Darrell Scott’s compositions have been recorded by an impressive roster of country heavyweights led by Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. Yet the majority of these covers were used as album cuts, not singles, for reasons made clear by The Invisible Man, Scott’s new…
In the late ’80s, before marketing types had invented terse buzzwords such as “alternative” or “college rock” to encompass anything outside the mainstream, Concrete Blonde’s videos were played alongside those of Jane’s Addiction, Living Colour and Faith No More on shows such as MTV’s metal-centric Headbangers Ball. In 1990, the…
Muse’s singer, Matthew Bellamy, is still a dead ringer for Thom Yorke: his tone, his phrasing — even the way he sucks in oxygen before delivering his affected syllables. Even so, Muse can no longer be considered the poor man’s Radiohead, a tag that was reasonably justified until now. The…
Blame Tim Robbins. Sometime during Ronald Reagan’s second-term nap, while recruiting talent at UCLA for his experimental Actors’ Gang Theatre, the future Mr. Susan Sarandon introduced musician/hambone Kyle Gass to an obnoxious teenager named Jack Black. Now with goof-metal Tenacious D a household name, will the same hold true for…
For Slayer fans, 2006 might very well bring the apocalypse. There are just too many signs to ignore. First there was the reunion of the band’s original lineup, with drummer Dave Lombardo resuming the throne he’d abdicated after 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss. Then there was 6/6/06, which brought the…
Not so long ago, Paul Fonfara brought his multi-instrumentalist brilliance to the original incarnation of DeVotchKa. In addition to his prowess on the clarinet, which he played in that band, Fonfara also applied his considerable talents to live versions of Woven Hand, Maraca 5-0 and the Denver Gentlemen. He has…
At the turn of the decade, trance was arguably the most popular sound in the dance world. As time went on, however, “trance” became a dirty word, largely due to overexposure: It was simply inescapable. L.A.’s Christopher Lawrence (due at the Church this Thursday, July 20) is one of a…
Neely Jenkins is crying on the other end of the phone. “I’m having a really hard time with leaving,” Jenkins confesses. “It’s so hard. I’ve been thinking about it so much. We’ve been gone a long time, and it’s just really hard, because we’re all very, very close to our…
It’s just after 7 p.m. on a soggy Friday night, and I’m sitting at a table on a flagstone patio outside of Shooting Star Cafe, enjoying a brief reprieve from the rain and waiting for the members of Uncle Zant to finish setting up their gear. I’m also thumbing through…
For a woman who spends much of her time rapping about sex, Canada-born Merrill Nisker, who performs as Peaches, doesn’t seem all that concerned about having fun. Take “Two Guys (For Every Girl),” a provocative cut from Peaches’ new CD, Impeach My Bush, in which she declares, “I wanna see…
As part of our continuing drive toward journalistic excellence, Westword has uncovered the private blog of director Chris Applebaum, in which he discusses his work on Paris Hilton’s new music video, “Stars Are Blind.” May 4, 2006, 7:49 a.m.: WHAT HAVE I DONE? Remember that Carl’s Jr. ad, the one…
In a kind-bud-cured Alabama drawl, Nathan “Nabob” Shineywater talks about music like a ’60s counterculturalist: part social critic and part shaman. The self-titled second release from Brightblack Morning Light, the project he helms with childhood friend Rachael “Rabob” Hughes, evokes the deep Southern gospel of their religious upbringing and blends…
Tom Petty is perpetually underrated. He debuted too late in pop music’s historical continuum to seem deserving of full classic-rocker status (although he’s certainly earned it by now) and came across like an apprentice rather than a peer when collaborating with Bob Dylan et al. (a result of his modesty,…
What the Chemical Brothers tried to do with stadium-beat overkill, MSTRKRFT (pronounced “Master Kraft”) does by proving that anorexically constructed techno can rock out with its digi-funk cock out. Celebrated remixers Al-P and Jesse F. Keeler (Death From Above) create jagged, over-caffeinated hybrids of house, disco and funk in which…
Although Obie Trice now carries a bullet in his skull (from a violent encounter last New Year’s Eve), the bragging rights at Shady still belong to 50 Cent and his nine gunshot wounds. Unlike the larger-than-life 50, though, Obie sounds genuinely scarred by his experiences: Most of his sophomore album…
Originally a four-track recording project between guitarist Matt Oliver and bassist Bill Baird, Austin’s Sound Team now rolls six deep. The additional membership gives the band a great deal of latitude with regard to sound and texture. Surprisingly, with a half-dozen instruments vying for space, there’s not a wasted or…
The latest from the Hamsters is everything a fan might expect from one of Colorado’s most gloriously twisted exports: a two-disc package divided between unconventional studio offerings and a live set that underscores the band’s ambition and eccentricities. The initial pair of cuts on Execution set the stage for the…
Rush Ya Collaboration albums are generally hit or miss. Their success hinges on how well the artists are able to jell with each other. Unfortunately for local MC Ancient Mith and German producer XNDL, the crew behind Rush Ya, A Modern Day McCarthy reveals a noticeable lack of chemistry; the…
Carter Falco, If It Ain’t One Thing (CMH). Carter Falco’s disc kicks off with a song called “Country Music,” but he doesn’t mean the diluted stuff that passes for the real thing so often these days. He’s an ass-kicker with an outlaw streak, and on Thing, he gets assists from…
Compared with its contemporaries in 2001, Cannibal Ox sounded like brothers from another planet. The group’s debut, The Cold Vein, released prior to the World Trade Center attacks, brilliantly depicted the stress of New York City life. El-P’s claustrophobic beats gave off a paranoiac vibe and provided the perfect backdrop…
Just because poet Sylvia Plath committed suicide and was portrayed by pop-star spouse Gywneth Paltrow in a Hollywood biopic doesn’t mean she’s especially rock-and-roll. Nevertheless, the four Mancunians at the heart of Nine Black Alps, who are opening for Social Distortion and the Supersuckers, lifted their band’s name from a…
While not quite deserving of a tickertape parade, this year does have the distinction of marking the twentieth anniversary of two of glam rock’s most memorable albums: Poison’s Look What the Cat Dragged In and Cinderella’s Night Songs, both of which defined an era of music that was all about…
