Dr. John, AKA Mac Rebenack, has undergone a number of incarnations in a career that spans nearly 50 years, from the acid-tinged voodoo of his Night Tripper persona to his role as one of New Orleans’ most revered champions of American musical tradition. After several outstanding albums elaborating on the…
Those who remember the glory days of grunge might recall Mark Pickerel as the drummer for Screaming Trees. He’s traded (in part) his drum kit for guitar and lead microphone and signed with Bloodshot, one of the primo outfits for alt-Americana. But any assumptions that he’s “gone country” are swept…
Over the past 30 years or so, Alan Parsons has created a reliable musical brand by recruiting the talents of high-profile contributors and presiding over the proceedings with his name on the marquee. Valid Path follows the same formula, even as it marks Parsons’ continued transition from old school to…
Dr. Mooch (AKA Muchanza Akapelwa) was born in Zambia, post-independence, and has written several books, the bulk of which are poetry and experimental fiction, most pressed on Minerva, a now-defunct vanity/subsidy publisher from Britain. Now, with this self-proclaimed comeback album, the Broward-based vocalist offers a mix of light dub-reggae and…
Are you rabid for Rancid? Craving the Clash? Or, perhaps, sick for some Social Distortion? Do the Circle Jerks yank your chain? If you answered yes to any of the above, grab your golf cap and chain wallet, because it’s time for Time Again. On its debut album for Hellcat…
Electronic dance music in Fort Lauderdale has endured a lot, but through its trials and tribulations, the scene has emerged more mature than ever. Gone are the salad days, full of nightlong adventures, candy-coated pills, and endless debauchery. Back are the restless beats and dance-party enthusiasms that built a diehard…
All right, all right… it’s true. Wayne “The Train” Hancock’s voice sounds more than a smidge like Hank Williams’ (maybe that’s why Hank III is such a fan). But the truth of the matter is, the critics who have at times suggested Hancock’s little more than a Williams imitator don’t…
Martin County isn’t the sort of place where you’d expect to find a hotbed of post-jazz musical innovation. But don’t tell that to the Stuart trio of Alan Martinke, Billy Gilmore, and Jessiah Weston, collectively known as Aquaphonics. Aquaphonics is first and foremost a jam band. It’s got a heavy…
In the beginning (meaning this past February), there was the ’50s Sock Hop Party at Maguire’s. Then came the ’60s Garage/Soul Party in April. Now, Low-Fidelity Events brings us another decade closer to the modern era with its ’77 Punk Pogo Dance Party. But the parade of leather jackets and…
Before he got down to the rhyme-spitting, J. Hexx had a little request for the audience. “I need your energy so I can get into character and take you to a far-out place,” he said, proudly displaying a T-shirt that read “Weapon of Mass Destruction.” Moving about in a semicircular…
Since rapper Timothy “Gift of Gab” Parker and Xavier “DJ Chief Xcel” Mosely formed Blackalicious in 1987 while attending high school in Sacramento, California, the duo has persevered through one hip-hop generation to another. The two have seen musical tastes change from the trendy youth culture of the late ’80s…
It’s around 2 o’clock on a Friday afternoon, and Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy and Micah Calabrese are relaxing in their home away from home, which happens to be the back of a rental van. The Los Angeles-based duo has just begun its latest U.S. tour and is en route from…
No wonder that SSM goes with an abbreviation of its actual name, the tongue twister Szymanski Shettler Morris. Despite the Detroit band’s pedigree — including members of the Hentchman, the Sights, and the Cyril Lords — bluesy garage rock is more of a starting point for SSM than a final…
Lansing-Dreiden, a New York-via-Miami art collective best-known for its avant-garde inclinations, demonstrated a rare accessibility when it released its first full-length record in 2004. Divided into three sections, the surprisingly song-based The Incomplete Triangle showcased the breadth of L-D’s talent — from driving metal to gauzy shoegaze to New Orderish…
When Kamal “Radioinactive” de Iruretagoyena lets loose with a compressed rush of goobledygook here — see “Refrigerator” or “Trouble” — it’s difficult to understand why this Los Angeles-based MC/producer hasn’t yet managed to break out of the backpacker scene that’s home to the anti-con contingent and its malcontented fellow travelers…
An avant-garde effort by two disparate bands trying to bridge the expanse between experimental jazz and neoclassical composition, The Nitrate Hymnal is odd yet ambitious. Punk veterans the Gena Rowlands Band and fusion cooperative Anti-Social Music have pooled their ambitions to create a sparse, idealized narrative about an old woman…
When you throw the new Rayko/KRB release Six in the old stereo, the first thing that comes to mind is the halcyon days of the 1990s — rolling out with your homies, scoping for hotties, rocking out to Sublime, and likely packing that pipe full o’ weed. The mix of…
It’s been a rough couple of years for Delaware emo-core stalwarts Boy Sets Fire. Since the release of the band’s major-label debut, 2003’s Tomorrow Come Today, the quintet has lost a bass player and a record deal. With a new lineup and a return to indieville, you’d think it would…
When Wormhole Wednesdays at the Lounge ended its two-year run last December, West Palm Beach’s indie dance scene seemed to be on the ropes. But it turns out Wormhole fans merely had to move the party to the other side of Clematis Street for Television Club Thursdays at Respectable’s. Television…
It’s melodic, it’s anthemic, it’s smart, it’s louder than hell: It’s the new heavy metal, and Pelican is one of its foremost purveyors. Formed in the early ’00s from the ashes of Tusk, another acclaimed, high-volume project, the Chicago quartet fuses sprawling, low-end drone with wickedly interwoven guitar parts and…
L.A. Guns frontmen come and go like participants in a gang-bang. After longtime vocalist Phil Lewis left the group in the mid-’90s, Chris Van Dahl stepped in to handle microphone duty. Then came Ralph Saenz. Then Jizzy Pearl. And then, at the start of the new millennium, the Guns went…
