What are you hungry for? Italian? Japanese? French? How about Croatian? Whatever your taste in international fare, the twelve-piece ensemble known as Pink Martini will be sure to satiate your desires and leave you longing for more of its multilingual musical alchemy. Founded in 1994 in Portland, Oregon, by the…
Traversing the country in a lumbering 1964 GMC tour bus — lovingly nicknamed Dirty Bird — the Hackensaw Boys know a thing or two about the open road. The ensemble, which seems to vary in numbers between six and twelve, has been crisscrossing the highways and truck stops of America…
The majority of artists regularly lumped into the neo-soul movement are more velvet than sandpaper, more Al Green than Wilson Pickett, and, in the case of Natalie Stewart and Marsha Ambrosius, the pair of Brits behind Floetry, more Magic Johnson than Shaquille O’Neal. The basketball analogy is apt, since Stewart…
At All Costs has a news flash for you: The American dream isn’t as rosy as it seems, and a bunch of big, bad men are making bank off the war against terror. Thankfully, the Austin-based quintet’s music is a little less obvious than its lyrical platitudes. It’s Time to…
In our post-post-post-post world, everything has been broken down, rebuilt and burnt to the ground. And yet the fractal factorials of sound still yield fresh ideas. Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong — the New York duo known as the Books — simultaneously create and destroy pop music with acoustic…
It’s been two and a half decades since Cocteau Twins concocted the formula, but there’s still something thrilling about a moody chanteuse backed by soaring, symphonic ambience. Headlights is the newest avatar of the form — and while its sound soars and sighs with the best of them, the trio…
Some interesting facts about San Francisco’s John Vanderslice: He once wrote a song called “Bill Gates Must Die,” then punk’d numerous national media outlets by crafting an amusing hoax claiming Microsoft was out to destroy him. He owns and operates the renowned Tiny Telephone recording studio — an all-analog joint…
In a 2001 interview with Westword, Morgan Lander, the then-teenage guitarist and lead shrieker for Canada’s Kittie, an all-female death-metal group, complained that reviewers were “treating us like we’ll never be seen again and we’re just a novelty.” Little did they know that Lander has a sharp business mind (“I…
The last time Astrophagus unleashed a CD, the outfit was known as the Moths, and its former bassist, Quentin Chirdon, was awaiting trial in Albuquerque on charges of armed robbery. But recently, singer/guitarist Jason Cain is the one who’s been logging some quality time in Oz. The frontman was arrested…
Gabriel and Dresden (aka Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden) first worked together in 2001 remixing “Someone Like You,” by New Order. Impressed with the fledgling producer’s work, Dresden tapped Gabriel to help him rework the track. The San Francisco production duo has maintained a working relationship ever since and has…
For somebody who just got his teeth knocked out, Mike Damron looks no worse for wear. In fact, aside from slightly chipmunked cheeks, you’d never know the frontman of I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House had just had his wisdom teeth pulled a few hours earlier. Damron is…
“The performance and filming are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. PLEASE BE COMFORTABLY SEATED WITH AN EMPTY BLADDER BY 7:20 P.M.” It’s just minutes before the March 23 taping of the Seven Voices pilot — a series of live DVDs being produced in hi-def by Immersive Studios — when…
James Blunt’s debut Back to Bedlam was the number-one album in the U.K. last year, catapulting him to superstardom, thanks in large part to the hit “You’re Beautiful.” Go back a few years earlier, and he was a personal guard to the Queen of England — and before that, a…
Back in 2003, reggae crossover star Sean Paul Henriques was fined $34 for cursing on stage at a festival in his native Jamaica. The cost was insignificant, particularly in light of Sean Paul’s stateside success: The Trinity, his latest disc, set a record for most copies of a reggae album…
All hail “Love Rollercoaster,” a sweet slice of funk brought to us by the Ohio Players. There is not enough funk in this world, so we welcome every bite of funk that has been fed to us and every band that cooks it. Oh, Ohio Players, the sins that have…
Before Karen O strutted, spit and cooed her way to indie-rock-icon status, Courtney Love was arguably the last dynamic female to front a rock band. The grunge widow propelled Hole to stardom in the ’90s with her inimitable martyr poses and baby-doll fashion. But Love lost some of her cathartic…
Here’s where we find out how adventurous Wilco fans really are. Kotche may be the band’s percussionist, but he cuts his own path on Mobile, a disc that’s consistently rewarding, if not instantly accessible. The first track, “Clapping Music Variations,” is a case in point. This fascinating adaptation of a…
Like any self-respecting alt-country artist, Neko Case would probably love to leave alt-country behind — along with the negative connotations the term’s overuse has spawned — but the well-deep voice that’s earned her deserved comparisons to Patsy Cline has made it difficult for her to escape the tag. Case was…
The worst thing about grandparents is having to listen to their stories over and over again. Garden Ruin marks Calexico’s tenth anniversary — a century in rock years — and proves that leader Joey Burns might finally be slipping into his songwriting dotage. The band has rehashed every possible element…
Scratching unacknowledged itches, tt Lester makes it seem natural to follow a plucky piano-bar number with a Joy Division dronefest that would put Interpol to shame. Lester’s interests are varied but invariably British. Tony Guerrie spills out sleepily confident vocals similar to those of Blur’s Damon Albarn, and when he…
From dirty socks to Sybian machines, the thrill of autoeroticism finds its way into the weirdest outlets. Johnny Wohlfahrt alone is Nervesandgel, perhaps the most self-indulgent entity the Denver music scene has ever birthed. Recorded across four years and two full discs, his eponymous opus occupies the hitherto hidden space…
Devo 2.0, Devo 2.0 (Walt Disney Records). Cutesy youngsters Nicole, Nathan, Jackie, Michael and Kane “play” allegedly kid-friendly versions of Devo faves on Devo 2.0; for example, “Uncontrollable Urge” is now about snack cravings. So why is the de-satirized “Beautiful World” more twisted than ever? And how did Mark Mothersbaugh…
