Music

The saving grace of any good cover band is to not go for the all-too-obvious hit. Credit Motor City’s turbo-sleaze outfit the Detroit Cobras for limiting their self-penned material with the full understanding that they’ll never write songs as soulful or enduring as the ones by Otis Redding, Bobby Womack…

The Washington, D.C., punk scene centered around Dischord Records is notorious for its incestuous family tree. The Medications, one of the newest outfits on the imprint’s roster, fits right in. Guitarist Devin Ocampo and bassist Chad Molter constituted the core of the underrated Dischord act Faraquet, and Ocampo beat skins…

“In Bed All Day.” “Sad for a Day.” “Sad Sad Song.” Titles like these might lead you to believe that Omaha’s Tilly and the Wall are purveyors of some serious suicidal gloom — or at least a little teenage cutting. Of course, it’s kind of hard to beat out a…

A quiet, half-baked side project for Coachwhips veteran John Dwyer, OCS avoids chaotic garage-stomping in favor of stripped-down, acoustic folk tunes infused with electronic-noise collages from co-conspirator Patrick Mullins. Touring in support of its latest double disc, 3&4: Songs About Death and Dying and Get Stoved, both on the Narnack…

Montreal’s often-chilly climate is apparently perfect for incubating intriguing bands. The Arcade Fire has received plenty of acclaim in Canada as well as south of the border, and the Dears are equally notable: an ambitious pop combo with a penchant for big melodies, dramatic juxtapositions and pungent lyrics. Singer and…

Frances the Mute, the latest opus by former At the Drive-In cohorts Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, arrived at the perfect time; its fresh-and-wild style filled the vacuum left by a dearth of new musical movements. Too bad self-appointed trend monitors are currently working overtime to pigeonhole the group as…

Just a few short months ago, Superstring Theory was a band without a head or legs. Comprising a mere two members — Justin Reinking on synthesizer and Todd Houston on guitar — the outfit plied an atmospheric instrumental noise crippled by a lack of vocals or drums. But besides setting…

San Francisco’s DJ Dan was at the forefront of L.A.’s burgeoning rave scene in the early ’90s. Originally a techno DJ, Dan began incorporating elements of hip-hop and funk into his mix after becoming a member of the West Coast’s Funky Techno Tribe. A major player in the mid-’90s breakbeat…

Michael was eleven years old when he discovered the photo in one of the Penthouse magazines that his parents kept on the lower shelf of their bedroom nightstand. The black-and-white shot had a vintage graininess, like a frame from an old silent film. In it, a group of schoolgirls have…

That was a song we wrote in the winter of 2002,” says Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke in the midst of a fitful, mostly mumbled explanation of how his song “Like Eating Glass” evolved. “It was kind of…” He stops, then starts again. “I’d heard a remix version of the Smiths…

Burrowed inside a community center in South Central Los Angeles, a thick crowd of sweat-drenched men vied for space as police in riot gear hovered outside. Spurred by the local media, who had homed in on this particular spot on Leimert Boulevard and perpetuated rumors that it was a mecca…

Looking at John Huntington, you’d never guess that he’s one of the hottest nightclub promoters in the country. Clad in a plain white T-shirt, a crisp pair of navy Dickies and motorcycle boots, his hair slicked back, he seems more like an extra from The Outsiders than an infamous entertainment…

Sleater-Kinney is one of those bands you don’t like as much as you’re afraid not to like. The group’s hipness quotient and political correctness almost overshadow the fact that its music pretty much fucking sucks. The Woods is no different. While famed Flaming Lips producer David Fridmann has helped the…

Here’s a recipe for disaster: Hide a diverse bunch of well-known musicians (and one comic-book illustrator) behind a goofy cartoon facade while they produce slightly schizophrenic pop. A hokey concept, yes, but against all odds, the Gorillaz’ debut was a superbly boundary-less hodgepodge of breakbeats, indie pop and garage rock…

For hip-hop purists, Common and Kanye West’s collaboration on Be is akin to the genre’s prodigal son meeting King Midas on his road to redemption. A succession of mid-’90s classics — 1994’s Resurrection and 1997’s One Day It’ll All Make Sense — established Common as one of the most talented…

If faceless label hawks had penned its script, Weezer would have recorded Make Believe as a followup to its 1994 self-titled debut (aka the “Blue Album”). That way, Pinkerton wouldn’t have seemed like such a vast departure, and the suits would have had their highly sought-after summer-radio hits. But Weezer…

Trent Reznor may come off like someone who doesn’t give a damn about stardom, but guess what? He wants to sell records. Lots of them. His last studio set, 1999’s The Fragile, was an ambitious effort that didn’t set either the nation’s cash registers or his supporters’ imaginations ablaze. Teeth,…

Since articles about dance punksters such as Franz Ferdinand that don’t include a Gang of Four reference are rarer than Nobel laureates at a Carrot Top concert, the timing of this deluxe reissue is ideal. Not only does Entertainment! hold up better than anyone might have predicted upon the disc’s…

Topping Go Slowly All the Way Round the Outside, Blusom’s excellent 2003 debut, would have been damn near impossible — and wisely, partners Mike Behrenhausen and Jaime White, known as Jme, don’t even try. Instead, they use their sophomore disc as an opportunity to further develop their beguiling blend of…

An anachronism but no mere mimic, Eddie Clendening fills the bill of ’50s-era teen idol a half-century after Elvis got his big break. Clendening’s full-length debut, The Rage of the Teen-Age, features the youthful frontman backed by three separate combos (including Deke Dickerson on three tracks), strumming a mean rhythm…

Van Halen, ELP and Hella never knew they had that much in common — that is, until Darediablo. The Gotham trio of drummer Chad Royce, keyboardist Matt Holford and guitarist/bassist Jake Garcia have been kicking up an instrumental din for six years now, jabbing shards of metal and jazz sideways…