It’s a bright, cheery afternoon, and Miles Kurosky is walking, sunglasses on, talking on his cell phone. The singer, songwriter and guitarist for Beulah has arrived a little late for our brunch interview, but he lingers on the phone anyway, trying to reassure the caller about something. Finally, he hangs…
Brett and Rennie Sparks–the husband and wife duo who record her lyrics and his music as The Handsome Family–often get accused of being depressing. Or dark, or morbid or macabre. Take your pick. They all lead to the same conclusion: Why can’t they just write one happy song? “That’s when…
Though I’ve just had a conversation with singer Todd Baechle in which we took turns saying things, there’s still a couple of questions about the Faint, the Omaha, Nebraska, band he fronts, burning semi-important holes in the back of my mind. For starters, there’s the one to which he moaned…
On the first song of his band’s new album, right as Quasi dude Sam Coomes’ cracked-ass organ rides drummer Scott Plouf’s Bonham-heavy backbeat, Idaho native/electric guitar hero/probably cool dad Doug Martsch unwittingly nails the experience of seeing Built to Spill live and in person: “This strange plan is random at…
You don’t have to believe it to laugh your face off, but you’ll get more out of the self-titled debut by L.A. comedy duo Tenacious D if you buy their claim that they’re the best band in the world. After you’ve gone through the record, you’ll at least be convinced…
In the wake of September 11’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., many may feel as though it’s the end of the world as they know it. But if you turn on your radio and want to hear R.E.M. say…
Aging, balding curmudgeons who (barely) remember Deep Ellum’s musical melting pot in the olden days–when you bought a beer from an upright fridge in the Theater Gallery and later relieved yourself of its filling fluid in the alley behind it–often barely recognize the sparkling nightspot it is today. The closest…
When Mick Jagger sang of the girl who “comes in colors everywhere” in “She’s a Rainbow,” a gorgeously loopy ode to a flower-wearing, free-loving beauty on the Stones’ confused 1967 psychedelic experiment Their Satanic Majesties Request, there’s a good chance he was describing a woman he actually knew. But he…
Michael Azerrad’s new book, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, will come as a shock to those who believe the terms of VH1’s Bands on the Run are harsh, that its aspiring rock stars are roughing it, that life on the road is…
I’ve had the best album of 2001 in my hands for about a month now, and every day since then, it’s been in whatever CD player I happen to be near, and spinning in my head if I can’t find one. Even after all of those listens, I still haven’t…
Jamal Mohamed was born in Lebanon, but he is an American. “I love the Beatles. I played rock and roll. I mean, I did everything Americans do; I just happened to be born to parents of Arabic extraction,” Mohamed says, “and I happen to be a Muslim.” At the moment,…
What a difference a decade makes. After Snoop Dogg first fired up his spliffed-out delivery on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic in 1992, he quickly became not only rap’s first bona fide super-duper star but the very essence of gangsta rap. Sure, N.W.A., the Geto Boys and BDP hit harder and…
Give Ben Folds credit for knowing when a joke was wearing thin: Three albums in, Folds’ indie cabaret act–the oddly billed trio, Ben Folds Five–had run its course. Sure, 1997’s Whatever and Ever Amen went platinum thanks to the omnipresent anti-ballad “Brick,” but 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner…
Stop the madness, please. It’s getting out of hand. Simply because there was an ample well of young-adult disposable income in the latter half of the ’90s doesn’t mean that every aspect of pop culture has to cater to their all-too malleable desires. Every movie doesn’t have to kowtow to…
In the indie-rock underground, the skinny white kids in vintage ringer tees don’t really pick their battles. There’s the arm-crossers and the pocket-stuffers, the bike-riders and the Vespa fans, the tapered-legs and the boot-cuts. And then there’s the kids who fight about music. (Thanks, I’ll be here all week.) The…
With a chameleon as flamboyant as Perry Farrell, it’s hard to tell where the performance ends and the person begins. Jane’s Addiction spawned fans and sneers in equal amounts and for the same reasons. It unleashed an ocean-sized ruckus of glam-metal post-punk up the beach in the late ’80s, followed…
In some small circles, the legends are legion. There was the time Light Bright Highway took off for one uninterrupted two-hour song as Good/Bad Art Collective’s Martin Iles bathed the band in a computer-generated wash of colors that stretched until nearly 3 a.m. There was the time Jetscreamer’s Will Kapinos…
A couple of years back, when Beachwood Sparks first stepped into the spotlight–its members looking very much like they’d just stepped off the cover of the Notorious Byrd Brothers LP–it was an easy group to tag. Four guys wrapping themselves up in Gram Parsons’ Nudie suit, sailing along on a…
Once a style has moved from retro through nouveau, is there anything left? It’s a valid question for the Black Crowes. The band hangs its influences on the sleeves so obviously–the Rolling Stones and the Faces–that you have to wonder what it’s thinking. There’s absolutely nothing modern about digging in…
Detroit makes sublime, no-frills rock bands the way Mexico distills tequila: It goes down smooth but has a wicked kick. We’re not referring to the Huge Nuge or Alice Cooper’s custom-built chassis here. And we’re really not talking about au courant fashions like the Go or Slumber Party. Think more…
Only the most jaded music fans could’ve ignored the full-page review–more like a white-knuckled hosanna–that Britain’s Uncut offered to Denton’s Lift To Experience a few months ago. Just to recap one of the more evocative passages: “They walk onstage, unannounced, looking truly frightening. Here is drummer Andy Young, bug-eyed, sweaty,…
When we first heard rumors of the Toadies’ demise, the idea seemed impossible. It was, we figured, like making it through Vietnam and choking on a pretzel on the flight home. Obviously we were wrong–hey, there’s a first!–but you do still have a few chances to say goodbye. Believe they…
