“You know the rose girl that goes around selling roses in bars and restaurants?” asks French-born, Arizona-based songwriter Marianne Dissard. “That’s what I used to do in downtown Tucson. Tucson is not like Paris. There aren’t a lot of people on the sidewalk. You’re isolated. So that job was a…

“I must confess that over my career, I’ve actually downplayed the importance of DJs,” says Peter Hook. “It’s such a different art form. Then all of a sudden you try it, and you think, ‘Good God, these guys do work.’ I used to be very cynical and very blasé about…

During the frantic post-9/11 anthrax scare, Anthrax the band issued a statement saying that it was considering changing its nameto Basket Full of Puppies. Which should have been no surprise: The legendary thrash quintet has always been great at tempering social awareness with a morbid sense of humor. Formed in…

Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein and famed author Nora Ephron probably had big literary aspirations for their son, Max. But he went and started a Los Angeles punk band, the Actual, instead. Over the past few years, the trio — comprising Bernstein on guitar and vocals and brothers Jeremy and Aaron…

Music hasn’t always been a commodity. Long ago, it was a more collective and intimate art form played with friends, neighbors and relatives — a tradition that the O’Brien Family Band keeps alive and kicking. Comprising father Dan on guitar, mother Janette on bass and kids Maura and Kyle on…

At first glance, Little Fyodor is a total fucking wack job. On second glance, he’s still pretty much a wack job. On third glance, however, you might start to discern a certain complexity, eloquence and even sanity at the core of his spastic and mangled songcraft. Sitting down with his…

Chicago’s Jason Chasko is no stranger to backing up bold frontwomen. The guitarist co-wrote and played on Liz Phair’s underrated Whitechocolatespaceegg before bolting to the bigtime of New York; it was there that he founded Suffrajett with lead singer Simi, whose voice falls somewhere between the predatory howls of Karen…

Neil Diamond’s 1966 debut single was “Solitary Man.” Since then, though, he’s been anything but. While there’s no denying the chart giant’s ability to appease the hoi polloi, he’s relied on everyone from Robbie Robertson to Burt Bacharach to revive him whenever his career started to flatline. For 12 Songs,…

Counting the similarities between the Mansfields and the Ramones is like going down a list of Lincoln/ Kennedy coincidences. Primal pop-punk anthems? Check. Oldies covers? Check. Members who take the same fictitious last name? Check. Drummers called Tommy? Check. But there’s another list they could be associated with — the…

Sometimes the wait is so fucking worth it. Cowboy Curse has taken its sweet time putting together a debut album; a year and half has passed since the release of the Welcome to Cowboy Curse EP, a three-track teaser of smart, bashful, damn near flawless indie pop. But the trio…

Between being a hot-shot photographer and a full-time rock star, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs found time to remix a couple of songs this year: “Compliments,” by Bloc Party, and “People Are Germs,” by the slightly less- known Austin outfit Single Frame. But don’t let the group’s lack…

The Indiana-based indie imprint Secretly Canadian has quietly grown into a powerhouse over the past couple of years, with signees as illustrious as Magnolia Electric Co. and Antony and the Johnsons. But a considerably lower-profile act on the roster, the Impossible Shapes, was responsible for one of the label’s best…

Just ask the Vandals, SNFU or, if you must, Blink-182: Punk has always been obsessed with lousy, Mad magazine-level puns. Epoxy Lips Now!, the title of the third full-length by Denver’s Prescription, ranks right up there with the best of the worst. Fittingly, the album is a blast of classic,…

As if M83’s output over the last four years hasn’t sufficiently shamed America for its post-9/11 tantrum of France-bashing, here’s another one-Gaul wonder: Jonathan Morali, aka Syd Matters. This eponymous double-disc collection compiles Morali’s two previous import releases, Someday We Will Foresee Obstacles and A Whisper and a Sigh. The…

Half Charles Kuralt, half Jack Kerouac, David Dondero has been exploring the highways and side roads of America for fifteen years, turning his experiences and observations into raw, literate bursts of acoustic soul. The San Francisco-based songwriter spent time in Florida’s revered folk-punk troupe This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb,…

The art of singing your fucking guts out is almost a lost one — not that you’d know by listening to William Elliott Whitmore. Lunging between a croon and a croak, his voice sounds too big for one body, a ragged, elemental howl that carries all the grit and erosion…

In 1998, director Penelope Spheeris made The Decline of Western Civilization Part III. But unlike the first installment, which centered on legendary punk acts like Black Flag and the Germs, Part III was a much more stark look at contemporary hardcore. Fittingly, one of the featured groups was Naked Aggression…

My handmade copy of Oblio Duo’s eponymous CD came with a strand of human hair accidentally glued into it. There are two things I can do with that hair: make a voodoo doll, or clone singer/instrumentalist Steven Lee Lawson. The cloning probably wouldn’t work, though. Although Lawson and bandmate Will…

After Michael Gira’s discovery of Devendra Banhart, it seems that the Angels of Light frontman (and Young God Records head) knows a good investment when he sees it. Gira’s first major find since Banhart is Akron/Family, an avant-folk troupe that traffics in warped twang and blurry harmony. Angels of Light…

When Cave In made its first trip to Denver six years ago, the anticipation was feverish. And for good reason: The Boston quartet was touring in support of its second disc, Until Your Heart Stops, which was and remains an undeniable hardcore masterpiece. Combining the power of Slayer, the melody…

Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch used to rhapsodize about his desire to be the new Frank Sinatra. And although Harry Connick Jr. beat him to it, McCulloch and crew wound up making an impact all their own. While much of the ’80s post-punk wave toyed with goofy futurism and…