More Jeff Foxworthy than Victor Borge, R&B standup comic Reverend Billy C. Wirtz lampoons the double-wide culture while honoring the gospel and barrelhouse styles of our piano-banging forefathers: Big Maceo, Otis Spann, and especially Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Goateed, tattooed and with a flowing red mullet, Wirtz seems an unlikely spiritual…
South Jamaica, Queens, native Pharoahe Monch displayed limitless potential as a thought-provoking MC following his split with Prince Po, the more boisterous half of the angst-ridden underground duo Organized Konfusion. But topping 1999’s club-thumping anthem “Simon Says” has proved difficult for the Egyptian-themed rhyme-slinger. After his Rawkus solo debut Internal…
The glaring lack of new ideas in indie rock makes 90 percent of the bands that waste their time aping Sonic Youth seem as bright and interchangeable as a forty-watt lightbulb. At least San Francisco’s Deerhoof distinguishes itself from the herd with a dense and distinctive radio-unfriendly brand of art…
Claude Coleman Jr. has sat behind the drum kit for Skunk, Chocolate Genius, Elysian Fields and Eagles of Death Metal. But he’s been Ween’s acrobatic timekeeper ever since Gene and Dean toured in support of Pure Guava. That’s thirteen years, mang. And while Ween’s brand of eccentricity has allowed him…
Kal Cahoone has always hated spiders. It’s a chilly Thursday evening in luthier John Rumley’s studio/workshop, and the smell of lacquer probably hasn’t driven away any creepy crawlers — spinning webs in the shadows, possibly nesting in that old player piano in the corner. Even so, the members of Tarantella…
The real Devendra’s never actually done an interview,” Devendra Banhart deadpans. “The label just pays people to do it — like Bozo the Clown. There’s an entire fleet of politicians answering my questions. They’re the ones who are trained to do that shit. I have an intensive Devendra Banhart retreat…
East of El Segundo’s refineries and beachfront ghettos, Hawthorne, California, remains an unassuming musical bastion, home to the Beach Boys, pop wunderkind Emitt Rhodes, and Greg Ginn of Black Flag. It’s also the stamping grounds for dios (malos), Angelinos who share Brian Wilson’s love of druggy melodies and rich vocal…
Spreading the gospel of pain since 1986, the Genitorturers, a goth-shock outfit out of Orlando, never shy away from including a bondage demonstration or two in their live set — an abrasive, costume-changing bacchanalia hosted by statuesque Mistress of Ceremonies Gen Vincent. After leaving her native Albuquerque at seventeen to…
“Empowering stoner metal” might sound like one of those self-refuting contradictions that George Carlin talks about — like jumbo fries or military intelligence. But for Blackfire Revelation, a loud, droning two-piece from New Orleans, every glassy-eyed whiff of Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” comes with a vague, lyrical pep talk. Take,…
Riding in on punk’s second wave with Joy Division, Talking Heads and the Fall, Gang of Four distinguished itself by wedging militant left-wing politics and atonal riffs into a rubbery dance groove. Now singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham — who initially met…
SUN, 10/9 Taking cues from the legendary Earl Scruggs, the Czech Republic’s Druhá Tráva (which means “Second Grass”) has transformed a quintessentially American idiom into a unique synthesis of jazz, pop, folk, classical and Eastern European music. “Bluegrass has a long tradition in our country and became extremely popular in…
Jacqueline Susann’s 1966 bestseller, Valley of the Dolls, explored the price of fame, wealth and love in the duplicitous world of Hollywood excess. A trashfest rife with jealousy, plastic surgery, insanity and self-destruction, the camp classic — laughably adapted for the screen in 1967 — proved conclusively that uppers and…
After U2, Ireland’s most beloved band could well be the Frames, a brooding bunch of Dubliners who specialize in overwrought, overly earnest, arena-sized indie pop that straddles the fence between poignant and monotonous. Far less popular stateside (though frontman Glen Hansard co-starred in Alan Parker’s soul-reviving romp, The Commitments, in…
When you consider that Dolly Parton grew up with eleven brothers and sisters on a poor farm in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, it almost makes the tackiness of her theme park, Dollywood, seem forgivable. (There but for the grace of God goes Tammy Faye Bakker.) Of course, there are also Dolly’s…
First, the good news: The Dandy Warhols have had their fling with disposable synth-pop, rediscovered the Velvet Underground and secured cult status from the rockumentary Dig! for not being assholes quite on par with the “genius” asshole in the Brian Jonestown Massacre. On the downside, Portland’s pleasure-seeking scamps banked enough…
SUN, 10/2 At 4 p.m. today, after workers remove the pew cushions and burn some incense, the annual St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals will commence at St. John’s Cathedral, 1350 Washington Street. “There’s always a certain degree of joyful chaos because we get a wide variety of animals…
With enough sex appeal to make even John Waters salivate, Phoenix’s Les Hell on Heels secured an unprecedented three-record deal on Bomp! Records, one of the nation’s oldest surviving indie labels (it was founded in 1974 by the late Greg Shaw). The band’s self-titled debut, engineered by Jack Endino (Nirvana,…
Multi-instrumentalists Flitz Alan (Shawn Palmer) and Micah A. Lundy make up this fun and unassuming duo that strums, stomps and harmonizes its way through a dozen upbeat variations of acoustic Americana. Along with bluegrass-inflected numbers about the joys of drinking corn and the burdens of conquering fear (“Honey,” “Chickens Will…
A lo-fi hobbyist whose delicate, drowsy songs caught Sup Pop’s attention three years ago, Sam Beam, aka Iron and Wine, enlists Calexico’s core duo to revitalize seven home demos for a stopgap EP that plays to the strengths of everyone involved. And while each tune is available online in its…
FRI, 9/23 Last year, on August 29, KGNU made history. The stalwart, Boulder-based independent radio station — Colorado’s home for such lauded syndicated shows as Democracy Now! — purchased the broadcast frequency of 1430 AM in Denver, expanding its potential audience by millions. “It’s a process, and we’re just barely…
Say what you want about Cricket on the Hill, but Denver’s red-haired stepchild is still surviving in a town where venue promoters are more apt to go for each other’s throats than join hands in a moment of silence. Ah, the Cricket, where any unwashed, unseasoned and unknown local act…
The six members of Barbez have a collaborative resumé that includes Brian Eno, David Byrne, the Boredoms, Two Foot Yard, Bang on a Can, the Sea and Cake, Guv’ner and Air. During their own highly theatrical performances, however, the Brooklyn-based chamber-punk outfit creates a pan-bohemian sound that pools from Argentine…
