Originally released in 1977, Cluster & Eno was produced by Conny Plank, the studio guru behind Neu!, Kraftwerk, Can, and many others. It’s one of those largely unsung works that surreptitiously infiltrate future generations’ musical output like a recessive gene. Cluster’s Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius had by this point…
As a pop-freak myth, Alex Chilton isn’t quite J.D. Salinger, but he’s close. Chilton broke up the spookily gorgeous pop band Big Star in 1975 and has been playing surly white R&B ever since, but here comes In Space, his first studio album with the reconstituted band, now including cosurvivor…
Warning: Do not play Better in your office unless the boss is gone and your shit’s done for the day. Franz Ferdinand’s follow-up to last year’s acclaimed, multiplat debut is like a double shot of hard liquor — once it kicks in, your whole outlook is deliciously skewed for the…
The German duo Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner began their Mouse on Mars partnership in Düsseldorf, raising inevitable Kraftwerk comparisons. Instead of aloof and inhuman, Mouse on Mars made its machines sound all soft and squishy. Live, the duo stayed hunched over their joysticks, pumping out loud ‘n’ groovy…
San Francisco has long been the bastion of slinky, soulful house music, and homegrown hero Miguel Migs is one of its biggest proponents. With a strong background in songwriting and performing, the Santa Cruz-born DJ fell into the NorCal dance community in the late ¹90s after a stint as guitarist…
One thing’s for sure: Trina’s Glamorest Life leaves no room for the blues. The songs on her third album are rife with tribulations, but Miami’s diamond princess remains completely nonplussed. When an unfaithful lover attempts to entangle the rapstress in tearful sentiments in “Here We Go,” the most heartache the…
Boston, a city that exports a thousand academics and financial advisers for every one Matt Damon, does not have style. The few oases of chi-chi glamour jammed into downtown are plagued by rumpled white men in old Brooks Brothers shirts. This is a classic-rock town, a place whose only stars…
Named for the Irvine Welsh book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance — a drug-infused collection of short stories more altered than life-altering — emo-lovin’ new wave punk-rockers My Chemical Romance aren’t known for being doe-eyed softies. Still, bassist Mikey Way took time out from his tour schedule to share…
“Playing after the Woggles is dangerous,” claims Professor Manfred “The Man” Jones, lead vocalist of the venerable Athens, Georgia, garage-dance band. But this isn’t a homeland-security issue — it’s more like a severely severe blow to the overinflated egos of lesser bands and imitators. Predating the Dirtbombs, the White Stripes,…
Miami’s march into the national indie-rock ranks continues with Baby Calendar. The locally loved trio balances twee-pop tendencies with unpredictable songwriting, occasionally aggressive guitar, and clever, pop-culture-cluttered lyrics. Composed of guitarist/vocalist Tom Gorrio, bassist/vocalist Jackie Biver, and drummer Arik Dayan, the band has been on the road, traveling through the…
Swooping down from the soggy Gulf Coast like a band of funky-ass angels is an all-star band that’s easily the most impressive collection of roots-rock and Americana talent this region’s seen in quite a while. Led by the deranged and dreadlocked Papa Mali, the group comprises North Floridians J.J. Grey…
As part of Factory Records’ biggest act of the ’80s, New Order bassist Peter Hook helped fund the Hacienda club in Manchester, the birthplace of Britain’s acid-house movement. Since then, he’s absorbed firsthand some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll/indie pop tunes of the past few decades. These days, he’s…
Sad news: Vidavox’s three-year run through Miami’s indie-rock scene has come to a stop. Keys and bass man Carlos Vega has moved to the tundra of Michigan to pursue a Ph.D in (gasp!) mathematics, leaving drummer Jim Miller and guitarists Chris Salazar and Arnaldo Gonzalez with an 11-track album to…
Other critics have proclaimed that despite their foot-stomping, banjo-busting jamborees, the Hackensaw Boys emit a raw, moonshined vigor closer to Dust Bowl punk rockers than to modern bluegrass revivalists. And (shocker!) they’re right — catch the Boys in concert and you won’t believe how quick you’ll be barefootin’ stagefront and…
Once an irresistibly goofy Brit-pop trio with ungainly mutton-chop sideburns, Supergrass has reached a point of maturity where it finally seems more interested in studying the menu than in making goo-goo eyes at the waitress. On their fifth full-length, Oxford’s retro-groovers have outgrown monosyllabic teen anthems to embrace the emotional…
When last seen as a duo in 2002, Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab had just dropped Blazing Arrow, one of the most accomplished hip-hop albums in recent memory. An ambitious and humane collection, filled with eclectic samples, sensitive live instrumentation, and interesting guests (Ben Harper, Gil Scott-Heron), it was…
Who doesn’t want to root for the solo outing of rock’s deadpan ghoul of ’80s cool? Nexterday’s opening track, “Crackpot,” with its pelvic, ground-down guitar and Ocasek’s trademark throat-caught strut, sounds damned near sexy, even with a respirator for its backing track. Sadly, that anthemic potential evaporates quickly and quietly…
For too long now, the “mall” punk aesthetic has reigned over a genre whose very definition rebels against the corporate America that has commercialized it and packaged it for the masses. Not that there aren’t some gems that occasionally appear, but punk rock is supposed to be the anthem of…
In the 1997 film The Apostle, Robert Duvall plays E.F., a charismatic Pentecostal preacher who travels across the South, hitting the radio waves and filling tents with his fiery brand of syncopated hallelujah preaching and stomping, wild-eyed histrionics, inspiring hand-clapping, ass-shaking, and great wailing incantations. Pocketbooks open, and the good…
The year was 1979. The sound was disco, and the place was Opal Studios, a Manhattan recording house located a few floors above the legendary Studio 54. Perched behind a massive synthesizer, a 25-year-old music-composition student named Gary Davis was working on a slick dance number he’d just written. Davis…
Glasgow, Scotland, is a well-respected center of music and culture, having birthed such native sons/daughters as Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, the Pastels, Bis, the Delgados, and Teenage Fanclub. None of these bands sound alike; the only thing they really have in common is critical acclaim and rabid cult followings. Where…
On a dark and stormy night last year, the creepiest band in America was burning bridges at one of the friendliest venues in Palm Beach County. A temporary ban from the Red Lion, two drummers, two bass players, and a new guitarist later, the Creepy T’s return to the scene…
