On Rock & Roll Is Dead, Sweden’s favorite sons of bitches come flying out of the gate with “Before the Fall,” a swell Chuck Berry-cum-MC5 ditty that harks back to the Hellacopters’ nitro-burning early daze. But the album quickly settles back into the arena pop of the past two CDs…
Sometimes this lofty pursuit of music journalism can be just as self-absorbed as the industry whose tail it chases. Case in point: the 33rd installment of the Village Voice’s annual Pazz and Jop critics’ poll, published last week (pazzandjop05). Seven hundred and ninety-five contributors from outlets across the country voted…
How many amazing soul musicians are stuck performing in wedding bands, answering to the whims of brides and grooms who wouldn’t know the difference if Aretha Franklin herself showed up for the gig, all because the music industry has its head up its ass? A lot, and a lot. We’re…
For several semesters now, Tortoise has served as the metaphorical grad assistant of indie rock. You know — the pale, aging guy who discusses deconstructionist paradigms for fun. So normally, rock critics, being overeducated in the ways of music and feeling a bit superior ourselves, would be all over Tortoise’s…
Oakland-based R&B singer Goapele spends plenty of time on her second album describing the indelible virtues of everlasting love. Example: “First Love,” a lush slow jam with fluttering electric guitar and tinkly Motown piano in which she flashes back “six days into spring where our story begins,” recounts her slow…
One’s 30th birthday is typically the staging ground for life crises and philosophical introspection, and Jenny Lewis’ own impending milestone has given birth to Rabbit Fur Coat, a quiet solo departure from the power pop of Lewis’ other band, Rilo Kiley. Backed by the literally named Watson Twins, Lewis abandons…
Mark my words: In the coming year, no fewer than three independent-label punk bands — at least one Nordic — will record sloppy versions of “Automatic,” Resolve’s amazing closing track. Moreover, the pressing substance of Resolve will inspire approximately 163 kids to clear boxes of wrapping paper out of the…
After years of stalking every bar, club, concert, and fetish party in Palm Beach County, regaling unsuspecting crowds with stream-of-semiconsciousness poetics, the guy formerly known as “just Timb” made the obvious move and rechristened himself with the U word. Chances are, you’ve seen this leather-wrapped, rainbow-tressed, living manga moppet, either…
It was a cool, peaceful night in Western Broward, patchy clouds parting to reveal a deep, star-speckled sky. A gator looked on with reptilian detachment from the shallow bog bordering a dusty clearing on the edge of the Everglades. About 40 people, teens and 20-somethings mostly, gathered here last week…
Dude’s kind of obnoxious, huh? I guess we get the superstars we deserve. Truth: I haven’t been able to take Em/Marshall/ Slim seriously even as a joke (always the most serious of literary forms; just ask David Mamet) since sitting through 8 Mile, which I was hoping would be fun…
Alt-country’s answer to Catch Me If You Can’s Frank Abagnale, Will Oldham has recorded under such pseudonyms as Palace Brothers, Pushkin, and Superwolf. Although his work under these names has gravitated toward 11th-hour Dust Bowl despair and acoustic minimalism, Oldham has spent much of the 21st Century loitering as the…
I’m not sure when it was that them compact disc doohickeys became the rage, but I do joyously remember when punk rock bands released kick-ass seven-inch vinyl records. South Florida at one point was a hub of seven-inch activity, with now sadly defunct record labels like Mike Borras’ Smooth Lips…
I’m not sure exactly what this means, but I know it’s true: The Avett Brothers make the kind of music you can believe in. My introduction to the hard-working North Carolina string trio was from its website (theavettbrothers.com) and the home-movie-quality video for “November Blue,” a ballad of love and…
The great thing about instrumental albums — good ones, anyway — is how the lack of vocals lets your imagination create sonic landscapes filled with whatever tripped-out imagery your substance-assisted brain can dream up. You don’t even have to be high to see the vast stillness of the Southwestern desert…
I hate the Grateful Dead. I’ve always hated the Grateful Dead. Numerous times over my lifetime, people have tried to get me to appreciate the band, with little success. The interminable solos, the dope-smoking-moron lyrics, the ridiculous ambient jams — I’d rather shove chopsticks up my pee hole than listen…
Of the many larger-than-life musical archetypes — standbys like the Preening Lead Singer, the Strung-out Axeman, the Hip-hop Hustler, and the Tortured Indie Outcast — perhaps none is as patently cool as the Globetrotting DJ. He’s a lone apostle of the beat, red-eyeing across continents with only a pair of…
Once you get past the sophomoric band name (heh heh, they said wood) and the junior high-level double-entendres — the single “Take Off Your Clothes” makes references to tits, and hits rocking hard — Morningwood is pretty darned irresistible. The New York City group’s oft-delayed full-length debut whirls in a…
Prince Paul might be the least commercially minded beatsmith in hip-hop to be afforded superproducer status. An old-school devotee still young enough to have helped widen hip-hop’s sonic palette during the now-mythologized late-’80s/early-’90s era, he’s often given credit for being the godfather of alt rap for his work on De…
After Jamie Foxx’s career-defining performance as Ray Charles, the most predictable move he could have made was to resume a musical career that has been dormant for the past decade. It’s also not surprising that Foxx would recruit several heavy-hitting friends — Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, and Ludacris among…
The biggest debates in rock music are about the great mimics. The Strokes outlasted comparisons to the Velvets, Coldplay somehow became bigger than Radiohead, and you can’t even speak the word Nirvana without thinking the word Pixies. So it’s understandable that one of the most refreshing groups to surface this…
The sheer longevity of “Japan’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band” (18 years!) is amazing enough, but consider that most who pursue such cacophony usually burn out immediately. For nearly two decades, Guitar Wolf has spewed a surprisingly consistent rock tornado mangled in that particularly Japanese way, all the while looking…
Direct from Beatcomber’s lips to your, um, eyes — Happy New Year! Here’s a toast to new beginnings! (Yeah, I’m drinking and typing. You gonna give me a TUI?) But there’s one question that keeps bouncing around my head like that unpardonable “Laffy Taffy” song. Why is the local music…
