The departure of a performer as strong as Jason Isbell, who went solo last year, would cripple most bands — but not Drive-By Truckers. The group has rolled on for a decade-plus despite personnel changes because songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley continue to share shifts behind the wheel. Thanks…
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 buy all the…
Retro soul’s got to be damn fine to justify its existence, since the stuff it’s modeled on is readily available for listening pleasure to anyone with a computer and access to Rhapsody, iTunes, or any number of re-issue catalogues. Fortunately, the latest from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings qualifies as…
So much about Coheed and Cambria’s work cries out for ridicule: the ’70s-art-rock-derived instrumental wankery, the skyscraping, get-your-Geddy-on vocals… Somehow, though, the act’s fourth album, No World for Tomorrow, works in spite of itself. World represents the final chapter of The Amory Wars, the epic tale of Claudio Kilgannon, who…
It’s lucky for Kid Rock that he’s an egomaniacal dipshit, because otherwise his music would be about as memorable as a Molly Hatchet eight-track sans “Flirting With Disaster.” Still, the former Mr. Pamela Anderson’s good-humored salutes to his own cocksmanship, not to mention his skill at Xeroxing classic boogie, can’t…
Magic is being hyped as Springsteen’s rocking return to his classic period, and that’s understandable: The album contains lots of familiar musical totems, not to mention lyrics about driving a highway until the road turns black and about a diner on the edge of town (bet it’s dark there). But…
Given the advances in digital studio equipment, cutting an album in analog can be both more difficult and more expensive than using readily available modern gear. Ben Harper preferred the old-school experience, however, so he and his band laid down Lifeline fast and dirty using a 16-track console. The results…
The good news: Slash’s photo appeared on the August 9 cover of Rolling Stone just as his current band, Velvet Revolver, was releasing a new CD, Libertad. The bad news: The image pictured him with Guns N’ Roses, whose most famous album, Appetite for Destruction, hit stores 20 years ago…
Jenny Lewis may like the critical cred that came with recording for indies such as Saddle Creek, but the former child actress (she survived Camp Beverly Hills) clearly wants some adult stardom to pair with the kiddie kind. Blacklight, Rilo Kiley’s first official CD for Warner Bros., is a blatantly…
In all the hoopla over the influence of ’60s and ’70s art rock on some of today’s most interesting bands, one salient fact is frequently overlooked: A lot of that stuff blew. For every Roxy Music and King Crimson, there was a Yes or an Emerson, Lake & Palmer (plus…
Unlike many of his rap contemporaries, Lonnie Rashid “Common” Lynn Jr. has matured artistically — but he did have a head start. When he released his Can I Borrow a Dollar? debut in 1992 under the name Common Sense, he was already sage beyond his age. Finding Forever continues this…
As with Contraband, the first Velvet Revolver CD, Libertad is an amalgam of its influences: some good (Guns N’ Roses), others less so (Stone Temple Pilots). Still, the unregenerate retro-ness of the project — and of Slash’s axing in general — will leave those with a taste for cock rock…
“I write my life as it progresses, as it gets worse — whatever,” says Aaron Yates, under his nom de plume Tech N9ne. “I’m like a fan inside this cat called Tech N9ne who writes this crazy stuff. I’m just waiting to see what the beats are going to bring…
Straight outta Belton, Texas, Flyleaf is a teen-angst quintet that aims to inspire through depression. Lead singer Lacey Mosley’s lyrics are rooted in her hardscrabble upbringing and early addiction issues, but rather than simply recap her personal tragedies, she infuses them with upbeat messages. “Fully Alive,” from the band’s self-titled…
Alright is a love-loathe proposition. Plenty of listeners will be enchanted by Allen’s defiantly casual singing, cool-girl vocabulary, and taste for hybrid pop, while others are sure to find these attributes irritating to the extreme. As for the MySpace phenom in the spotlight, she doesn’t appear to care what reaction…
Jazz and hip-hop once constituted a popular combination thanks to the likes of Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest. And while the mainstream has seemingly lost its taste for the blend, there’s plenty of flavor left in it — at least when Future Jazz Project is plugged in. The…
Every syllable Tupac Shakur uttered near a microphone constitutes a potential sample, and a decade after he hit the grave, his estate’s caretakers are still finding ways to turn old recordings into “new” songs. But while the latest posthumous Shakur disc should enhance his brand, it diminishes his legacy by…
The Game rose to fame with help from Dr. Dre, who godfathered 2005’s The Documentary, a smash that featured cameos by 50 Cent. But a feud with 50 was followed by the sudden end of the Game’s label deal — a split that indicates with whom Dre sided. As a…
Phish lovers and Phish haters will react differently to Colorado ’88 (available at www.jemprecords.com). The first group is sure to be thrilled by these three literally jam-packed CDs from the combo’s early period, while folks in the latter category are guaranteed to think the set is more masturbatory than a…
Cleverness can turn unctuous at any given moment, which makes Greg “Soapy Argyle” Hill’s decision to build a band on that quality seem dangerous indeed. Somehow, though, Six Months to Live, Hill’s latest project, maintains its balance throughout this entertaining five-song preview of a long-player expected next year. “Eiffel Tower…
The thinking-man’s-metal tag that hangs on Isis seems bad for business, but guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner and his comrades don’t appear to mind. After all, the jacket of their new CD includes the quote “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” that inspired the album’s title, as well as a quasi-footnote conceding…
Gerard Way offers his critics plenty to ridicule on the latest MCR CD, including unbridled theatricality, more classic-rock nods than even Lenny Kravitz, and the sort of show-biz shamelessness that hipsters consider terminally uncool. Yet the garish over-the-topness of the entire twisted enterprise is precisely why this disc is so…
