Morrissey, England’s most dapper downer, isn’t quite as depressed as he used to be. In fact, he almost seems to be enjoying what he does these days—thanks, in no small part, to a legion of Latino fans here in the U.S., including the Sweet & Tender Hooligans, a hugely successful…
When it comes to organized religion, Erkekjetter Silenoz, the guitarist/ songwriter for Norway’s Dimmu Borgir, considers himself to be an equal-opportunity hater. “I think most people—at least our fans—know our stance against religion,” he says, his accent as deep as a fjord. “It doesn’t have to be Christianity, but as…
Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished (2000, Animal) Danse Manatee (2001, Catsup Plate) now available on FatCat as a two-CD set 3 1/2 paw prints Originally credited to Avey Tare and Panda Bear (plus the Geologist on DM), this finds Syd Barrett’s madcap progeny laughing in a forest clearing as…
If you heard Laura Veirs’ 2004 release Carbon Glacier, you were transported. Veirs’ sparse narrative lyrics, carried by a clear, indelible voice cast from the same material as Lisa Loeb’s and Liz Phair’s, took you to a stripped winter cabin, and you carried vivid flashes of memory—a thrashing river, stones…
Kicking off with the deliciously noisy cacophony of “The Stinger,” Harlem, the debut disc of Denton quartet White Drugs, is such a punch to the eardrums, it makes Iggy Pop seem like a folk singer. Harlem is a witches’ brew of bashing drums, relentless guitars and, of course, singer/guitarist Christian…
Historians studying the JFK assassination have played the “Zapruder Sequence” film footage countless times. Pretty Girl Charm Lies by the Dallas band named after that footage requires far fewer plays to reach a conclusion: It’s a mixture of great songs and boring filler that sounds like records you already own…
Remember ZZ Top’s early albums such as Tres Hombres and Deguello? This was back when the Texas trio still played creepy psychedelic blues, laden with dark riffs and even darker atmosphere, before they cheesed out with “Legs” and that stupid car. Dallas’ Dragna recovers that era of unique Texas blues-rock,…
There should be a natural law which states that the more digital disillusionment permeates a given area, the greater and more proficient its experimental noise output will be. For more than a decade, Japan has led the world in abstract musical exports thanks to artists such as Ruins and Merzbow…
After five years and a handful of releases, Seattle’s Pretty Girls Make Graves is no more. The young dance-rock group ended things on amicable terms following the departure of drummer Nick Dewitt. The group’s 22-city funeral procession is reason to celebrate and cherish the youthful exuberance of the quintet’s cathartic…
So there’s death metal and speed metal, classic metal and hair metal. Bet you didn’t know there’s something called “Southern Metal,” though, didja, much less enough of it ’round these parts to fill a whole three-day festival. Indeed there is, and the genre’s pretty much what you would expect: heavy…
“Environmentalism is not a partisan issue,” says Martin Sexton. “It’s a human issue.” Speaking from his home in Boston a few days before the second leg of a cross-country tour, the guitarist, singer and songwriter has decided to add activist to his already full résumé. Using only biodiesel fuel in…
Josh Baish doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. That’s no insult: The Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio owner-manager volunteers as much before an interview. The lesson must be fresh on his mind after he pissed off many a bearded man last month by entertaining the notion of moving the…
The third installment of the Fry Street Concert Series will be a headbanger’s dream but exhausting for those who need a little variety in a six-hour music fest. Honky—with former Butthole Surfer Jeff Pinkus on the Flying V bass—is all neck tattoos, curly brim cowboy hats and distorted slide guitars,…
No Festivus for the rest of us: So the yahoos at Yahoo!Buzz (the Web engine’s pop culture site that keeps track of stuff like who is the most Google’d American Idol performer, etc.) recently tallied up which summer music fests are the most popular, Top 10-style, and guess what? Not…
As Pitchfork Media once said of the group Silkworm, consistency without spectacle can make for a tough sell. This axiom also applies to the Sea and Cake, but it has been mitigated somewhat by their danceability, which came to a head on 2000’s Oui and 2003’s One Bedroom, as the…
Keyboards blur and bubble, guitars loop like a Möbius strip, chorale arrangements and found sounds (muted trumpet, birdsong and static) stack and stack, a bereft acoustic guitar or piano anchors the melodies, and Robin Bennett sings with a quizzical, not-quite-falsetto voice. The critical gossip? The Oxfordshire, England, quartet is crushed…
Let’s just get this out of the way: The National’s Boxer does not rock. Unlike Alligator or Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, the “single options” are few (“Fake Empire,” “Mistaken for Strangers”). Instead, the album is a surprisingly cohesive introspection (if it’s fictional, honestly, I don’t want to know) that…
In 1967, there were many singers claiming to be poets, but Leonard Cohen was a real poet who was trying to be a singer. And although there are still critics who decry Cohen’s singing ability, very few disparage the man’s strengths as a wordsmith. These reissues of Cohen’s first three…
In an era when you can practically take every album into the critic’s version of the CSI laboratory (complete with Zero 7 playing in the background) in order to determine its exact points of reference and the width of its bandwagon tread, it’s refreshing to hear something like Welcome’s Sirs,…
High school proms are tragic. The potential that something will go absurdly wrong is likely with teens amidst hormonal rage making sartorial decisions of taffeta and tails. Whether it was in the ’70s or the ’90s, those prom photos of yours will only raise eyebrows and suffer guffaws. Face it,…
To some extent, the lyrics of pop music are about emotion, specifically of the romantic variety. Oh sure, there are the occasional forays into intellectual queries, or literary ruminations, or mathematical formulae, but truly even the arithmetic boils down to two formulae: 1+1=2 and, more often, 2-1=1. Given the trite…
In the California desert during Coachella it’s always time to boogie. At this year’s festival, the Arctic Monkeys strapped on their “Dancing Shoes,” Peeping Tom got their mojo working, LCD Soundsystem brought the Sound of Silver, Hot Chip knocked out assembly-line dance grooves and the Decemberists interrupted their set with…
