the power chord-based songs…
Whenever there is an event with the name of a radio station in the title, followed by the words “summer jam,” it’s going to be a young and “urban” affair. And, of course, by music industry standards, “urban” means black. With the exception of Grammy-nominated Paul Wall, all the performers…
I wanted to create a ‘chill out’ record,” says Glen Reynolds about In Between Days, his solo debut. “I wanted to sing about things that I enjoy.” The former Chomsky guitarist is currently living in Stephenville where he and his wife are attending college. Promising to return to Dallas once…
Stewart Copeland—father, filmmaker, film scorer. This summer, he is making a return to a past life, reuniting with Andy Summers and Sting for one more record-breaking go-round with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame power trio the Police. Though it’s been almost 25 years since the Police toured, they…
This fall will mark the 32nd anniversary of the wreck of the freighter S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, sunk in the cold waters of Lake Superior in 1975, an event enshrined in song by Gordon Lightfoot just a year after the fact and one which continues to reverberate in surprising locations across…
Jana Hunter isn’t in a talkative mood. She picks her words slowly and gives brief, sometimes ambiguous answers punctuated with odd pauses. “So, do you see any difference between American and European audiences?” I ask. (An extremely long pause) “I don’t know. Maybe,” she finally says. With her green jacket…
Rabid packs of fans flail about, nearly soiling themselves, when the Teeth perform—aside from the band’s truculent live set, the audience is a show in itself. Philadelphia’s Teeth count twin brothers in its chemical makeup, and the four-piece have noticeably honed their shambolic, chaotic rock with doo-wop backups and scorching…
With stunning production from old rival Marley Marl, KRS-One delivers a sharp retort to Nas’ recent proclamation that Hip-Hop Is Dead—but not without kicking some dirt on gangsta culture. The highlights on this 12-track disc are many, including “Nothing New,” in which the Teacher delivers his indictment via a Rasta…
Former Chomsky guitarist Glen Reynolds’ solo debut opens and closes with songs about the two kinds of fear that love provokes, sometimes simultaneously: the fear that a relationship won’t last and the fear that it will. Opener “Setting Sun” is especially strong, with its soaring chorus of “All I can…
What is Ozzy now, 100 or something? You’d think the old coot would call it a career rather than further tarnish his legacy. Like most icons past their prime, though, maybe he just doesn’t know when to say when. He’s clearly saddled by idiots. Why else would he choose to…
With a career spanning nearly 15 years, Washington state’s MxPx has always belied the Christian-themed punk-pop tag that is often used to describe them. Starting out as innocent skaters who released 7-inch singles while still in high school, the band hit it relatively big with their 1996 effort Life in…
This Portland trio clearly doesn’t want people to know much about its background. Its latest album, Friend and Foe, though visually impressive with its cutout CD booklet and clever use of contrasting colors, contains almost nothing in the way of information about the band. The band also makes a concerted…
With a table-clearing smash of Who-like power chords, Radio Birdman grandly announced that they were back in the game from the very first track—the appropriately titled “We’ve Come So Far (to Be Here Today)”—on 2006’s Zeno Beach (Yep Roc), the legendary Australian band’s first album of new material in a…
