Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to make pop music that isn’t popular. Not that End of Love, the fifth full-length by Clem Snide, abandons itself to the conceptual outback of art pop; instead, it continues the group’s erratic, enthralling arc across old-school song wizardry…
Alternative hip-hop has developed into a de facto criticism of the form that spawned it, with artists like Sage Francis delivering the sort of complex, politically charged imagery that’s strikingly rare in mainstream rap. Unfortunately, accessibility and entertainment values frequently take a back seat in much of their work, which…
Poland has the dubious distinction of being America’s most complicit and obsequious ally in its current crusade in the Middle East. It makes a twisted sort of sense, then, that the country birthed the pagan-death-metal ogre known as Behemoth (appearing Tuesday, February 8, at the Bluebird Theater). Demigod is a…
Strike Anywhere wants a better world, one where “punk” doesn’t mean Good Charlotte and “political” means more than P. Diddy. With intelligence and admirable chops, the Virginia quintet crafts straightforward, Oi!-inspired anthems far superior to the usual Hot Topic punk pabulum. To Live in Discontent brings together several of Strike’s…
With 2002’s Lifted, Omaha-born phenom Conor Oberst was elevated to mythical status among rock critics, lauded as a Dylan of the plains, the finest songwriter of his age. Although the reluctant messiah has tried to avoid the “voice of a generation” title he’s been saddled with, now, more than ever,…
Since deciding that he didn’t want to be a rock star, Mike Patton, of Faith No More fame, has turned his record label, Ipecac, into a shelter for some of the world’s oddest and most interesting music, made by acts as varied as Fantmas and Kid 606. Flat Earth Society,…
On “Club Killah,” Robert Houston, aka Black Pegasus, attacks radio programmers for ignoring his music. Most MCs avoid dropping such rhymes out of fear that the words might land on them, but Houston doesn’t hesitate — a bold move typical of an album that’s as honest as it is catchy…
For a compilation of local music, PS 2 oddly lacks a unifying identity; the word “Denver” doesn’t appear anywhere on it, and the bands it features certainly don’t sound very much alike. But diversity has long been a strength of Colorado’s indie scene, even if it somewhat hamstrings groups’ efforts…
Tift Merritt’s sophomore release, the masterful Tambourine, was just nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album, which is ironic: Although Merritt has been a staple of North Carolina’s alt-country scene for years, the disc is a big departure from the rustic strum of her 2002 debut, Bramble Rose. Her…
Though contrived shock metal reached the end of its creative leash well before Marilyn Manson discovered corsets, godless doom and gloom rarely have a bad day at the cash register. Enter Otep Shamaya, a Los Angeles-based traffic-stopper who broke the ranks of Ozzfest three summers ago as leader of the…
Craig Richards takes artistic license with everything he does. From cutting hair to compelling club-goers to cut a rug, Richards has dabbled in a number of artistic fields over the course of his career. Formally trained as a graphic designer at England’s Central St. Martins College of Art and Design…
On the surface, bluegrass seems to have little in common with punk. After all, the former is traditionally acoustic, not electric, and many lineups don’t even include a drummer. Yet because both styles are built for speed, former Wichita rockers Jeff Eaton, Wayne Gottstine, Kirk Rundstrom and Eric Mardis sound…
While his legendary father was forged by the Mississippi Delta, favored one-chord grooves on open-tuned guitars and kept time by constantly stomping his foot, John Lee Hooker Jr. takes a less primitive approach to the blues. Detroit-bred and now residing in Citrus Heights, California, the 52-year-old son of the late…
Genre bands don’t need to sound wildly dissimilar from other groups of their type to stand out from the pack. A few key distinctions are enough, as the men of Clair de Lune understand. Although most of the vivid tunes found on Marionettes, released this past June under the Deep…
While nu-punk bands are proliferating like maggots nowadays, few of them burrow very deep into the genre’s tradition. But England’s the Fight does — as evidenced by Nothing New Since Rock N’ Roll, the group’s 2004 debut full-length. While its previous EP on Fat Wreck Chords — Home Is Where…
The best mainstream acts can accomplish a couple of important tasks along the road to success: Their members become skilled enough to effectively emulate their heroes, after which they fuse their influences into a sound that’s truly their own. Judging by Last of the Cellophane, a full-length whose arrival is…
Judge Jules is a DJ whose involvement in dance music extends far beyond the role of a “superstar DJ.” Since his humble beginnings in 1987, he’s left his stamp on just about every possible facet of the dance-music culture: He’s hosted shows on Radio 1, contributed to many of the…
I used to work at a preschool, and when the kids would get mad at me, they’d say, ‘You’re not my friend anymore,'” remembers Sara Thurston with a laugh. “I just told them, ‘That’s okay. I’ve got plenty of friends already.'” Thurston — better known in Denver as DJ Sara…
Although singer-guitarist Dean Wareham and the other members of Luna agreed that bringing their moody, evocative group to an end after twelve years was the right thing to do, they weren’t sure whether they should make an announcement before touring in support of their seventh studio long-player, last year’s gorgeous…
Last week, as I watched the latest excruciating installment of American Idol, I noticed a common thread in each wannabe’s performance. One after another, these hopefuls defiantly proclaimed that their friends and family had assured them they had amazing voices. All evidence to the contrary. That clinically insane broad from…
Knuckle Down comes with a precious, fancy-papered chapbook stapled into the middle of it. Filled with bare lyrics and even barer pencil sketches, it’s the perfect manifestation of everything that sucks about Ani DiFranco: pseudo-literary pretension, coffeehouse glibness and the false impression that she’s some kind of grassroots underdog rather…
Genius rarely runs in the family. Jakob Dylan can’t hold a candle to his dad’s work without going up in flames, and it’s best not to even think about Wilson Phillips. Fortunately, the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle is an anomaly. Martha Wainwright plays unique, captivating, rock-ous…
