Gun-toting revolutionaries say the darndest things. In the case of emcee Brother J.C. Crawford — a smooth-talking customer who, like a vanilla version of James Brown, flipped out the unwashed masses of Detroit, Michigan — a legendary 1968 Halloween night call to arms at that city’s Grande Ballroom launched one…

Step off, Eddie Vedder. And Stone Gossard — you might as well be Stone Phillips this go-around. Mike McCready, lead guitarist for Seattle’s Pearl Jam, has assembled some childhood pals to eke out a dozen James Garner-influenced songs about angels and bad relationships. Let us weep openly, my baggy, flanneled…

1999 was a good year for the white suburban thuglet: Kid Rock catapulted to stardom as an ace bulldog in a bullshitter’s paradise; the proud, fiery crime spree of Rapestock ’99 boasted no fewer than eight reported sexual assaults — two in the mosh pit, for Chrissakes — and all…

Besides immortalizing the pithy catchphrase “squeal like a pig,” the 1972 screen adaptation of writer James Dickey’s Deliverance burned an indelible impression into our collective unconsciousness through its lightning-quick, banjo-fueled soundtrack. Go ahead — try to forget that wonderfully creepy genetic wildcard who out-grins and out-picks actor Ronnie Cox note…

Brooklyn-bred John Linnell is one half of perennial chess club/nosebleed favorites They Might Be Giants — the nasal-sounding, accordion-and-sax-playing half, that is. And with his ongoing “Fifty State Songs” project (which began with 1994’s State Songs EP, available through Giants partner in crime John Flansburgh’s subscription-only Hello CD club), Linnell’s…

You’ll learn more about the seven deadly sins watching Gilligan’s Island than listening to Ice-T’s latest sloth-ass mess. Consider this: Each episode of G’s follies features a gluttonous Skipper who gobbles everything in sight, a short-fused Thurston Howell III who blows his wrathful stack like clockwork (he and the greedy…

Ever since the Grammy Awards made Beck safe for mainstream consumption, longtime fans from the Bongload Record days have most likely watched his every slack-happy move with a mixture of awe and guarded contempt. Give a guy more greenbacks and gadgetry than Santa Claus in a bull market, and it…

Buzz Bomber and the M-80s know the drill when it comes to blue-collar nights on the highbrow town, pistol-whipping themselves and whoever’s left standing with a crass, beer-fueled brand of punk-spirited music and buffoonery. Playing manic sets like fast-order fry cooks, Bomber and the band offer musical grub that’s both…

Like a Mexican wrestler bouncing Ricky Martin’s overexposed face off the pop-cultural turnbuckle, this siren (and sometimes ambulatory) call of Latin speed metal is one bruisin’ dose, hombre, a full throttle mosh-fiesta of punk, funk, ska, hardcore and plenty of good Chicano snarl. Sung entirely in Spanish, Éxitos is a…

To all you Johnny Rebs and Rottens who genuflect to the anarchist’s symbol, to every weekend “reactionary” who ever spray-painted the Hester Prynne-sized letter A in an alley, then circled the scraggly looking thing with a hearty, shitfaced laugh — listen up, little heroes: Recess is over. Your new two-headed…

Local rock-scene staples the Pin Downs are on a roll. The kind that rocks, blessedly hard. Combining big-muff pedals with a humor-tinged attitude, the all-female party-crashing punk band of guitarists Heather Dalton and Ginger Richards, bassist Sara Fischer and drummer Jen Frale has worked its way into revelers’ happy hearts…

Tortoise and the Ex In the Fishtank (Konkurrent/Touch and Go) The only commonality between Tortoise and the Ex, apart from the fact that both are remarkable ensembles in their own right, is that they thrive on unusual collaboration. The Chicago post-rock rhythmatists of Tortoise, for instance, backed Brazilian eccentric Tom…

Ron Bucknam regularly plays his guitar for the benefit of pastry-noshing literati at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, and his country-swing band, the Barncats, puts a charge into folks at VFW halls. But behind this modest musician is another one–an introspective virtuoso who has bravely, maybe foolishly, dedicated himself to the…

Blur 13 (Virgin) Fans who were enthusiastically awaiting the release of this disc because they loved the ultra-catchy “Song 2” from Blur’s eponymous 1997 album may be sorely disappointed: At first listen, the quartet seems to have turned into an art-noise band. (That’s not the speakers buzzing; it’s Graham Coxon’s…

Nancy Wilson Live at McCabes Guitar Shop (Epic) Which one was the dog and which one was the butterfly? And how come there wasn’t a pony? Nancy Wilson (dog, I’m guessing) flies solo on this go-round, a live, unplugged, “nakedly human” collection of Seventies classics, four (and twenty blackbird) cover…

Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton Trio II (Asylum) When Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt recorded the first Trio in 1987, the collaboration made sense. Harris had been building a respectable country audience, Parton had earned a couple of number-one country hits and some acting credibility in 1980’s…