Chris Flemmons (of the Baptist Generals) and Martin Iles really know how to build solid rock ‘n’ roll traditions. Each year the two of them help organize both Rock Lottery and a Halloween super show (like this year’s Our Band Could Be Your Band) in Denton. Then each Christmas, the…
Otep is the name of both this brutish Los Angeles goth-metal band and its singer. These perennial Ozzfest faves, whose shock-cred has been abetted over the years by whispers of members indulging in black magic (silly) and cannibalism (sillier), deliver nihilistic, apocalyptic odes to the dark side. Murder, religious perversion,…
Dan Auerbach may or may not have made a deal with the devil at the crossroads, but the Black Keys’ singer did venture to the Promised Land, the muddy banks of the Mississippi, to hone his signature guitar tone. His journey to R.L. Burnside’s “Bad Luck City,” the Delta region…
Reporters are nosy people. That’s what they pay us for. That’s where we scored highest on our vocational aptitude tests—minding other people’s business. Some reporters, such as the ones who discover Firestone tires blow up or that carrots give you cancer of the hair, save people’s lives by being nosy…
Speaking from Northern California on the eve of an American tour, Thomas Dolby sounds energized, ready to bring out machines old and new, to dress up like an aviator lost in an electronics store, anxious to prove yet again that he is anything but an ’80s one-hit wonder. “People who…
File this one under “Stuff you need to know about to avoid musical ostracism.” Cred Sheet is a periodic gauge of cultural stimuli for those unwilling or unable to think about this shit for a living 24/7. (Note: These people are most often smarter and better compensated than those who…
Even sans the film, the Tenacious D-orchestrated soundtrack for its full-length feature The Pick of Destiny is a seriously marvelous three-act musical comedy. The album is like a spoofed-out Behind the Music, unraveling the fictitious story of folk-metal musicians Jables (aka Jack Black) and Kage (aka Kyle Gass), track by…
Sweden’s continuing export of solemn singer-songwriters isn’t showing any signs of slowing up. Like her copatriot counterparts Jose Gonzalez and Jens Lekman, Frida Hyvönen is a loner; a stripped-down ivory tickler, who maybe falls somewhere between our own Fiona Apple and Tori Amos. But while she croons like the aforementioned,…
Kid-friendly Ramones merchandise is nothing new. There’s already a universe of products emblazoned with the band’s likeness or logo: diaper bags, baby bibs, onesie jumpers and, of course, those motherfucking tot-sized T-shirts. Produced by ex-L7 bassist Jennifer Finch, Brats on the Beat features members of established and obscure punk bands…
Composed of one part Wolf Parade, one part Destroyer and one part Frog Eyes, this hotly anticipated indie “super group” isn’t so much super as surreal. Not in a “wow, I can’t believe we should be so lucky” surreal way, but more in a sonic, “this is really kinda weird,…
Just when Phil Elvrum’s Microphones seemed to be getting bigger—more oddly grandiose and more recognized outside Pitchfork-approved circles—everything changed. The songwriting visionary added a “e,” becoming Phil Elverum. He dropped the Microphones. He lost his supporting cast, his choirs, his loud distortion, his crazy organs, and he became Mt. Eerie…
I’d heard of Darden Smith for years but never seen him or given him a fair listen. His reputation preceded him; my impression was of a wan, mopey, earnest, trying-so-hard-to-be-meaningful balladeer. That all changed when I got a dose of Sunflower (2002). It certainly wasn’t party music, but Smith definitely…
In a year most notable for their midsummer indie-rock roadshow cluster Wall of Sound, it’s nice to see Spune Productions return to their local roots. Norman, Oklahoma’s Starlight Mints are the name here, but their post-Flaming Lips eccentricity is just an anchor for one of the best local bills in…
By their own admission, Hip Hopp Astra’s lyrical game is a refreshing change of pace from the “dumb fucks that got nothin’ better/To rap about except for bling-bling, hos and chedda.” Rhymes of the more cerebral variety trade bong rips with some twisted third cousin of Sly and the Family…
Lille, France, may be chilly this time of year, but DAT Politics is up to the task of taking an often cold musical subgenre and making it as warm, whimsical and infectiously human as anything you might imagine. This French laptop trio has released a variety of discs on a…
Singer-songwriter Guy Clark is nothing if not beloved. When indie-rock poster boy Conor Oberst dissed the Lone Star State in a misguided fit of post-election rage at a 2005 concert (“I’d put a gun to my head before I’d live in your state,” he said), he made a quick exception…
Down in Deep Ellum, the scene outside Tom Cats is a study in juxtaposition. Two members of a heavy metal band stand outside in a slight chill, hands in pockets, their two girlfriends waiting patiently as the guys talk heatedly, excitedly and sometimes angrily about what has happened to this…
For two decades Walter Salas-Humera and his Silos have been one of the leading lights of Americana music. Sadly underappreciated, the New York-based Silos have released more than a dozen efforts that merge country, folk and indie rock in increasingly fascinating ways. The band’s high-water mark was Cuba from 1987,…
In his cute-as-a-button essay accompanying the five-EP Sufjan Stevens collection, Rick Moody wonders, Why is it that the horrible little tree in the Peanuts special seems better than any other tree ever? Well, sincerity, for starters; its the only Christmas special that can break your heart, because its the only…
Secrecy is the key to any conspiracy, and Art Conspiracy coordinator Sarah Jane Semrad is keeping her lips sealed about the financial situation of the La Reunion group, this year’s Art Conspiracy beneficiary. That’s not to suggest there’s anything nefarious about her plans. In the city best known as the…
Henkka Seppala, bassist for Children of Bodom, Finland’s favorite death metal export, does his best (in broken English) to explain why his band covered “Oops, I Did it Again” as a single in 2005. “And the drunk somebody said, ‘Hey, let’s do Britney,'” says Seppala. Despite his pedestrian second-language skills,…
Go ahead: Keep holding that grudge against Natalie Maines for exercising her freedom of speech. We don’t care if you miss the finest and most genuinely musical live act in contemporary country music (even if the best stylistic reference for Taking the Long Way, their latest album, is the California…
