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…
Despite the fact that Jennifer O’Connor has been likened to songwriters like Liz Phair and Elliot Smith, such comparisons don’t say anything about O’Connor’s melodic sensibilities or her ability to spin a phrase. Sure, O’Connor has a tendency to spew some venom on occasion. And true, she does anchor her…
The hardest part about being an aspiring musician — aside from finding a garage to practice in — may be getting your start. Self-made local producer DJ Scoobz knows that as well as anyone. He’s spun his way into heavy rotation at a handful of clubs and started his own…
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…
A Tribe Called Quest’s abstract and socially conscious lyrics over silky-smooth jazz arrangements played well with the college crowd, earning the Tribe a cult following in the mid-’80s through the late-’90s. And now the influential hip-hop trio is back for its first tour in six years. The Tribe’s Phife Dawg…
You think Courtney Love is a badass? Even at her most unlady-like TV moments, she’s like Miss Manners compared to the girls in Orlando’s Jeanie and the Tits — Jean Smegma, Mary Mammary, Yochi Yeast, and Kristin Klamydia. Then again, coming from the same scene that spawned many a rowdy…
There are plenty of bald white dudes still plugging away in the music biz long past their artistic and commercial prime: Michael Stipe, Moby, Scott Ian… and Aaron Lewis. It’s a fairly safe bet that Lewis’ band, Staind, will never again enjoy the sales or status that 2001’s Break the…
Concerts always end on a depressing note for me. The big finale over, the lights come on, and attendees shuffle to their cars without speaking because the ringing in their ears is deafening. The lightweights are stressed about getting to work at 8 a.m., but some of us are far…
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…
From the opening horn-driven punch to guitarist/vocalist Brandon Tarricone’s closing yelp, Brotherhood of Groove’s exclamatory “Get Up” is an immediate, hook-laden shot of funk that could inspire even the most deadbeat crowd to get its dance on. And it’s a good slice of what the New Orleans-based Brotherhood is about…
