Music

The other Elvis has long displayed a weakness for genre exercises, and while some of his dabblings have worked (most notably the pseudo-R&B of 1980’s Get Happy!!), the majority have felt awfully self-conscious. Almost Blue, a weak 1981 tribute to country music recently reissued by Rhino, is a case in…

You say the Melvins aren’t heavy enough? Metallica’s ’80s output doesn’t give you a sufficient blood-pressure spike? Fear not: Atlanta’s Mastodon concocts an extreme, fist-to-the-face metallic alloy that’s sure to satisfy. Less than a minute into Leviathan, the quartet’s second album, Brann Dailor’s hyperkinetic drums, Troy Sanders’s stool-softening bass, and…

Shortly after releasing Double Up in 1999, Mase left hip-hop while at the top of his game to get his life right with God. Five years later, he’s back, and not much has changed — well, except for the fact that he’s noticeably cleaned up his act. In the past,…

Upon their first spin of Scott’s latest, many listeners will miss the lightning lurking within the quiet storm. Her new disc initially seems too laid-back and subtle, but it eventually reveals itself to be a complex portrait of a woman who doesn’t need to shout to exhibit her strength. Throughout…

Autumn. To some, it’s all about chestnut hues, rustling leaves and the realization that all things must wither to be reborn. To others, it’s the year’s lowest tide of serotonin, a constant struggle to keep razors out of veins and shotgun muzzles away from dental work. The Czars’ timely new…

I confess: After one glance at this six-track EP’s lame graphics and dull jacket photo (the moratorium on pics featuring sensitive-looking musicians on staircases starts now), I expected little from the Last Seen’s most recent offering. Fortunately, the adage about not judging a CD by its cover turns out to…

If all you knew about Reese Roper, erstwhile frontman of Five Iron Frenzy, was what you’d heard of his songs, you’d think he was one self-deprecating cat, with a Chandler Bing-like knack for sarcasm. And you’d be right. Roper is the Tony Robbins of self-deprecation. Here’s the introduction he recorded…

As versed in jazz and chamber music as she is in acoustic pop, Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has a lot more on her plate than your typical Cat Power-cloned indie chanteuse. After singing in the Hot Set, an Olympia, Washington, swing band, she loaned her bell-toned voice to the Microphones’…

Hot Water Music has torn up punk venues around the world for more than ten years, so it should come as no surprise that the band’s 2004 tour sounds a little different from some of its earlier output. Poppier song structures and a stronger sense of melody make this year’s…

“Your spine is curving like a question mark,” belts out Christopher Richards somewhere in the middle of Power, the new full-length from Washington, D.C.’s agit-disco trio, Q and Not U. Like all the band’s lyrics, the above line is as cryptic as the Sphinx. But it could very well refer…

Mr. Zimmerman doesn’t need an excuse to hit the highway; over the years, he’s played in support of good albums, bad albums and no albums at all. This time around, however, his tour takes place amid the launch of a memoir, Chronicles: Volume One — and if that isn’t proof…

While countless acts hawk Faint-ly familiar dance punk, check out the Hot Hot Heat emanating from the Fever. The quintet’s rowdy, ’80s-inspired garage rock has the power to move the most clenched denim-clad booty. Frontman Geremy Jasper twitches and yelps like a reanimated Mick Jagger (wait, he’s not dead?), while…

Opportunity has done a lot of knocking at Mos Def’s door, and he keeps answering. In addition to hosting poetry jams on HBO (and receiving an Emmy nomination for his role in the made-for-cable movie Something the Lord Made), the former Dante Smith (above) has been part of feature films…

“Here I am — rock you like a hurricane” could serve as a storm warning for the Scorpions’ latest Stateside tour, which has unleashed a sonic cyclone of power ballads and full-force rockers. Even after more than 35 years in the business, this tenacious Teutonic band still has plenty of…

The fall of 2004 has ushered in an embarrassment of riches for Absinthe Studios sound wizard Bob Ferbrache. After mixing Wovenhand’s devotional master stroke, Consider the Birds, Big Bob further establishes Denver as ground zero for American roots music with an extraordinary self-titled effort from Munly & the Lee Lewis…

It seems like everyone’s a DJ these days. And with the market so saturated, it’s hard to distinguish one jock from another. When Soto & Smith (aka Dave Soto and Aaron Smith) started deejaying at bars and clubs, they did whatever they could to distance themselves from cliches. They didn’t…

Driving through the lush mountains of rural Appalachia, there’s plenty of pretty scenery to look at — for instance, a tiny TV screen broadcasting images of John Kerry and George Bush ripping each other’s throats out. “We’re watching the debate in the van right now,” enthuses Mike Cooley of Southern-rock…

Ed Hamell is often referred to as a one-man punk band. But what he does for a living isn’t exactly easy to categorize. He’s not quite a pundit, not quite a comic, and definitely not a touchy-feely singer-songwriter mope. “I’m at a loss of what to call it,” says Hamell,…

Some albums are so twisted that when you listen to them, you think your CD player might be busted. But give the Blood Brothers’ new disc, Crimes, a spin, and you’ll be convinced there’s a glitch going off somewhere inside your cerebellum. Not that the Seattle quintet has ever seemed…

No Cities Left is the best Brit-pop album of 2004 — only the Dears are from Montreal, not Manchester. But don’t hold that against them: The symphonic sextet is human and needs to be loved, just like everybody else. In fact, they wanna be adored, and should be. Their new…

There’s just way too much that you can read into this album. Yes, this month marks the anniversary of Elliott Smith’s tragic suicide — not that his death came as a huge surprise to fans of his music. But even as bitter as Smith’s songs could be going down, they…