Those who think that pop-music junkies represent music fandom’s lowest-common denominator should read the comments left on iTunes about Avril Lavigne’s cheerleader-chant-from-hell single “Girlfriend.” Namely, this astute one: “The Avril I looked up to was her own person, and proud of it. She wasn’t afraid to act like herself, and…
It’s not strange that Prodigy of the duo Mobb Deep’s second solo release, Return of the Mac, is a gritty, New York-centric quest to maintain order in an increasingly hip-pop driven world. What is surprising is that, after signing on with 50 Cent’s crumbling G-Unit empire and dropping the watered-down…
Forget the Foo Fighters — the true champ when it comes to blending melody and mayhem is a tumultuous trio known as Dinosaur Jr. These prototypical hardcore heroes were making heads bop and torsos flail back when Dave Grohl was still taking his cues from Kurt Cobain. The group’s bassist,…
So how does a vaguely punk-oriented band, bred in the usual circuit of grungy clubs, adapt to platinum-sales and an arena tour? On Sunday night at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, warning signs taped to the entrance doors offered a clue: “Tonight’s performance includes the use of pyrotechnics and strobe…
Local MC Wrekonize has recently dropped his latest mixtape, Elevator Music, and it’s so far one of the strongest hip-hop releases of the year. That’s not exclusive to independent artists, as the tracks on Elevator Music are solid enough to compete with anything put out by a major record label…
The new CD by Phoenix-based industrial metal band the Iris sounds like a sonic blueprint for a band that’s finding its sound and getting hotter by the minute. But the blueprint isn’t new — Marilyn Manson, Deftones, and a dozen other bands drew it. What’s great about The Vanity Fair…
There’s a natural tendency to dislike anything that comes out of Orange County, California. Known for its rich residents and terrible TV shows of the same name, the O.C., with all of its glitz and glamour, isn’t a place that evokes much sympathy. Down-to-Earth music lovers probably wouldn’t expect to…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a group that makes more overt concessions to pop than Texas-based four-piece Bowling for Soup. That said, you’d also have a difficult time finding a band with as much panache and flair. The group specializes in crafting harmonized pop-punk ballads that are carefully put together…
Stepping into Steel’s Video Lounge on a Wednesday night is something like time travel. Visitors are whisked suddenly and violently back to the dirty, funny, halcyon (and Halcyon-gobbling) days of the gay community, when raunch was right and Castro clones made Marx mustaches sexy. Improbable acts involving small intestines and…
For those of you still shaking your heads in dismay at the botched Supremes reunion tour in 2000, here’s your chance for catharsis. Diana Ross is headed back to South Florida to put on a new solo show — though chances are she’ll be unabashedly pulling from her long line…
With machines replacing instruments and songs manufactured on an assembly line, it’s hard to find the soul in music nowadays. But there was a time when bands boomed with rich brass and singers gained notoriety for their talent without having to compete on a TV show first. That era, known…
As singer for namesake L.A. fusion metal band Otep as well as a self-published poet, Otep Shamaya very much views herself as a serious artist and Otep’s music as serious art. Most of the band’s fervent fans, with whom Otep interacts extensively online, agree with that idea. And right now,…
Back in early 2003, the Killers were just another name littered in the demo piles of A&R departments across the country. Few people in the music industry knew much about the Las Vegas-based rock group or if it would amount to anything beyond being a four-man band with a heap…
A remastered reissue of an out-of-print underground hip-hop classic, Ruff Draft is the late, great J Dilla at a creative apex. It took him a week to turn the whole thing out, but that was more than enough time to unleash a maelstrom of lo-fi breakbeat jams that paid tribute…
After a six-year recording hiatus, Redman returns to the mic with the engaging and stimulating, yet not particularly memorable, release of Red Gone Wild. Delayed and pushed back for more than a year while lodged on the proverbial Def Jam shelf, this album is plagued by the same poor promotion…
Sharon Stone makes another movie, bands of the 1978-1982 epoch reunite, technology advances, trans fats are banned — yet the Fall perseveres, with Mark E. Smith the sole remaining founding member. Tart-tongued leader Smith still rants like he’s got the world’s number, though portions of Reformation find phone-it-in weariness creeping…
Warning: This will hurt, but kindly access your memory banks and retrieve two commercials: “Seagram’s golden wine coooolers/They’re wet and they’re dry/My My My” and that heinous Chili’s bit — not the faux doo-wop tune but the smoky blues number — “Chili’s… baby back riiiiiiibs…” Got ’em? Good — because…
Mixtape hip-hop is starting to get old. Most of the people putting out mixtapes don’t realize that these de facto compilation albums used to be tools of the trade for DJs only. So it’s good to see real mix-masters like the folks at Feel Good Entertainment come out swinging on…
You’ll have to go to Albertsons to get it, but Smokey Robinson now has his own line of grocery products, aptly titled “Smokey Robinson Foods,” featuring select meals he’s fallen in love with while touring for the past 50 years. Sure, he’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy…
Southern California is home to a wide variety of music acts, but few are as strange as the Locust. The group has been around for more than a decade, making post-futuristic synthetic punk rock and breaking down barriers along the way. With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the quartet speeds…
It’s a familiar story in the music business: bright ideas, no money for studio time. A finished CD but no cash for distribution. Throw in just the notion of hiring a publicist to help push the finished product and the outlook is bleak. The dilemma cuts across the board. Label…
These days, East Coast indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have appeared everywhere from The Late Show with David Letterman to tons of glossy music magazines while trying to become the next big act to take over rock music. It’s a success story worth mentioning, as the band managed…
