At what point, exactly, did you really begin to hate garage rock? When legions of wanna-be retro-rockers took over the airwaves? When ad agencies started tapping into “that hipster sound” to sell Subarus and Happy Meals? Or when you were at Guitar Center, cringing as some golf-shirted goober flubbed the riff to “Seven Nation Army” while his pals stood around…
Of the 7 trillion (and counting) members of the Wu Tang Clan, Method Man always has showed the most promise. From the get-go, the sandpaper-throated roughneck dazzled, with an exuberant flow and one head-spinning turn of phrase after another. His debut solo outing was a stunner, but Meth has never recovered from Tical 2000’s sophomore slump. After years of cameos…
Murray Street was Sonic Youth’s comeback bid. The 2002 album was a seven-sided diamond with a classic-rock structure that gave way to distorted feedback porn. The purposeful Street, which followed years of phoned-in underground nonsense (including the disastrously beatish NYC Ghosts & Flowers), was enough to bring any errant fan back into the fold. After that phenomenal work, merely being…
Any rock star worth his weight in groupies has to have a religious period. Dylan was born again on Slow Train Coming. Cat Stevens freaked out and changed his name to Usef Islam. Prince got Lovesexy with the Rainbow Children. And given that Lenny Kravitz has made a career out of imitating past greats, it’s no surprise that he finally…
Elvis Costello, that serial-collaborating load of middlebrow bloat, has failed to ruin Diana Krall, that impeccably tasteful piano-and-standards mood setter. In fact, The Girl in the Other Room — on which Costello shares credit for seven songs — finds Krall at a peak. Her transformation from diligent interpreter to semi-confessional singer-songwriter has resulted in material well worth the attention of…
Where does an industrial-noise innovator like Einstrzende Neubauten go after setting off one of the biggest klangkriegs in musical history? Why, it simply turns tempered angst inward and taps into its Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits veins. Nobody could maintain the intensity these wizened Germans harnessed throughout the ’80s and early ’90s. Witness what happened to the band’s kindred spirit…
Every few years, Morrissey releases a new solo album and the hype returns. A return to form. The best album he’s done since the Smiths. But after the propaganda settles, it becomes painfully clear that the Mozzer will never top his former band. During the ’90s, Morrissey issued a string of dodgy efforts that rankled even the crooner’s staunchest supporters….
I felt like a pedophile. And the lead singer for Dashboard Confessional was to blame. He was the tattooed Tarzan swinging on the heartstrings of many a high school Jane, yet I was the one who had to deal with the repercussions. Namely, being stuck in the swarm of half-naked high schoolers bused in from suburbia last Thursday. The City…
Just because vocalist Jimmy Gestapo is the sole remaining original member of Murphy’s Law doesn’t mean the band isn’t still entertaining. Gestapo’s fresh-faced bandmates seem to have a firm grip on the rousing punk tunes executed with the heart of the Ramones and the tightness of a metal band — exactly what made Murphy’s Law a hardcore institution to…
Kenny Chesney is billed as a country superstar, replete with cowboy hat, skintight Wranglers and hunky good looks, but he really longs to be the genre’s Jimmy Buffett. Chesney’s early efforts fit nicely into the Alan Jackson mold, but the former marketing student’s latter-day material is located smack-dab in the heart of Margaritaville. Once subtle island yearnings became overt with…
Dumb one-word names, tats everywhere, heavy guitars, barked lyrics, dreadlocks. We’re talking about Korn, right? Sure, but that description also sums up San Diego’s P.O.D. , a subliminally spiritual quartet whose metallic rock leans more toward Limp Bizkit than it does Stryper. P.O.D. does produce driving anthems that match Korn’s intensity without emulating that band’s thudding doom. And even though…
Quick show of hands — who thinks that, if he were alive today, Charlie Parker would be contentedly rehashing “Scrapple From the Apple” with the same stilted enthusiasm that most folks insist on playing his music with today? Keep your hands down. Jazz is a living, breathing entity. And to prove it, let me introduce you to Charlie Hunter. He’s…
George Jones concerts have remained refreshingly familiar for a couple of decades. The audience still cheers, for example, when he predictably predicts that the show will last “till two or three in the mornin’,” even though everyone knows he’ll be on his Silver Eagle rolling into the night well before ten. Still, there’s a renewed energy to Jones’ recent shows….
It might seem strange that Detachment Kit recorded its latest album at Steve Albini’s studio when the band’s name stems from a desire to distance itself from indie rock. It’s not that principal members Ian Menard and Charlie Davis have a problem with the Chicago scene — after all, Detachment Kit formed there and is on good terms with a…
Nothing screams “heavy metal!” like Valley Forge, howls “rock on!” like the Red Baron or elicits headbanging quite like Waterloo. Huh? Just roll with it, dude. Because it’s not common to find a pack of leather-clad long-hairs that gives operatic dissertations on the Battle of Gettysburg and throws up devil horns with equal fervor. Nor is it typical for a…
It’s safe to say that when it came time for the old name-that-band game, Aveo didn’t dub itself after a little Chevrolet deathtrap. If the Seattle trio did name itself after a vehicle, it would need to evoke something with understated style, durability and power. But who the hell wants to name his band Ford Taurus anyway? Instead, Aveo was…
PD: How did you cross paths with Kenny Chesney? UK: Kenny called me when he was ending his last tour back home in Knoxville. He thought it might be fun if I came out on the encore as something special for his fans. And I obliged. So the first time I performed with him was in front of 66,000 people…
The grade school roller-skating party is a cultural memory that spans geographies and generations. A child of the ’70s in Buffalo and a child today in Los Angeles can share memories of Ring Pops and mixed-soda “suicides,” of thin-knotted carpets and scabbed knees, of smelly, brown skates and swirling lights. For many, the skating rink also holds the memory of…
Although I slept through my freshman microeconomics course far more often than I attended and am therefore hardly an expert in such matters, I believe a band may safely be deemed efficient if it can make an entire album for $6 (no matter how long it takes) or in five days (no matter how much it costs). The Thermals, from…
Ever evolving, always changing, the universe nonetheless sustains many constants: Hair metal never really goes away, British women inevitably become besotted grumps, short men always turn into intolerable control freaks. Another true generality holds that males of all statures develop their innate behavioral characteristics within patriarchal cultures that, while aiming toward discipline and perhaps even grace, actually create a vicious…
As much of the civilized world now knows, the latest Harry Potter director is Alfonso Cuaron, best known for the explicit teen sexual-awakening movie Y Tu Mamá También. As such, it may come as little surprise that his Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban begins with the teenage wizard-in-training hiding under the bedsheets, whacking his wand. The wand…
The best week ever: Hella props to your May 20 issue. I freakin’ fell out laughing at least five times. Thanks! C.J. Janovy’s article about Union Station (” Move Over, Mary”) brought out some good points, especially about the MAD (Misfits and Dimwits) people running it into the ground. The Pitch ought to form the new committee (like the mayor…
Thirty-ninth and Main is one of those classic Kansas City corners. A porn palace, a shady apartment building where midtown characters live, an H&R Block storefront. Stretching south, there’s a payday lender and a counseling center for veterans. An Eckerd, only one block from an Osco and four blocks from a Walgreen’s. A pager and cell-phone shop, an abandoned Cajun…
Since the ribeye of local reporters knocked on her door a few weeks ago, Venita Clark says she’s become a changed woman. Clark is one of several folks the Strip interviewed last month for a column about the tacky three-year-old shrine to Precious Doe in Hibbs Park and how unpopular it is with people living nearby (“Precious Moments,” May 6)….
