The only chore that goes along with being into the Dismemberment Plan–a Washington, D.C., outfit that in about three years has gone from being the oddity of the remarkably goal-oriented D.C. punk scene to perhaps the most creative underground guitar band in the country–is deciding which to admire more. Do…
With the allergy season in its denouement, pharmaceutical companies are turning their attentions to the newest in-vogue ailment: stress and anxiety. Instead of supporting commuters venting via their SUVs, the companies are suggesting that the solution to all of life’s stresses–Whitney Houston rereleases, fourth-quarter losses, biochemical warfare–is just a tiny…
The first thing you don’t need to know about The Strokes is that they are handsome. All five of them–singer Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., drummer Fabrizio Moretti and bassist Nikolai Fraiture. We’re talking Gap-ad good-looking, with the right haircuts and the right wardrobe and enough…
Travis bassist Dougie Payne is in Detroit. Or rather, the tour bus he’s on with his bandmates–singer-guitarist Fran Healy, guitarist Andy Dunlop and drummer Neil Primrose–is in Detroit. Payne only knows he’s in Detroit (“Motown,” he says, savoring both syllables) because the bus driver just announced it over the loudspeaker…
The setting: The El Rey Theatre, Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, spring 1997. The occasion: a record-release shindig for Boz Scaggs’ Come On Home, his first album since 1994, his third since 1980’s Hits! The crowd: gimme-gimme industry types moving restlessly from first-floor show to second-floor buffet, listening between bites of…
Plainly speaking, the last time Tool put out an album that mattered–and we use that term very loosely–not only was Clinton in the White House, but nobody had even heard of even Monica Lewinsky. Released in 1996, Tool’s pass character (‘198’)nima was heralded for creating an alloy of power metal…
Is emo dead? It seems like just yesterday when bands like the Promise Ring, the Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World were marrying punk’s wily chug to pop’s slippery shine, crafting songs that didn’t sound like Blink-182’s and were better for you too. But consider: The Ring are now…
The album’s worth of songs that The Filthy Reds recorded at home on a computer is worth it just for the song titles alone: “On the Road to Nicestacheville,” “The Holiest Egg Nog I’ve Ever Seen,” “Jimmy Buffett Can Smoke Himself Straight to Hell,” “Surf’s Up, Shithead.” And so on…
If you were hip to such solid powerhouses as Born Against, Moss Icon, the Great Unraveling and Universal Order of Armageddon, then you’d expect Tonie Joy, a former member of all of the above, to know a thing or three about (post) hardcore. As guitarist-vocalist in The Convocation Of…, along…
He’s that guy with the crooked grin, filing away records in the corner of the store. He’s giving you that sly, sideways glance, the bemused look of a kid who’s found a new diversion. You don’t know whether or not to ask for the help you obviously need, but soon…
The woman sitting comfortably in the uncomfortable chair doesn’t have to do anything; she dresses up the office just by being in it. Shrink-wrapped in denim, N’Dambi looks like a star, wearing the casual elegance of the girl-next-door who just happens to be very rich or very famous. She’s not…
It’s been a long time since the pop-music face of heavy rock and roll–metal and its various offshoots, if you’re being picky–was an accurate view of what was going on in its nebulous, if thriving, scene. In fact, the twain really haven’t met since the genre’s inception in the late…
For a guy who had to teach his bad-kid bandmates all the parts of Exile on Main Street–simply because he was the only person who knew them–for Pussy Galore’s infamous gang-bang of the Stones’ classic, and later as one-half of the omnipresent phoenix-rising-out-of-the-ashes-of-rock-history that was the inscrutable Royal Trux, Neil…
After her completely solo, home-recorded debut flightsafety and her small-combo/big-sound follow-up Maps of Tacit, former Crowsdell guitarist and vocalist shannonwright musically opens up her intimate, subdued sound with her latest release, Dyed in the Wool. She’s still playing a kitchen-sink assortment of instruments on it, but she’s joined by like-minded…
It’s hard enough to pull off something like the upcoming Deep Relief benefit with months of planning, yet somehow, Deep Ellum’s club owners and retailers have managed to do it in just a few weeks. We attended all of the planning meetings for Deep Relief, and it was impressive to…
Always living in someone else’s shadow, the Charlatans have spent 12 years struggling to find their own identity. Whether it was singer Tim Burgess aping King Monkey Ian Brown, or guitarist Martin Collins ripping off Keith Richards, they seemed to be somewhat less than original. That all began to change…
Despite long-standing relationships with jazz labels such as Blue Note and Verve that stretch back to the mid-1950s and early 1960s respectively, organist Jimmy Smith has never been, plainly speaking, a jazz player. Sure, his early trio output and solo work on the surface conformed to the form, but many…
Five people were scattered inside Club Clearview, maybe 10. A dozen tops. Whatever the number, it wasn’t enough people to qualify as an audience and certainly not a crowd. Walking inside, it seemed as though the group onstage had served every person inside Clearview with a restraining order, forcing them…
Faint electronic beeps sound off in the background, spaced about 15 seconds apart. Their timing is somewhat familiar, but the tone is a little strange. Nevertheless, you expect the party on the other end to tend to it. “My phone is beeping,” says Murder City Devils’ guitarist and bassist Nate…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of Cristal, it was the age of imaginary players, it was the epoch of money, cash and hoes, it was the epoch of reasonable doubt, it was the season of cashmere thoughts, it was…
When Wilco performed at the Gypsy Tea Room on September 21, Jeff Tweedy stopped between songs to thank everyone for coming out and making music with him and his band. “Especially now,” Tweedy added, and everyone in the audience knew exactly what he meant. Two weeks earlier, his comment could…
Two tribs, joined at the McCartney: Sir Paul’s the subject of one (Listen to What the Man Said) and featured on the other, a loving, star-spangled redo of Ian Dury and the Blockheads’ 1977 erstwhile masterpiece of working-class lust and despair, New Boots & Panties!! The former’s of moderate interest…
