Lately it seems that any discussion of country music must necessarily concern itself with image, marketing, unit sales, and play-list rotation, while ignoring the two most important aspects of the conversation: the country part and the music part. Nashville has become so preoccupied with its enormous pop success that it…
With crap like 3 Doors Down and Creed clogging the airwaves, a listener might wonder if the United States will ever produce another non-punk-rock band that can find a hook outside a bait and tackle shop. Milwaukee’s Benjamins answer that question with a resounding yes. The Art of Disappointment is…
Usually when a singer goes off to do a solo project, it’s either because of “creative differences” or a “need to express myself away from the band.” In either case this can be translated as “I’m sick and tired of sharing credit with these bozos; I’m the real creative force…
To most of us, “weird sounds from Boca Raton” means diamonds caught in a disposal or wheezing geriatrics struggling with groceries. And that stereotype is unlikely to change soon. Finding something edgy and hip in this subculturally deprived suburb is about as likely as finding bean sprouts on a Big…
When I set up a phone interview with Mark Eitzel, the last thing I expected to hear were Britney Spears jokes. The singer-songwriter’s work with American Music Club and on subsequent solo albums points to a despondent, dreary soul. Though underground-music mavens have anointed him one of the country’s greatest…
The Mississippi-born Campbell moved to Chicago as a boy in the mid-’40s; he honed his skills on the city’s west side in the company of such blues luminaries as Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and Koko Taylor. After building a reputation on both the bell-like tone of his bright red guitar…
Hey! You can’t put those there! Don’t, please — I have plenty of that stuff as it is, see? Awww, jeez, that one again? Look, can’t you find another… I mean, seriously… Ah, whatever. Just leave ’em right there. No, over there. Thanks. Thanks a lot. The Rezentments The Rezentments(self-released)…
Brazilians love experimentation and magical moments; they love assimilating far-flung musical styles, blending them with local rhythms, and imbuing them with graceful elegance. Ravers in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador have recently woven techno and ambient electronica into the mix, making the connection between the sleek minimalism of bossa nova…
When R.E.M. morphed from altrock cult heroes to rock ‘n’ roll royalty in the late ’80s, fans and critics prevailed upon the band to be more forthcoming. Though the band was happy to indulge in leftist sloganeering, that wasn’t good enough: Many fans urged Michael Stipe to reveal more about…
News flash to today’s youth: Nu Metal is old. That’s a bit of shocking news that often goes unreported by the media, and unfortunately such ignorance leads young bands to experiment with doses of enraged vocals and heavy guitars that often result in numbness of the public’s ears, not to…
It’s Friday night in St. Louis, and inside the Pageant Theater, 2000 people soak up a powerful message from Fred LeBlanc, drummer and vocalist for the New Orleans- based outfit Cowboy Mouth. Sporting a T-shirt that bears a one-word caption — INTENSE — LeBlanc prowls the edge of the stage,…
It would have been a journey certain to test the mettle of the hardest road veterans. But for the young foals who make up the Rocking Horse Winner, the schedule appeared beyond grueling. Immediately following a rousing show at Respectable Street May 25 (with some of the band members’ parents…
Whirlaway makes its entrance in a wash of loud guitar atmospherics and a flash of psychedelic lighting effects. Singer Adam Rosenberg takes center stage, bathed in the glow of a red light that spills over the stage to cover the rest of the group. A projection of multicolored bubbles appears…
Derek Cintron does not care if you hate his music. Just tell it to him straight. “You can say we suck,” says the Miami-based multi-instrumentalist. “You can say you think we’re the worst band in the world. That’s fine by me. I’m not out to please everybody. I’m out to…
Ladytron 604 (Emperor Norton Records) The Japanese seem to have a better understanding of American culture than Americans do — or at least a realization that they’re better at assimilating and restyling our culture. What else could explain the ultra-American, sensational pop music of Japan’s Fantastic Plastic Machine? This act…
Why do Euro-electronica acts tease us with albums to which we can get down, only to follow them up with moody, dark albums to which we can’t? Massive Attack did it with Mezzanine, the follow-up to Protection. Portishead did it with its self-titled follow-up to Dummy. Tricky, well, who knows…
There is no greater compliment a fan can pay an artist than to confess that he reaches one’s most private core. Alejandro Escovedo has done so in the past for this writer, most notably on his 1994 epic Thirteen Years, a stark chronicle of tragedy, serenity, and bloody-minded resolve (much…
Three records spin simultaneously. Promoters, friends, and unfamiliar faces clamor for attention. Below the DJ booth, a hungry crowd of hundreds impatiently awaits the next track. If you don’t have attention deficit disorder, you’ll get it quickly. Luckily DJ Tracy Young has learned to use ADD to her advantage. “You…
Long before marketing geniuses coined the term electronica, Depeche Mode accomplished what few techno acts have managed: They made computerized pop accessible to the proletariat. Unfortunately the band’s ultramodern image came at a price. Many critics couldn’t see past the group’s high-fashion aesthetic, and that was a shame. Depeche Mode…
… and from there we ended up at the Culture Room around midnight on Wednesday, May 30, just in time to watch the always-entertaining and gotheriffic Fort Lauderdale outfit the Wicked Screaming Squirts pack up their collection of props. Then we managed to find a safe refuge from which to…
Remember that weird childhood game of sitting in the dark on Halloween, passing around human body parts? You know, carrots for fingers, peeled grapes for eyeballs, or chilled spaghetti for guts? The mere power of suggestion (combined with too much candy corn) could make for a rollicking evening of disgusting…
There was a time (before Queen emblazoned every album with the bold and snippish pronouncement “No synthesizers!”) that synths were actually valued tools for enhancing the rich and exotic texture of music. And there was a time before that when synths existed only in the minds and hands of the…
