Although Paul Westerberg has always been fond of breaking out Replacements chestnuts live, he seems to be softening the anti-‘Mats stance he often takes on studio-based projects. Witness the two better-than-they-had-any-right-to-be songs recorded for this year’s Replacements best-of collection and the eight tunes he contributed to the soundtrack of the…
Mayday!’s self-titled debut is one of this year’s pleasant surprises. Plex’s early production work for Miami groups like Algorithm and Spirit Agent were simple blue beats that sounded like bedroom soliloquies. In contrast, Mayday! is vivid and colorful, with sounds that range from the hard organ crush of “Watchin’ Me”…
So I checked my mailbox the other week and found a package from one BradLeo Fabian, postmarked with a Fort Lauderdale address. The last I’d heard from this guy, he was living in Orlando, playing in a band called BradLeo and the Heartstoppers (and before that, the Consumers). I’ve seen…
This is not an album that will translate into catchy ringtones or make you bounce in your car seat, bang your head, shake your booty with friends, or write angry/gushy diary entries about your recent ex. Listeners have to sit down and spend some time with it, because the music’s…
Inside the Tamarac home of Death Becomes You’s John Janos and Christopher Lee, the living-room wall is lined with many a horror flick poster — Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Mummy. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from the group of theatrical horror-rockers. But the…
Twenty years ago, the goth-pop tendencies of Chicago’s Kill Hannah would have landed them squarely in MTV’s alternative-rock buzz bin. The evidence? Look no further than the cover of the Church’s “Under the Milky Way” on Kill Hannah’s latest album, Until There’s Nothing Left of Us. But it’s not 20…
Here’s a group of girls who look like they’re dressed for a slutty, gender-bending slumber party. In the song “Titties,” lead singer Kristin Allen-Zito asks, “What makes you think we can fuck, just because you put your tongue in my mouth and twisted my titties, baby?” But the Trucks aren’t…
Evidently, the Walkmen recorded Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen as a spontaneous sendoff to their Brooklyn studio, its building having been slated for demolition. To that we say, who cares? With the exception of a few songs off its past two albums (“The Rat,” “Louisiana,” etc.), Pussy Cats is the…
In retrospect, it’s easy realizing Carlos Santana is one of the most influential guitarists of the post-Woodstock era. With the band bearing his name, Santana emerged from the same fertile Bay Area hippie-rock scene as the Grateful Dead. His singular blending of psychedelic rock, blues, cutting-edge jazz (à la Coltrane,…
For those unfamiliar with the latest wave of post-rock doom metal, here’s a quick debriefing: Imagine slowed-down Black Sabbath riffs with all the drama of an orchestra, more power than melody, and completely drenched in tube-driven thickness. It’s in this realm that South Florida’s Coffin Dancer sounds off, adding its…
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…
It was bound to happen sooner or later. After months of onstage collaborations, the Friendly Fire and Pyrohypnotik camps have tied the knot — part of ’em, at least. Since Pyrohypnotik has been on hiatus, one-half of the group — drummer Rolls Royce and vocalist Jessi James — has all…
Shortly after Mötley Crüe embarked on its reunion tour with promises that it would go for two years nonstop, guitarist Mick Mars checked in with New Times. Given Mars’ health problems and constant physical pain (he recently had both hips replaced and has struggled with a degenerative illness for almost…
Is it overstatement to call American Hunger rap’s Blonde on Blonde? Perhaps it’s an understatement, considering that Dylan’s 1966 opus is a measly double album, while MF Grimm’s new triple album has 60 songs! Grimm’s latest isn’t as lyrical as Blonde on Blonde — it shrilly tirades against racism, politicians,…
This doesn’t sound like a Willie Nelson record, and it doesn’t sound like a Ryan Adams record (though he produced it). I don’t know what it sounds like, to be honest, save for some show-offy mash-up that does less to pump up Shotgun Willie than shoot his legs out from…
Hmmm. Let’s see. Bay Area all-stars, check. Illmatic production, check. What’s not to love about Heroes in the City of Dope? From the intro, “Noon Time,” which interpolates Led Zep’s “No Quarter,” to the closer, “Badlands,” which mixes Yay Area slaps with exotic-sounding melodies, Heroes disproves the theorem that the…
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…
His band has just completed its first national tour, signed a major-label record deal with an RCA subsidiary (ATO Records), and earned some impressive plaudits from the likes of Rolling Stone. So the Whigs’ Parker Gispert might be forgiven for letting success go to his head. But the recent University…
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…
Pitbull’s newest CD includes lines like “Welcome to the real Miami/where we live to die.” Typical rapper throwdown boasts, yes, but that’s the only thing that’s typical about El Mariel. Cuban-American Pitbull mixes English and Spanish lyrics, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and hard-hitting hip-hop beats. El Mariel has several standout tunes, such…
Tom Waits cleans out the closet, holds a garage sale, and finds the crowd begging for more, more, more. Hence the 26 soundtrack/compilation/etc. familiars and 30 “new” songs that sound like all the old ones, spread over three discs that glibly and ably summarize the career thus far: “Brawlers” (or:…
In a region populated by alt-rockers, rappers, and an overabundance of like-minded cover combos, the Tunes and Tones’ homespun ramble and sway provides South Florida with a rare hint of an Americana attitude. Not that these four homeboys are big on down-home twang; aside from the backwoods strum of the…
