Here’s the problem with riding the ass-end of a musical wave where everything old is new again: The tide eventually comes in, and what was previously a tight refurbishment seems like trite regurgitation. Take London synthpop-rockers Boy Kill Boy — the band has a spacy ’80s sound reminiscent of Simple…
On the Guns ‘N Roses song “Nice Boys,” Axl howls that “Nice boys don’t play rock ‘n’ roll.” He obviously hadn’t heard these Nice Boys. Still, the Portland-based band has little to do with GNR’s bad-boy aesthetic. The band, comprising ex-Exploding Hearts guitarist Terry Six and members of the Riffs…
The two-disc Gigantour DVD documents a 2005 heavy-metal tour that, in the words of visionary/headliner Dave Mustaine, was “for people who love the guitar solo.” In the documentary half, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy describes his technical-ecstasy band as “the Grateful Dead of heavy metal.” He’s right to a point,…
It’s a crowded field of pretty-girl thugettas trying to make a mark on the hip-hop world, but Jeannie Ortega might actually have a shot. With her debut release, No Place Like Bklyn, Ortega proves she’s more than just someone a producer tells, “Stand here, sing that.” She actually has a…
Hollywood’s Mr. Entertainment (Mr. E, for short) is known for his exuberant, sometimes bizarre, and always fun live performances. On Loiter, Mr. E’s revolving cast of musicians — known mostly as the Pookiesmackers — consists mainly of Mark Zolezzi (drums and vocals), Johnny Mahone (guitars and keyboards), and Brandon “B-dog”…
They looked like rock ‘n’ roll Vikings, what with their long red beards and even longer hair. Either that or an Appalachian motorcycle gang. But who spells Thor with two r’s? Apparently, Valient Thorr does. And it was the first clue I found that the rough-rolling rockers weren’t of Nordic…
Some listeners adore them, and some abhor them — but none can credibly deny that the Strokes have had a significant impact on this decade’s popular-music scene. Is This It, the outfit’s 2001 debut, arrived on a blast of hype powerful enough to blow open mainstream doors that had previously…
Keyboard-whiz Jamie Saft is among the current wave of jazz players who are every bit as influenced by Pink Floyd and Public Enemy as by Sonny Rollins and Herbie Hancock. Trouble finds Saft tipping his proverbial hat to Bob Dylan, distinctively interpreting selections from the bard’s copious catalog. With the…
Country-pop singer Pat Green earned himself lots of fans — and ridicule — with his unlikely Top Ten hit, “Wave on Wave.” What the hell was that song about? Water? Love? Sonic booms? Nobody ever knew. Anyway. Now Green is back with Cannonball, and there’s not a wave in sight…
On 2004’s Consider the Birds, Wovenhand’s David Eugene Edwards made the Old Testament new again via lyrics that doubled as fierce and unforgiving divination. This time around, his intentions are just as prophetic; the title may reference an artistic style, but it’s also an allusion to Moses. Musically, though, Mosaic…
The first thing you’ll notice when you crack open this disc is the colorful, baroque photo of Fallz’s main players, Aya Gruber and Brett Fisher. OK, maybe it’s the leggy Gruber you’ll notice, but either way, the group’s visual appeal is just the icing on this electro-rock layer cake. It’s…
On almost any given night at Alligator Alley (1321 E. Commercial Blvd., Oakland Park), you can find all manner of musicians kicking out the jams, whether it’s blues, funk, punk, or p-funk. On this Tuesday night, it was jazz. But after the band finished its first set, it was clear…
The first great tragedy of Sublime was the fatal heroin overdose of singer and guitarist Brad Nowell in 1996. The second great tragedy was the outpouring of compilations containing any smidgen of Sublime — demos, outtakes, bootlegs, live versions, remixes — regardless of how rehashed or half-assed. This double disc…
Call the Family Values Tour a nü-metal showcase if you must — it’s understandable. But remember: When Korn, Slipknot, and the Deftones spawned the genre, nü metal wasn’t the punch line to some rock critic’s joke. Though it has since become the most maligned movement since hair metal, nü metal’s…
It’s a few hours before showtime in Detroit, and Flogging Molly frontman Dave King is on the phone with New Times. He’s polite but a bit aloof — apparently not all that interested in answering questions from a nosy journalist. He’s road-weary, as his publicist says the next day. Fair…
In a world of vitamin-watered-down gangsta rappers with suburb-dwelling, soccer-mom fan bases, C-Bo is a tall can of Steel Reserve — far worse for your health but more potent and intoxicating. This is a man with combined record sales of 3 million who once said in an interview that he’d…
Even when Primal Scream didn’t match the creative heights reached by Screamadelica’s rave-worthy blissouts or the electro-punk of XTRMNTR, it never lacked self-confidence. After all, it coaxed (and kept) My Bloody Valentine’s reclusive Kevin Shields out of hibernation and had the courage to embrace sinewy dark-wave long before it was…
San Francisco’s über-punk trio Coachwhips is no more, but it knew enough to cap its career with the proverbial bang. Coachwhips approaches rock ‘n’ roll without any false notions of “sophistication” or “professionalism.” If you’ve ever liked the Cramps or the Fall but thought they were just too slick or…
The King of the dirty rhyme, that slick crooner of the parody, is back. Following the funk hits of Fahrenheit 69 comes Blowfly’s Punk Rock Party. It’s a win-win situation. Nothing spells fun like punk-rock standards being run through the filter of Blowfly’s twisted sexual humor. Take the Ramones’ “I…
It was Labor Day morning, and I was labored out (Fats-speak for “I didn’t feel like lifting an arm”). Either way, I did little more than read my e-mail and MySpace account for any last-minute goings-on I might want to check out. After denying the tenth friend request from a…
When the purveyors of pop culture want to know who’ll be hot the next year, they usually look to the dubious cast of characters known as experts. But that title gets thrown around like dollar bills at a strip club. The chance that they’ll be on the money is usually…
If we’re all caught under the penny loafer of Christian fascism sometime soon, the Thermals’ vision of a hectic dash for the Canadian border — one in which we’re pursued by evangelical thought police — will be vindicated. As it is, The Body, the Blood, the Machine comes off as…
