Blackalicious, The Craft (Anti-). Incorporating a heavier slice of live instrumentation, Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab rhyme in sociopolitical treatises over epic funk backdrops that seamlessly bridge the distance between Curtis Mayfield and Slick Rick. Overall, Blackalicious eschews numb, dumb hook seduction for serpentine grooves and polysyllabic, head-fed lyrical…
Like a disc-changer stuck on random shuffle, Blue Turtle Seduction moves unblinkingly between jazz, funk, bluegrass, reggae, electronica and hip-hop. Undersierraground, the act’s first full-length studio release, merges silly Phish-like slivers and no-frills Sublime-like drumming with funk, bilingual lyrics and speedy mandolin runs into what the group calls “High-Altitude Bohemian…
Nearly every mention of Diamond Nights cites Thin Lizzy as a reference point, but the Brooklyn quartet’s debut full-length, Popsicle, is more than just another retrogressive romp. The opener, “Destination Diamonds,” for example, shares DNA with both Shudder to Think and Cheap Trick. Cocky castrato Morgan Phalen, hook-happy guitarist Rob…
Adult. is weird and getting weirder. Gimme Trouble, the act’s latest effort on Thrill Jockey, is a troublesome mash of lo-fi instrumentation and banshee-like yelping that turns electro-clash into electro-what? Nicola Kuperus takes her voice to new levels of art-house oddness; for instance, when she shrieks, “I’m falling apart, I’m…
While Portland’s Dear Nora is known on record as a sprawling collective of nearly a dozen musicians, the group’s core member, singer/guitarist Katy Davidson, is touring the country totally alone. Well, not totally — she’s joined on the road by songwriter Owen Ashworth, who performs under the name Casiotone for…
In the twenty-plus years he’s been playing, Scott Law has logged regular stage time with some of the best acts in the jam scene, including the Tony Furtado Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, the Everyone Orchestra and the String Cheese Incident. A seasoned guitar and mandolin player on his own,…
Plenty of Los Angeles-based acts are more concerned with making it big than with making something fresh — but not every performer there prefers conformity over rebellion. Indeed, the City of Angels is currently home to quite a few rockers who tend toward the experimental end of the spectrum, including…
Today’s Dodge Charger bears little resemblance to the muscle car the old-time gearheads remember: the Scotch-pad-green monster with the Edelbrock mufflers that they used to burn cookies and go lawn-stomping in, the same one they lost their virginity and, later, their pink slips in — all in one night. Although…
Given the incredible volume of CDs that are released on a weekly basis, it’s inevitable that some really good ones evade detection by the masses. Such is the case with Geronimo, the latest disc by Shannon McNally, who’s spent much of her career being punished for being difficult to pigeonhole…
Grating, blistering, relentless industrial thrash death metal about marriage and starting a family? Leave it to Strapping Young Lad’s freakish mastermind, Devin Townsend, to create Alien, an aural onslaught of Ministry-indebted mayhem that spends a surprising amount of time on the topics of love and babies. To top it off,…
Last spring, (die) Pilot unleashed Radiation, Weather, Art, a promising debut bursting with guitar hooks, gloriously loose arrangements and gouged-out angst. Less than a year later, singer/guitarist Eugene Brown has seen a total turnaround in the band’s roster; the last original member to jump ship was keyboardist Peter Antypas. Luckily…
Sander Kleinenberg has spent much of his career trying to evade the typical trappings of the superstar DJ. Maintaining a humble appearance and giving his tracks titles like “Frog Dancing” and “Slipper Sleaze,” Kleinenberg has succeeded in not taking himself too seriously. His stock in the world market has risen…
Mark Eitzel wants to know if I can hold on for a second. Through a muffled receiver, I hear him speaking to a friend on the other end. “I’m gonna step outside and do this interview,” he says. “The pizza’s in the oven, and it’s almost done.” In more than…
Chris Sauthoff sounds like a stoner. Explaining how his new band, U.S. Pipe and the Balls Johnson Dance Machine, got its name, he punctuates the anecdote with laconic bursts of laughter. “I was on the way to a gig with P-Funk,” recalls Sauthoff, who’s worked as that act’s stage manager…
According to Matthew Miller, aka Matisyahu, listening entails more than simply owning a pair of fully functioning ears. “The concept of listening is the concept of giving yourself over to something,” declares the planet’s only Orthodox Jewish reggae star. “You could think you’re listening, but if you’re not nullifying yourself,…
In the ’80s, proto-teen idol Tiffany Darwish broke ground for wads of bubblegum-poppers. In 2002, the ginger-locked songstress also fulfilled many a John Hughes-era fantasy in Hugh Hefner’s periodical. Tiffany has grown up and changed direction in an effort to prove once and for all that unlike her many progeny,…
We are arbiters of music, not ideals. So all hail Crass, who made great music in spite of its goofball politics. From the silly socialism of Rage Against the Machine to the street capitalism of 50 Cent, the music is the message. So we do not deliver a fatwa against…
Producer Rick Rubin’s attempt to revitalize Diamond’s critical reputation à la his Johnny Cash collaborations isn’t a fool’s errand. Before he became a baby-boomer fave, Diamond was a first-rate songwriter capable of fusing woody pop with baritonal introspection. Too bad Rubin focuses so relentlessly on the latter and gives short…
Die-hard Fatlip fans have waited years for the ex-Pharcyde MC to drop a solo album. Literally. Years. In the meantime, he’s blown money on cocaine and skanky hos, been jilted by his former bandmates, and (finally) crafted The Loneliest Punk, the most lyrically interesting hip-hop album to drop in a…
Making a bid for the old/new South, Memphis’s Three 6 Mafia shockingly tones down its shout-heavy choruses and plays everything else the Southern sound was and will be: bounce beats, fresh-to-def stutter drums, lilting and jazzy (pha) soul hooks, string-driven MIDI presets and — best of all — hopscotch nursery-rhyme…
Thursday’s Geoff Rickly is no Lorenzo de’Medici — but then again, the Blackout Pact is hardly Michelangelo. Still, Rickly’s patronage of the Denver quintet (he produced and released its debut, Hello Sailor, on his own vanity label) has yielded a minor punk masterpiece. While rooted in Thursday’s trademark epic melancholy,…
The miles between Denver, where Liz Clark first made her name as a performer, and New York, her home for the past couple of years, roughly correspond to the improvement in her work. As witnessed by the quality of Hand on the Stove, she’s come a long way, and her…
