With a history that includes redundant hard-core punkers Heart Attack and pretentious glam rockers D Generation, it would be fairly easy to write off Jesse Malin. Yet one listen to Glitter in the Gutter, Malin’s recent third effort, proves what a mistake that would be. After the demise of D…
We begin our night at House of Blues. The foxy members of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club laze about the stage, all tight jeans and shabby shirts. They look as if they should be onstage at CBGB. Well, sort of—something’s off. Something’s off because they appear sober and lucid, their pants…
Summer school, bitches! That’s right, it’s time for the poolside edition of our challenge to your music knowledge and general test-taking abilities. Choose the correct answer from the multiple choices; sharpen your pencils, and don’t cheat, slackers. 1) Math question: If you throw down a couple hundred bucks for a…
Tone-y, Tone-y, Tone-y: Dallas trio Rawly Punt just released Fleshtone, a collection of lysergic roots rock tunes along the lines of their first release, Anthems. Highlight of the disc, which was recorded in town at Miles of Sound: the group’s version of the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer,” featuring Annette Conlon’s…
Take their performances as a whole and the two Dallas acts on the bill of the Sasquatch! Festival in George, Washington, perfectly epitomize the May 26-27 experience: a combination of unexpected transcendence and disappointment. Even in challenging circumstances, St. Vincent and the Polyphonic Spree did their best to show that…
“Guitar has always been associated as a male right of passage,” says Larkin, “but women like Rory Block, Memphis Minnie and Elizabeth Cotton broke the glass guitar ceiling years ago.” All three of those guitarists, plus a dozen more, are featured on La Guitara, making it the most representative sampling…
Combining the otherworldly power of literature with that of the almighty riff, Harry and the Potters represent the next generation of schoolhouse rock. Formed by muggles Paul and Joe DeGeorge, who perform as Harry at years four and seven, the Potters perform at libraries and transform the Hogwarts School of…
Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and George Jones: Which of the three is the coolest of the cool? We decided to answer that question once and for all, according to four criteria: Podunk Cred, Outlaw Life, Songwritin’ and Wack Factor. Merle Haggard Podunk Cred: Born in California, which is a strike…
Forty years ago, as frontman for the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed convinced us that the path to bliss was through a needle to the vein. In 1975, he released Metal Machine Music, a two-disc solo album composed entirely of guitar feedback, proof he was still an innovator and still stoned…
The most perverse moment on R. Kelly’s new album is, surprisingly, neither “The Zoo”—a slow-jam full of animal noises that suggests he and his lady had some company in the sack—nor “Sex Planet,” which offers a particularly unfortunate metaphor for back-door action. It’s “Rise Up,” the product of Kelly’s belief…
It’s been four years since Fountains of Wayne’s last studio album, but the wait has been more than worth it, because FOW produces incredibly well-constructed pop. Besides a gift for hummable melodies, the group’s bite-size vignettes of middle-class angst (think John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom) reveal a novelist’s eye for detail…
People who try to change the ones they love rather than accepting them as they are typically wind up wedded to disappointment. The same concept can be applied to British singer-songwriter Carina Round. The Disconnection, Round’s 2004 American debut, was a raw wonder, but because it racked up more glowing…
Most notably known as the lead singer, lyricist and guitarist for the post-hard-core quartet Thrice, Dustin Kensrue tackles an entirely different beast on his solo debut Please Come Home. While mining a stripped-down folk approach that salutes Springsteen’s Nebraska, Kensrue is still an angst-ridden young man, an emo kid trying…
To air is divine: Unleash your inner rock god at the Fifth Annual U.S. Air Guitar Championships. The two-round competition lets you strut your stuff, and the winner will go on to the national finals in New York City, where he’ll have a chance to compete to be the world…
The indie-blues duo Two Gallants showcases complex and original folk ballads. The pair’s lyrics are at once confessional and cheeky (“If liquor’s a lover, you know I’m a whore”) and its songs are gritty, somber and (sometimes) uncomfortably sincere. New fans are often lured into its hypnotic live show by…
Hailing from Missouri but with strong ties to the Lawrence, Kansas, rock scene, Minus Story is highly influenced by Flaming Lips, living in a neo-psychedelic dream world that can be captivating and testing at the same time. My Ion Truss, the quartet’s beautifully erratic new disc, features the band’s unique…
Emo, goth and punk fans who don’t go for dance music may already know the Euro-duo VNV Nation: Multi-instrumentalist Ronan Harris manned the samplers on AFI’s smash LP Decemberunderground, while his thumping remix of “Miss Murder” caused a sensation in underground dance clubs. VNV (short for Victory Not Vengeance) has…
Apparently, breaking up helped Black Rebel Motorcyle Club more than it hurt. After losing drummer Nick Jago, remaining members Peter Hayes and Robert Been took an abrupt, well-received detour into acoustic-based folk on 2005’s Howl, which soon led to Jago’s return. The time apart must have worked some sort of…
Three shows, one week: Morrissey at the Palladium Man, except for the slight paunch, he really hasn’t changed. In fact, the paunch proves it: Morrissey wouldn’t be Morrissey if he were perched atop a Stairmaster. He zips professionally, if also in a somewhat detached manner, through a set of oldies…
It’s Midland, not Midlake: Dallas’ last best hope for a new breakout band is, arguably, Coachella veterans and nouveau hard rockers Fair to Midland, who release their new disc Fables from a Mayfly on June 12. The release party takes place that same night at the Curtain Club. Fables is…
Becky Stark’s last name seems ironically misplaced. The charismatic frontwoman of Los Angeles-based orchestral folk-pop outfit Lavender Diamond is the kind of entity who emanates rainbows whether she’s singing, speaking, dancing or just being. If her aura could be harnessed, it alone could light the Sunset Strip. In a time…
I’ve always thought Sage Francis was overrated, but I really started to dislike him after he spit on a friend of mine at a show in Albuquerque. Seriously—hawked a big one right in his face. Why is it the “conscious” MCs always end up being the biggest jerk-offs? At least…
