The genre-hopping, boundary-defying mixes of DJ Chloe are like a long, scenic trip through the fringes of dance music. At one point she’ll luxuriate in the spacey, wide-open arrangements of ambient, letting gurgling filter sweeps push things along. Seconds later she’s transitioned into the kind of unadorned synthesizer tones and…
Nicole Atkins, Neptune City (Red Ink/Columbia). Nicole Atkins’s 2006 EP, Bleeding Diamonds, was so stirring that her debut full-length seemed doomed to disappoint. Instead, she more than matches expectations thanks to sweepingly melodic material, like “Together We’re Both Alone,” that’s sturdy enough to support ornate arrangements and Atkins’s rapturous vocals,…
Though Tim Pourbaix’s solo debut includes contributions from his Killfix bandmates Andrew Solanyk and Peter Glenn, the personality present on A Pony Craig, Not Greg is all his. The EP contains its share of the inevitable weeping-white-man angst, but its gravity is leavened with gentle humor, sparkling melodies and plenty…
Most retro groups either tinker with vintage sounds so music lovers can hear them from a new perspective or stick to the verities. The latter course is generally less rewarding, but such combos can still succeed if the musicians are good enough and their affection for the form comes through…
The most-viewed YouTube clip starring Puscifer, Tool leader Maynard James Keenan’s twisted side project, is “Cuntry Boner,” which features MJK, his drawers distended by a massive faux erection, twanging out lines such as “I’ve fucked Minnie Pearl” over a stomping hoedown beat. “V” Is for Vagina’s title promises more of…
In case you just emerged from a coma, Soulja Boy’s entry in the minstrel-rap sweepstakes is called Souljaboytellem.com, and it’s been virally marketed in a savvy way. Nonetheless, it’s about as stripped down as a record can be. This is what rap would have sounded like if it had been…
While it could be argued that Canadian post-rock was birthed in Montreal, its artistic ferment resides in Toronto. Whereas Godspeed You! Black Emperor perfected the art of writing sweeping epics of sound and fury set to experimental cinema, Do Make Say Think takes a more impressionistic approach. Mixing electronic, electric,…
All too often, contemporary performers who wave the Americana banner squeeze the juice from the music they venerate, presenting dry, academic variations on rootsy styles as if fearful that having fun with them might appear disrespectful. Fortunately, Mississippi-bred singer-songwriter Cory Branan knows better. On his most recent CD, 2006’s 12…
At a show this past spring, opening for Adult. and Erase Errata, Brooklyn trio Parts & Labor launched a volley of digital noise that seemed to presage a sense-assaulting experience. Then suddenly, the sound waves turned tuneful —structured, even — and the threesome pushed through a high-energy set of sometimes…
Metal has always been a little cartoonish, so it’s no surprise that the biggest, best, most brutal metal band of all time is literally a cartoon. Utter masters of shreddingly awesome metal, Dethklok, stars of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse, have descended to utterly destroy college campuses across the nation. This may…
No one will ever mistake Art Brut for a hip-hop act; musically, the London-based combo specializes in power-pop edginess, new-millennium style. Nonetheless, frontman Eddie Argos’s vocals are every bit as declamatory as any rap MC’s, if considerably wittier and more jaundiced than the vast majority. On It’s a Bit Complicated,…
The November 8 Rough Mixes piece on Rakim was taken from the following Q&A. James Mayo spoke with the legendary framer just prior to his performance at Las Vegas’ Vegoose festival about his new record, his aborted project with Dr. Dre and some of the rhyming techniques he’s utilized to…
Preparing for an interview is generally a prerequisite for an enlightening and wide-ranging conversation – except in this case. My chat with Frames and Swell Season-performer-turned-Once co-star Glen Hansard, who’s at the center of a November 8 Westword profile, happened on the spur of the moment; I received a call…
Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (RCA) Dave Grohl has become a reliable professional, a performer who consistently releases product that’s steady and well-crafted. But if he’s never put out a less-than-good album during his decade-plus as a frontman, neither has he issued the sort of next-level mind-blower that…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice Media empire: My interest in Gogol Bordello is officially increased by a thousand percent after reading this review that compares the singer to Cousin Balki, from the ‘80s show Perfect Strangers, on a liter…
Widowers, Astrophagus, Dualistics, d. biddle November 2, 2007 hi-dive Better than: Dodging golf shirts on Santa Fe during yet another First Friday Lately, I’ve been puzzled by the sequencing of artists in shows at the hi-dive. For example, when 3OH!3 played the club back in August, the duo – riding…
3oh!3 October 31, 2007 Fox Theater Better Than: Getting pepper sprayed by police during a previous Boulder Halloween riot. I think it was Ethan Hawke who I saw in a recent interview talking about the struggles of being white and upper middle class in America. He wasn’t being ironic at…
Carla Bley The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu (ECM) Bley is among the most underappreciated talents in jazz – a fine pianist who also happens to be an extremely creative and gifted arranger. Since bowing in 1971 with Escalator Over the Hill, a recording that marked her as a leader…
Autokinoton, Yakuza, Jesu October 31, 2007 Marquis Theater Soaking in a few hours of heavy music played at ear-splitting volume seemed an ideal way to spend Halloween this year. This all-ages show comprised three very different bands with three very different aural skull-crushing techniques. Though most of the crowd was…
Signing to a major label these days is a dubious proposition. Yesterday’s kingmakers no longer have exclusive control of the dissemination of new music and appear to be completely rudderless as they attempt to navigate the digital waters. Last month, Radiohead put itself in the vanguard of the digital revolution…
Kevin Drew is pacing the streets of Birmingham, England, a little on edge and distinctly agitated. Two days ago, Bill Priddle, a guitarist he calls “the driving force in terms of the guitar playing in the band,” broke his collarbone, putting the future of Drew’s tour in jeopardy. “We’re kind…
If Northern State’s Julie Potash was bitter, no one would have blamed her. Although All City, the New York-based hip-hop hybrid’s first release for Columbia Records, made Rolling Stone’s list of 2004’s top fifty albums, the relationship between band and corporate master soon soured, preventing Potash and her fellow rhymers…
