Renda Writer’s personal motto, according to his website, is “pimp yourself.” It’s a constant theme throughout the 33 tracks on his second full-length, Eclectic Poetic, an album that is half hip-hop and half spoken word. Writer’s beat-backed tracks like “We’re All Connected” and “3:15 am” outshine the a cappella ones…
On the de facto title track of Ten Tiers’ latest, group leader Jonathan Tiersten sings about slipping “into the comforts of drunkenness” — an appropriate phrase, given the intriguingly woozy, off-kilter tenor of the EP as a whole. The disc stumbles at times but somehow manages to remain upright. Take…
There he sat center stage, his long, jagged beard hanging over his guitar, his sock-covered feet busy pedaling the kick drum and high hat. His cowboy boots were on the floor next to him, his railroad conductor’s hat still on his head. Audience members danced to his upbeat, bluesy twang…
It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Monday — not the most ideal time for a local band to be taking the stage. But even at this unrockly hour, the Freakin Hott is playing to a bigger audience than it would normally get at the average Friday-night bar gig. The Delray Beach-based…
In 1978, England’s unemployment soared to new heights as railroad and coal-mining strikes paralyzed the economy. Birmingham’s disenfranchised youth gathered at church dances where DJs played the latest Jamaican reggae and at blues dances throughout the city and at uptown clubs such as the Rainbow and the Mecca Ballroom. That…
Cut Chemist’s The Audience’s Listening could be from a time capsule buried in 1998, when epic instrumental albums like Return of the DJ and Q-Bert’s Wave Twisters were all the rage. And that’s a good thing. Unfairly maligned in recent years as a province of bedroom geeks disconnected from mainstream…
To paraphrase Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine: Peace sells, but who’s Brian? Even if Posehn’s name is unfamiliar, you’ll likely recognize the balding, heavyset, bespectacled comedian from Mr. Show and innumerable VH1 I Love the… specials. The pothead pop-culture pundit describes himself as a “stoned, angry-looking heavy-metal geek,” though he surprisingly has…
Golden Smog, a group featuring moonlighters from several rock and roots combos, has lingered for a long time, particularly by side-project standards. On Golden Smog, an amusingly sloppy EP, arrived circa 1992, with two enjoyable full-lengths following in 1995 and 1998. There’s been plenty of radio silence since then, but…
It’s only fitting that Pharrell Williams has finally jettisoned collaboration for a solo career. The hallmark of his six-year chart reign as half of the superproducer team the Neptunes has always been reduction, stripping down urban music to its essence. That genius remains on In My Mind — most definitively…
One of the finer punk-rock traditions, and certainly one that’s easy on the pockets, is the split album format. More than saving a little cash for the labels involved, it brings together similar bands from different parts of the world onto one slab. Such is the case with locals the…
On a recent Friday night, the Hideout (7200 N. Dixie Hwy., Boca Raton) was hosting Skafest 11, a showing of local bands that like to get down to the upbeat. I’d been meaning to check out the bar for a while, and Skafest seemed like as good a show as…
It’s the day before the release of Jurassic 5’s third, and much-anticipated, full-length album, Feedback. J5 producer/DJ Nu-Mark is on the phone with New Times, calling from the group’s home base of Los Angeles to explain the group’s current direction. “The last couple of records were about establishing the core…
Inventing punk was a dirty job. You had to make up new rules for the guitar, cram your hairy appendages into ladies’ pumps and lingerie, get hooked on hard drugs, and squeeze Howlin’ Wolf and the Shangri-Las into the same three-minute songs. That routine shortened the lives of two New…
Tom Petty is perpetually underrated. He debuted too late in pop music’s historical continuum to seem deserving of full classic-rocker status (although he’s certainly earned it by now) and came across like an apprentice rather than a peer when collaborating with the likes of Bob Dylan (a result of his…
Bored with genres? Then this is your album. Brooklyn three-piece Dub Trio contrasts quick, tight, guitar-driven metal with big, open patches of serene reggae beats and keyboards… and very few vocals. With bassist Stu Brooks, guitarist DP Holmes, and drummer Joe Tomino all doing double duty on keyboards and dubs,…
Derrick Plourde had been out of Lagwagon for nine years when he took his own life in March 2005. A founding ‘Wagoneer, Plourde kept the beat for the fast-paced, melodic punk band from 1988 until 1996, when he left to play in the Ataris. But when news of Plourde’s death…
Don’t limit BaSheBa Earth by calling her a rapper. The woman born Portia Davis is also a fashion designer and a performance artist, not to mention a lyricist with a lot more on her mind than the average rhymer. Mothership runs on consciousness, and thanks to Davis’ passion and commitment,…
Miami is hot and swampy — just like Consular’s hybrid of doom, sludge, and metal. Composed of former members of Waiting Theory, Kiss the Sun Goodbye, and iamthedevil, Consular’s sound draws heavily from the Neurosis/Melvins school of rock. Imagine extremely thick guitar riffs with tons of low end, cranked out…
For someone standing so close to the stage, this guy looked kind of bored. It was like he didn’t want to be there. Now, I’m used to seeing folded arms and stone faces at rock shows — even at a place like Maguire’s Hill 16 (535 N. Andrews Ave., Fort…
One decade and eight albums after its 1980 formation, long-running Australian combo the Church fell from American prominence just as quickly as it rose – not an unusual occurrence in pop music, sure. But Steve Kilbey, the band’s good-natured, 51-year-old frontman, offers a rather unique explanation. “The way I see…
In 2002, “My Neck, My Back,” Khia’s bass-heavy ode to oral pleasure, took over the urban airwaves. Despite the song’s explicit exhortations, it became an international mainstream hit for the young Tampa rapper (born Khia Finch). Her debut album, Thug Misses, sold 800,000 copies independently. Then the rumors began. First…
In the indie-rock canon, the Pacific Northwest gets its rep mostly from its Seattle and Olympia greats. But the best Pac-NW album of the year is just a ferry ride away from Seattle, and perhaps the short distance (and free Canadian health care) was all it took for Victoria, British…
