No one’s ever accused Sascha Konietzko, the man behind the now-dead KMFDM and the very-much-alive MDFMK, of suffering from incurable optimism. Since the ’80s, he’s made hard-as-nails electro/industrial music whose lyrics focus on topics such as inhumanity and anguish, not true love and thongs. But last year’s massacre at Columbine…
In 1985, when Uz Jsme Doma first got together in the tiny border town of Teplice, north of Prague in what was then communist Czechoslovakia, the band experienced an existence that would make its American contemporaries think twice before using the word “underground” as a self-descriptor. The band’s music –…
On stage at the Eagles Lodge in Thornton, Halden Wofford and his mates in the Hi Beams (steel guitarist Bret Billings, multi-instrumentalist Kevin Yost and his wife, bassist Sandy Yost) are laying down a set of classic country music. The band anchors the far end of the lodge’s modest, low-ceilinged…
Tony Furtado is on the road again. He has been since early April, when he and his new touring band — which includes locals Erin Thorin on bass and Marc Dalio on drums — hit the highway in support of Furtado’s new self-titled release. Life in the back of a…
Todd Rundgren, Monday, June 5, at the Gothic Theatre, and Tuesday, June 6, at the Fox Theatre, is an artist who can rightfully claim the Renaissance Man title. A successful pop craftsman with the Nazz in the 60s and occasional solo hit-maker in the 70s, Rundgren took a turn for…
Psychologists have long studied the secret languages that sometimes develop between identical twins. In extreme cases, there are entire complex codes of communication shared only by the siblings — something that is sure to alternately puzzle, frustrate and fascinate the non-fluent. The Twins, with the Dinnermints, Saturday, June 3, at…
What makes a good detective? Is it the wit of Sherlock Holmes or the collected cool of Detective Steve McGarrett from Hawaii Five-0? The folks at Dave & Busters are guessing it all depends on the individual. On Saturday, June 3, theyre giving gumshoe wannabes a chance to test their…
Like all of Elliott Smith’s best songs, “Junk Bond Trader,” a key track on Figure 8, his fine new album, is more than its title indicates; instead of merely telling the story of a Wall Street bottom-feeder, it uses such an individual as a jumping-off point for a more personal…
John Mooney doesn’t give a damn about blues “purity,” whatever that is. While many of his peers have stuck to just one brand of blue-hued music to the point of repetition, Mooney has spent the past thirty years deftly melding two disparate forms: straight-from-the-fields Delta blues and complex New Orleans…
In the recent flick High Fidelity, Rob Gordon (a record-store owner played by John Cusack) muses that his excessive exposure to pop music — replete with messages of “heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss” — has perhaps contributed to his own desperate unhappiness. “Did I listen to pop music because…
Although “soundtracky” isn’t a term recognized by the folks at Webster’s, everyone knows what it means — instrumental music that may work when paired with cinematic imagery but seems empty and uninteresting without it. Detractors of Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, a French twosome collectively known as Air, have used…
Taking cues from the late Argentine tango wizard Astor Piazzolla, the three conservatory-trained East Coast musicians who make up the Tin Hat Trio continue to tinker with “world music” — and boy, do they like to tinker. Recorded almost completely without overdubs, Helium marks the skilled followup to the group’s…
Catatonia’s second effort to see American release combines the Welsh band’s sarcasm, gravelly vocals, smartly overplayed pop and an attitude that reeks of cigarettes, hard liquor and the morning after to give lightheartedness a swift kick in the groin. When lead singer Cerys Matthews sings “Ooh sha la la la…
Join me now in a little creative visualization, won’t you? It’s the not-so-distant future, and that digital dial in your self-cleaning car is pumping in nothing but corporate radio 24-7. Megalithic corporations like Clear Channel and AM/FM have succeeded in acquiring all of the nation’s FM and AM stations. Aided…
The Automaton Adventure Series, with Fast Action Revolver, Friday, May 26, at the 15th Street Tavern, is another Northwestern outfit that makes you wonder if the same daylong misting that cultivates mushrooms, moss and lush scenery in that region also breeds some of todays more compelling bands. Combining the postmodern…
Uversa, with Neil Haversticks Space Music, Thursday, May 25, at the Lions Lair, is the ethereal, guitar-driven project of composer TJ Edwards — who seems as comfortable strumming a classical acoustic guitar as he is generating some crunchy electric noise. Edwardss debut CD, Uversa, is an effervescent, eclectic mix that…
When an overwhelming response to last years Victorias Secret online fashion show caused the companys Web site to crash, one thing was confirmed: Short hemlines attract. Its something the fashion-savvy folks at the A Bar learned with last years White Party — an event theyre bringing back for a second…
In medieval times, a form of recreational torture involved placing a condemned person’s head inside a heavy, cast-metal church bell and ringing it until he or she went insane. Forget about going deaf. We’re talking flipped-out, gone-down-the-road wacko, Nurse Ratched. Such nerve-shattering law and order instilled fear into a nation’s…
If you tell Thes One and Double K of the L.A.-based hip-hop duo The People Under the Stairs that they sound dated or old-school, they take it as the ultimate act of appreciation. “That’s the best compliment ever,” says MC Thes One. “I don’t want to sound new. I want…
Running an independent record label is always a tricky business proposition. You needn’t be a business-school graduate to recognize that music is a big, big industry and that the little guy is often squashed beneath the heavy boot of seemingly omniscient major label giants. The prospect of starting an indie…
Pop tart Gwen Stefani — pretty as she can be, with a midriff for the ages — celebrated a special birthday recently: the dreaded three-oh. And by industry standards — those sad, governing, youth-obsessed, number-crunching principles — such a cosmic reckoning usually means one thing: Keep the salt lick and…
Ween has a perception problem: Non-fans know it best as a somewhat offensive, zany, wacko goofball outfit mainly out to parody and desecrate. But if no one’s taking Ween seriously, we can safely blame the victims here, what with such career moves as openly discussing plans to spray diarrhea onto…
