Psychedelic space rock and panoramic expressions. Gospel choirs and eighteen-month mixing sessions. Hundred-piece orchestras with their sweeping strings. These are a few of Jason Pierce’s favorite things. Until now, that is. A major departure from 2001’s ambitious, massively orchestral Let It Come Down, Spiritualized’s fifth studio album (which arrives barely…
Perhaps the best way to describe the lyrics of the Weakerthans’ frontman/guitarist John K. Samson is “relentlessly clever.” The former Propaghandi bassist has eschewed the ranting agit-punk of his former band to carve out a more meditative, inward-looking stance that allows him to tell tales that amuse, confuse and elate…
Singer-songwriters willing to figuratively stand naked before the world do so at considerable risk. Allowing the occasional flaw to slip past quality control can infuse songs with just the right touch of humanity, but preserving every flaw may cause the average audience member to seek out CDs whose edges are…
Sometimes in life, if we are fortunate, a moment or an event occurs in which our faith in the world around us, and even in ourselves, is entirely renewed — a defining moment in which lives are changed and philosophies redefined, a moment that transcends cultural and spiritual boundaries, breathing…
“What if the Devil stole your president? Would you wait for Dan Rather with a clown nose and his hair on fire? Would you trust him like George Washington with your credit card and PIN? Or do you cut a hole in the roof of hell and milk a star-spangled…
Mike Villano is one audacious and tenacious cat. Long before Fred Durst introduced Britney to his Limp Bizkit, the flamboyant former frontman of Chaos Theory was at the forefront of the ill-conceived mid-’90s rap-metal explosion in the Mile High City — just waiting to become a household name. When that…
It’s a hazy Saturday afternoon at the end of August. A white Ford F-350 Powerstroke with Colorado plates whizzes down Interstate 15, en route from one legendary strip to another. The vehicle’s occupants are high as hell, almost as if they’ve buried their faces in mountains of coke, Tony Montana-style…
Mark out the points! Build the pyre! Assemble different drummers! Light up the fire! Put on your masks and animal skins!” Dictums for an ancient pagan ritual? Canons handed down by a Druidic high priest during Samhain, the Celtic precursor to Halloween where worshipers draped themselves in costumes and the…
There’s a fairly simple theorem that almost universally applies to confessional singer-songwriters: The degree to which they open their troubled souls on an album is directly proportional to how closed off they are in person. For instance, speak with an artist who’s just dropped the most sincerely revealing collection of…
Yeah, I jumped off a cliff, but let’s talk about something else,” Elliott Smith told me in1997. It was shortly after the release of his breakthrough album on Kill Rock Stars, Either/Or, and Smith had recently attempted suicide by throwing himself off a cliff, suffering only minor injuries. Long before…
Welcome to my nightmare. I’ll admit it: I’m a buzz-kill of Ebenezer proportions. I’ve never been a huge fan of Halloween, not as a kid and especially not as an adult. It’s just another stupid, man-made, commercialized celebration of nothing. Really, what good is a holiday if you don’t get…
Carla Bozulich has always been a country girl at heart. You just had to look — or listen — through the fuzz and distortion to notice. As the leader of the Los Angeles artcore combo the Geraldine Fibbers, Bozulich colored many of her own compositions with country underpinnings, adding pedal…
It’s no surprise that Erica Brown once won a Tina Turner impersonation contest; her larger-than-life personality sets ablaze each stage she steps on. Sizzling, smoldering, Brown is hot, whether she’s doing mainstream covers, classic country or avant-garde rock (Foreskin 500, Cherry Bomb Club and Ron Ivory are just a few…
They climb on the stage like acrobats tiptoeing onto high wires. Their moves are poised, exact; their balance and dexterity are honed to surgical precision. Their confidence is almost overbearing, an arrogant mix of savvy and narcissism bolstered by the knowledge that, in the eyes of their fawning audience, they…
Though often lauded for the death-metal stylings of its 1990 debut album, Left Hand Path, Sweden’s Entombed has shape-shifted with each subsequent release. Openly impressionable to outside influences, the band has been on a restless creative trajectory since its beginning, when its name was still Nihilist. By 1993’s Wolverine Blues,…
“I just want to buy a house and make some concrete investments,” says Cam Di-Nunzio, speaking of his artistic aspirations with tongue partly in cheek. And while he may voice the pragmatism and quotidian concerns typical of a guy in his late twenties, DiNunzio is far from typical. As a…
Since I’m a music critic, all anyone ever wants to talk to me about is music. Which is usually fine: As luck would have it, music happens to be my favorite subject. But every now and then, someone insists on pushing my buttons, extolling the virtues of the Grateful Dead…
Cello plus drums and screams: How can you go wrong? Especially if you’re the Portland duo known as Discharge Information System, who perform on Wednesday, October 29, at Revoluciones (719 West Eighth Avenue), with the May Riots and Nightshark. Andy Gehrz pilots the traps and Melissa Collins scrapes the catgut…
Having more in common with Buzz Ozbourne than Buzz Aldrin, the New Ancient Astronauts boldly go where free jazz bares its fangs. Working from the bedrock of brooding hardcore, these adventurous space sailors — sax skronker Aaron Schilling, guitarist Kasey Elkington, bassist Don White and drummer Anthony Bell — don’t…
There’s a fine line between myth-making and fucking around. Tons of rock bands throughout history have been as good, if not better, at playing the image game than they have been at playing their instruments. The Clash, by a barrage of astute media manipulation, was able to downplay the fact…
It’s 1979. A little boy is curled up, warm and fast asleep in his suburban Washington home. It’s a school day, so he’ll have to wake up soon, but for now, he’s breathing slowly and shallowly, safe in a dream. It’s 6 a.m. Suddenly, an unreasonably loud piano and a…
During its longest period between albums, Ween has endured one emotional jolt after another: Touring drummer extraordinaire Claude Coleman survived a near-fatal car accident, uninsured; the band got more attention for a commissioned but never aired Pizza Hut jingle called “Where’d the Cheese Go?” than for releasing any backlogged collectibles;…
