This Kansas City MC claims he isn’t a mix-tape guy. But you’d never know that from The Nu, a compilation of borrowed-beat tracks put together by a slew of mostly other KC producers (Nezbeat, Johnny Quest, etc.), beat-matched and mixed live in one session by Approach’s turntablist partner, DJ Sku…
One of the best world-music albums this year was made on American soil — though the guy who made it, San Francisco’s Sila, is a Kenyan expatriate. On his debut album with the AfroFunk Experience, Sila draws from a wide variety of influences like Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, and Fela…
So it looks like the Buzzcocks are spending some extra time in South Florida. After playing last Saturday’s Warped Tour concert in Miami, the Brit punk pioneers are ready for round two this Sunday, when they hook up with Little Steven’s Underground Garage Tour. It may seem an odd gig…
With a name like Clit 45, there’s probably not much chance this group of beer-swilling street punks will be on Total Request Live anytime soon. Blink-182 they’re not. Not that Clit 45 cares, mind you. These Long Beach, California, natives couldn’t give two shits about winning over the squeaky-clean pop-punk…
The mid-’90s punk rock scene in South Florida had some good moments — legendary moments of alcoholic excess and guitar-driven debauchery. But like all good things, those moments slowly faded with venues disappearing and local players aging into their other responsibilities. At the time, the Basicks billed themselves as “Miami’s…
All right, so after last week’s rueful column about the state of West Palm Beach (“Clematis Street Blues”), it’s time for an about-face. That’s not to say the city turned into a musical metropolis overnight; that just can’t happen. But the first step, this weekend’s debut of Soulfull Saturday at…
It all started when Mike Goede was 14 and charged his friends $5 a pop to see local bands play in his parents’ garage. Now, 30 years later, Mr. G has done what every kid dreams of — opened a serious rock bar. With Clematis Street barely twitching anymore, Goede…
The Vans Warped Tour, the original punk-rock summer camp, celebrates its 12th birthday this summer. That’s a dozen years — as long as many Warped fans have been alive. When the tour debuted in 1994, punk’s incursion into the mainstream was just starting; most thought it’d be a passing trend…
The Rev. Jeff Mosier dreads playing the role of bandleader. After all, as the banjoist, songwriter, and founder of Blueground Undergrass, Mosier’s busy enough doing his own thing. Besides, his bandmates easily carry their own weight; they’re quite capable of defining their own musical identity, thank you very much. “You…
The Hush Sound’s guitarist and co-lead vocalist, Bob Morris, has his hands full. His band is set to perform with Panic! At the Disco, his mother won’t stop ringing him (she’s in line outside, confused by how to collect her ticket), and, oh yeah, there’s this interview to contend with…
Alejandro Escovedo hasn’t had it easy — his first wife committed suicide; his excellent, critically praised discs haven’t set any charts afire; and he battled a recent bout of hepatitis without the support of health insurance. With that in mind, one might expect his first release since 2002’s By the…
Lachey and Angel are members of an especially creepy brotherhood: They’re both ex-boy-banders who opened their lives to reality-TV cameras in the name of career advancement. Still, their discs are poles apart. Lachey’s CD is the equivalent of a tear-jerking Lifetime movie, while Angel’s largely eschews tearful sentimentality in favor…
This intended side project of the legendary instrumentalist-experimentalist collective began as the soundtrack for a real film these rapacious Belgian-Californian sound collectors are making about the Bardo, the Paris hotel where Brion Gysin and William Burroughs pioneered their cut-up/fold-in writing techniques. But listeners new to Tuxedomoon’s Carnivale-esque whirl of found…
It’s been almost four years since Doorway 27 dropped its last album, Doorway 27, a slick mix of Alien Ant Farm, Incubus, and Sublime. The difference is noticeable. On its fourth album, The Rescue Effect, Doorway 27 delves into a softer and more commercially viable sound. Along the way, the…
The music biz used to be full of guys like Edwin McCain — journeyman rockers who sold just enough records to keep the suits happy while reliably filling medium-sized venues; their stars don’t shine much outside the world of meat-and-potatoes rock. Much like his hometown buddies Hootie and the Blowfish,…
If Alice Cooper is rock ‘n’ roll’s Vincent Price and Randy Newman its Jonathan Swift, then Webb Wilder is a combination of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Think about it — Dino was a confident stylist who didn’t take himself too seriously; Lewis was unpredictable and over-the-top. That’s Wilder all…
Now that’s what I’m talking about — an album title that gets to the point. Thing is, Cex (the perpetually transforming solo project/group/something helmed by Rjyan Kidwell) misleads: Actual Fucking’s toned-down slew of breakbeats, synths, and poppy guitar melodies sounds more like sonic foreplay than Kidwell’s former albums, which previously…
There’s nothing drummers fear more than a broken arm. A stubbed toe they can deal with, but overall, damaged feet can still keep the beat. Unless, of course, you’re in a band like Tilly and the Wall. There’s no drum kit for these five Nebraskans, only a pair of tap-dancing…
You know what they say: Lesh is more. Or is it, “Bass great, Lesh Philling?” Whatever — you could probably care Lesh. But unLesh you’ve been living inside a VW microbus for the past 40 years — actually, because you’ve been living inside a VW microbus for the past 40…
June 16, 1995, was like any other Friday night for an 18-year-old Fats: loafing around Clematis Street with my other underaged punk-rock pals, the brothers Wallerstein and the perpetually messed-up Jason Compton. Yes, I used to be a member of the 561. I know the pains of Palm Beach County…
One Scene United and Culture Productions are on a mission — to bring back the glory days of the Edge, the long-defunct club now known as Revolution. Well, they’ve got the right venue onboard (that would be Revolution). And this Saturday, a former Edge DJ makes his return — Rich…
Like thoroughbred horses, industrial music has only a handful of forebears, so when the Big Three — Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and Front Line Assembly — seemed to be calling it quits or, at the very least, falling off around 1995, the future looked even darker than normal for the genre’s…
