With every re-lease, Joe Thunder and Selector Sam move further away from simple mixtapes and closer to creating compilation albums featuring original rhymes and beats from homegrown rappers and producers. For their latest project, the two headed to east Denver to connect with F.O.E. and B Blacc and showcase the…
Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano has become an underground icon thanks to So You Think You Can Reab, the self-produced CD zines containing his funny and often bitter verses. But rocket ship to obscurity, his debut full-length, may just be his best work to date. Recorded with the help of…
Though some believe Lupe Fiasco is too smart for mainstream rap, that’s not exactly true. Most of the lyrics on his second release are trite, right down to the CD’s opening monologue: “They thought it was cool to tear down the projects and put up million-dollar condos, gentrification. They think…
Too many movie tie-in collections put profits before cohesion. Tunes by widely disparate performers, most of whom just happen to record for companies affiliated with the film studio, wind up being tossed together willy-nilly in the hope that one of them will stick, thereby inducing fans to purchase all the…
Plenty of people outside the country-music industry think the genre pretty much begins and ends with big stars — the Keiths, the Faiths and so on. But just beneath the glitzy surface, a gaggle of lesser-knowns are slugging it out in hopes of reaching the next level, and only the…
Yeah, yeah, we all know that everyone can’t be an original. Still, understanding this truism doesn’t make blatantly imitative acts like Wilmington, California’s Left Alone any more admirable. The Elvis Cortez-led band, which shares tonight’s bill with the Black Rose Phantoms, has been around since 1996 — long enough to…
Brad Paisley is one of country music’s greatest living guitar players. On his latest album, 5th Gear, the reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year blends his masterful chicken pickin’ with just the right amount of the clever humor that has helped establish him as one of the most entertaining…
Ingrid Michaelson hasn’t been getting much sleep lately. The singer has been caught up in a whirlwind of activity that all started over a year ago, when her song “Breakable” was used on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The show then placed her endearing tune “The Way I Am,” which…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: One girl’s love of Ghostland Observatory overcomes a solid, wailing wall of douchebags, drunks and general idiocy…
Hearts of Palm. That’s the new name being batted around by the members of Nathan & Stephen. Ran into Nathan McGarvey, who was tending bar on Friday night at the hi-dive, and he confirmed the less than ten minute-old rumor I had just heard on my way into the dive…
The Photo Atlas, 3OH!3 Saturday, January 5, 2008 The Gothic Theater Better than: Spending your mom’s money on another studded wristband. Last night’s local bill at the Gothic was an all-ages match made in heaven. Though co-headliners the Photo Atlas and 3OH!3 have a diverse following, both found huge support…
Lupe Fiasco Hypes Hillary You would think that since Lupe Fiasco is from Chicago, raps about the plight of Black men, and is politically to the left, that he would put his support behind his hometown homeboy, Barack Obama. But apparently the Chi-town rapper is putting his money on Hillary,…
Bubba Sparxxx The Lost Tracks FMS 00:00-00:45 of “Never Scared” I never totally understood the point of the “Lost Tracks” albums. These are songs that didn’t make the cut for whatever reason before and I’m entirely unsure what makes them worthwhile now. “Never Scared” is about as bottom of the…
I’ve blathered before about how music is an emotional experience and how, for better or worse, songs have a way of attaching themselves to the pivotal moments in our lives. I’m convinced this is especially true of our formative years, that small window of time when we’re the de facto…
Mike Marchant is trying to get his head straight. About a month ago, the Widowers frontman was mugged while walking to his home near City Park. The assault happened in the middle of the day, but Marchant’s recollection of the incident is as black as night. “Apparently, when you have…
I hate to say it, but most of what I know about wine I learned from Sideways. I saw the film several times a week when it played in theaters a few years ago. I felt like I was Miles, the mildly pathetic, frustrated writer and wine geek played by…
If Mark Darling’s name conjures visions of a Jane Austen romantic lead, the association is artistically befitting. The music made by Darling and his drumming kid brother, David, is swooningly romantic, sweepingly dramatic and stunningly poetic. Like a delirious, forbidden encounter between Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley in the afterlife,…
There’s plenty of confusion surrounding Cross Canadian Ragweed. For one thing, the band’s not Canadian; its name conflates those of Oklahoma-based bandmates Grady Cross, Cody Canada and Randy Ragsdale (joined by Jeremy Plato). Moreover, members of this other CCR have enjoyed impressive success on the country charts — their latest…
While remedies may vary, there’s no better antidote for a post-NYE hangover than a few days of bed rest followed by an all-night dance session. Something about all that sweating when you should be sleeping seems to really purge the toxins and provide a sweet jump start for the new…
While Reverend Peyton is a big dude with a booming voice, his band really isn’t that big in numbers. There’s the Rev himself, who plays a mean slide on his resonator guitar; his wife, Washboard Breezy, who scrapes the hell out of a washboard; and his younger brother, chugging away…
Prefuse 73 — the production alias of Guillermo Scott Herren — pushes the outer boundaries of hip-hop into the terrain occupied by Aphex Twin and Autechre. Slippery snippets of micro-edited samples dance elegantly for a few measures, then stop and chatter away in alien tongues. Elsewhere, jittery beats unkink and…
Mounted on cheesy, rudimentary, ’80s-style synth samples and sputtering drumbeats, the wiseacres of Pittsburgh’s Grand Buffet spent a dozen years honing their craft. While the scent of nerd is strong in the prolific pair, their off-kilter attack and literate litanies recall King Missile or They Might Be Giants more than…
