On its sophomore album, this punkish U.K. band shows that artistic maturation can be a good thing. The Futureheads kept all the solid power riffs, drums, and bass lines but added a few bells and whistles — claps, shakers, Beach Boys-styled harmonies, and thought-provoking lyrics. That’s not to say the…
The two new songs on this “best of” disc are as forgettable as they are just fine; “Message to the Boys” and “Pool and Dive” neither celebrate nor tarnish the lovable losers’ legacy. And as much as the fan wants to cheer the reunion that really wasn’t (Chris Mars isn’t…
Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin gets old-timey on Cold as the Clay, an unplugged sophomore solo LP that mixes original songs with similar Deadwood-era tunes like the finger-picked murder-hoedown “Little Sadie.” Graffin plays traditional music as convincingly as he handles punk. He’s no Mike Ness, though the disc will probably…
Released on 6/6/6, Slayer’s Eternal Pyre EP is available exclusively at Hot Topic, which may seem like the surest sign of the Apocalypse yet. Slayer is the greatest thrash band, but guitarist Kerry King has a clothing line, so one commercial concession is excusable every 24 years or so. However,…
Finally. After years of proving their worth on many a local stage, Palm Beach County’s Freakin Hott have taken their tunes to disc; the wait was well worth it. The trio’s brand of raw, guitar-driven, male-female-sung rock loses nothing in this studio translation. If anything, the fact that you can…
It was 2:20 on a Saturday afternoon in downtown Miami. A bluish-gray blanket of clouds covered Bicentennial Park. It was only a matter of time before this year’s Warped Tour became yet another run-for-cover rain dance. That’s probably why the kid out front was so damned pushy about hawking his…
2001 was a pivotal time for neo-soul music. The genre had begun a resurgence aimed at a younger generation. And from that resurgence emerged a new name, Atlanta’s India.Arie. She was part of the driving force that touted an earthier, more bohemian view of life. And after just two albums…
Colonel J.D. Wilkes is high-tailing it through Mississippi, drifting in and out of currents of reception as his 15-passenger van dips in and out of gullies on its way to Hattiesburg. That’s where his band — known variously as The, Those, and Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers — is set to…
Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell have been down the reinvention road before. Back when they were the core of the British shoegaze group Slowdive, the pair concluded that the noisy, swirling sound they’d helped advance was a creative dead end, and they’d better try something different. The result? 1995’s much-maligned…
The former Squirrel Nut Zippers vocalist trades in her cabaret for lounge on Dirty Little Secret, distancing herself from the old-fashioned jump blues and jazz swing of her old outfit. While Whalen’s wonderful voice would be winning in just about any band, David Sale’s rich, varied production transposes it into…
In an age of bands with awkwardly long monikers, finally, here’s a band whose name captures its sound and attitude — the Dead Hookers’ Bridge Club. For all its glitz and schmaltz, South Florida’s dirty underbelly is just plain old dirty, but hell, there are pearls in the swine. And…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
