Andrew Broder, aka Fog, started off turntabling in the vein of DJ Shadow before taking the Anticon cue and rippling out from hip-hop into musical free-for-all. But experimentalism shouldn’t be synonymous with using pretension as an excuse for not trying. Here, Fog is less Spiritualized and Wilco by way of…
Chicago’s Sweep the Leg Johnny was always a great band. But that sax? Had to go. Amid all the group’s streamlined savagery, singer Steve Sostak’s ungodly squawking was about as welcome as a turd in a hot tub. So it’s with one hand on the doorknob and the other holding…
To expand his already octave-stretching vocals, lead singer Caleb Followill quit smoking before joining his brothers and cousin in the studio to record the followup to 2003’s excellent Youth and Young Manhood. And therein lies the problem. Not that Followill’s voice isn’t as strong and unique as ever — like…
Melissa Ivey doesn’t seem particularly interested in going where no singer-songwriter has gone before — at least not yet. From the Inside Out, which will be introduced to the public on Saturday, March 12, at a Walnut Room show that will also feature Rubber Planet and Paper Boy Jack, is…
The Eurythmics perfected the formula: the dude who stands in back, tinkering with the equipment, fronted by a chanteuse oozing icy mystery. Eric Smith and Shannon Alexander play Dave and Annie in Adrenaline Sky — a Denver duo whose full-length, The Ultimate Illusion of Privacy, hints at the Brit-pomp of…
Thanks to footage that’s gotten plenty of Internet play, Glenn Danzig’s tough-guy reputation has taken a wallop. Shot at a gig last July, the images capture him in heated conversation with Danny Marianinho, whose group, the North Side Kings, was supposed to play on a bill with Danzig’s self-named combo…
For the Esoteric, whose Lawrence, Kansas, home/studio burned to its foundations in late February, the nomadic lifestyle has become an indefinite necessity. Less than two weeks after the faulty-wiring-provoked conflagration, bandmembers started playing scheduled shows in support of their upcoming Prosthetic Records release, With the Sureness of Sleepwalking, using donated…
With a booming, bluesy voice that can start, stop and pivot on a dime, Bay Area MC/producer Lyrics Born has established himself as one of the most compelling figures in underground hip-hop. But unlike the space-tattered pseudo-Marxists who regularly inhabit the genre’s dungeons, Born understands that listeners pay more attention…
As much Pure Prairie League as Townes Van Zandt, Portland’s Dolorean has spent the last five years finding the pop appeal lurking within the darker backwater of the folk-rock canon. Essentially the vehicle for singer/guitarist Al James, the group recently released Violence in the Snowy Fields, a collection of songs…
I wouldn’t like me if I met me — weird lyrics for sure, coming from a pair of identical twins. Said song, “You Wouldn’t Like Me,” is the first cut off Tegan and Sara Quin’s breakthrough disc, 2004’s So Jealous. Resembling a twenty-something Heart with a serious Strokes crush, the…
The first time he saw the video for “Mr. Brightside,” the latest single by the Killers, Simon LeBon must have felt as if he’d fallen through the looking glass, or maybe the picture tube. Everything about the clip — its ornate setting, elaborate costumes, semi-clad vixens and air of sophisticated…
For such a relatively new band, Monofog has a complicated history. The Fort Collins outfit started in 2001 and quickly kicked up a buzz with its atmospheric, cerebrally aggressive indie rock. In 2003, though, drummer Lucas Rouge moved out of state; three of the remaining members — singer Hayley Helmericks,…
A relative newcomer to the club scene, Zana Mills made her debut behind the decks at Fevah in London just three years ago. Since that time, she has made strides in her career — such as garnering residencies at Toxik UK and Fevah USA — that would have taken most…
Like most bar owners, Kim Sparks is pretty meticulous when it comes to running her place, from cleaning the street and sidewalk in front of the Cherry Pit (60 South Broadway) on a nightly basis to making sure underage drinkers stay out. Unfortunately, no one is on top of her…
During a February 14 interview, John Legend reacts with a knowing chuckle when he’s asked what Valentine’s Day means to him. “It’s a good payday,” he says, “for a guy who’s got a big romantic ballad out.” No doubt. “Ordinary People,” a bare-bones endorsement of taking love slow, is an…
“Booty tuba.” Seamus Kenney, lead singer of North Carolina’s SNMNMNM, is attempting to describe the slithery, oomph-like gulp emitted by his outfit’s unconventional low-end instrument. Most sane bands use a bass guitar, or, in a pinch, a synthesizer, to pump those subterranean frequencies. But instead, SNMNMNM’s Mark Daumen wields a…
Dreaming this vision. I’m lying next to you at home in bed. I wish this were true. Five months away. Getting farther every day. Life on the road! I long to see her face again. War in my head of where I should be. Here on tour or with my…
Once upon a time, the existence of Jennifer Lopez CDs was entirely justified by the photos included with them. Given that she’s now 34 years old and has become one of the most overexposed celebrities to tread the planet’s surface, I figured this would no longer be true — but…
Stereolab’s once-thunderous drone may have decayed into a flimsy echo over the last few years, but that hasn’t hushed Laetitia Sadier. In 2003 the group’s singer released a solo album, Socialisme Ou Barbarie, under the name Monade — and while it deviated from Stereolab only in scale, the project’s homespun…
Bar-stool laments from lovable losers have been the staple of hard-edged honky-tonk since long before George Jones drove his riding mower to the liquor store half-cocked. But in the sure hands of a seasoned troubadour like Rex Hobart, the well-trod themes of cheating, drinking and insanity sound fresh — especially…
It’s not exactly a mystery why Sony is pushing O. After all, Omarion Grandberry’s got a kiddie-soul pedigree (he was in B2K), an acting background (he played Reggie in Fat Albert, a fact he might want to keep to himself) and the sort of look that appeals to teens raised…
Ripping words from music can be as traumatic as mom and dad getting a divorce. Very rarely are lyrics able to stand unaided by their sonic concomitant. Shit, even naked Dylan stinks. So what possessed Aesop Rock to release an EP accompanied by a ninety-page book collecting all the script…
