Music

Thirteen years ago, Bettie Serveert released Palomine, a record whose jangly guitars, infectious melodies and bittersweet lyrics helped define the sound of ’90s college rock. After a string of disappointing releases that never quite recaptured the verve of that debut, this year’s Attagirl is a refreshing change. But don’t call…

Omaha’s Saddle Creek Records is getting loads of attention thanks to Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, who’s lately inspired the sort of gushing capable of making Old Faithful jealous. Too bad the label’s roster is filled with baby bands in danger of being lost in the flood. A prime example is…

As integral to SoCal’s rock heritage as the Beach Boys or the Doors was the incestuous Hollywood punk class of 1977: the Screamers, the Weirdos, the Zeros and especially the Germs, whose legendary valedictorian, Darby Crash, ushered in the end of a brief but historical West Coast scene after overdosing…

As artistic inspirations go, nothing tops the exquisite bitterness and self-awareness that come from a painful breakup. When the Comas’ Andy Herod parted ways with Dawson’s Creek star Michelle Williams, the result was the North Carolina band’s masterpiece, 2004’s delicately beautiful Conductor. On the opening track, Herod sets the tone…

Tragedy and loss have inspired some great songwriting throughout history — as well as some great performances. But at the hi-dive on Tuesday, February 22, it won’t be breakups or rainy days that are moving the musicians; instead, a cadre of local players will join voices to raise funds for…

L.A.’s DJ Hive made his mark on the underground dance scene in the late 1990s with “Ultrasonic Sound,” a catchy little track he produced; it’s got a ferocious breakbeat built around a sample lifted from Bad Brains’ “Reignition.” “Ultrasonic” ended up being included on the soundtrack for The Matrix, and…

From a doctor’s waiting room somewhere in Manhattan, Benjamin Curtis sounds upbeat for a guy who can’t get an Ambien prescription. The Secret Machines singer/guitarist isn’t having trouble sleeping. He just likes taking the neurological sedative because, he says, “It makes your brain think that you’re dreaming.” Given the heavy,…

On August 1, 1981, MTV broadcast its first video, a blast of tuneful Technicolor called “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The band that sang it, the Buggles, went on to accomplish absolutely nothing and has been immortalized primarily on the back of Trivial Pursuit cards. The second video MTV aired…

“You’re either with me or you’re in my fucking way.” There’s no stopping Melissa Ivey. Sprawled out on a jade couch in the green room of Bender’s Tavern, the fiery 22-year-old singer-songwriter sips a Coors Light and discusses her recent West Coast tour. Over a grueling thirty-day stretch, Ivey and…

Today’s Grammy Awards are much more credible than they were in the bad old days, when nausea-inducing performers such as Christopher Cross were regularly treated like musical geniuses instead of stains on humanity. But that doesn’t mean that all of the acts with a chance to receive trophies during the…

As numblingly beautiful as Sam Beam’s music is, an entire album of it can almost be too much. His two previous full-lengths as Iron & Wine, The Creek Drank the Cradle and last year’s chilling Our Endless Numbered Days, were overwhelming. Beam’s songs are so dark they threaten to blot…

After seventy minutes of uncommonly fluid electro-soothe, STS9 doesn’t exactly alter the course of down-tempo music. But here’s the good news: Atlanta’s vibrational five-piece has forgone chasing the Grateful Phish ghost for more computerized pastures. With fresh ideas and a strictly enforced moratorium on dreaded solo noodling, the Tribe unveils…

Austin gear-destroyer ŠAnd You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is one of those bands signed to a major label not for commercial viability, but for street cred. Like Sonic Youth — from whose fakebook Trail of Dead notoriously borrowed more than a few pages for 2002’s Source…

With 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole, the Brothers Chemical — Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons — kicked up dust via a hybrid of big-beat production and pop sensibilities that was simultaneously stimulating and ultra-commercial. They continue to refine this formula on Push the Button, but because their techniques now constitute…

Years ago, Lou Barlow was scheduled to do an in-store performance at Wax Trax Records in Denver. He showed up almost an hour late; by the time he walked through the door with guitar in hand, the place was packed to the ceiling. As he hustled past the cash register,…

A little raunch can go a long way — not that Denver’s Hate Kate would know. The sleaze sloshes like a tsunami out of the group’s debut CD, It Is What You Think It Is. The title says it all: No holds are barred as the disc lays bare everything…

Saxophonist Hess doesn’t do reviewers any favors. Rather than create discs that vary wildly in terms of quality, he produces consistently strong work that renders comparisons with previous efforts pointless. Crossed Paths, which will be introduced to the public on Sunday, February 13, during a free show at St. Cajetan’s…

Five years ago, the unexpected, runaway popularity of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack propelled Ralph Stanley into the American mainstream, his contribution earning him a Grammy and enough royalties to finally tool around in a shiny black Jaguar. On the downside, the deeply religious 78-year-old bluegrass legend still…

There aren’t many bands who have actually toured in an eighteen-wheeler — let alone committed their artistic vision to something called “balls-out trucker punk.” But for the good buddies in Steerjockey, amphetamines and hundred-mile coffee fuel a sound that won’t back off the hammer, leading a rumbling convoy of Zeke,…

When indie buzz band Denali broke up last year, the group’s singer, Maura Davis, wasted no time in rounding up a new posse. Minus her guitarist brother, Keely (who left Denali to focus on his main project, Engine Down), the Virginia-based chanteuse enlisted the talents of three Chicagoans — bassist…

“What’s it gonna be — pleasure or action?” wails Stephonik X of Aqui on “Roll,” a song from the group’s welt-raising debut, The First Trip Out. The Brooklyn outfit is a maelstrom of noise and electricity, a metal-inflicted mutation of art, punk and rock just as likely to make eyeballs…