Rebecca Dolan When we reflect on the last 23 years in an attempt to locate just which version of ourselves we would consider the most awkward and insecure, the answer is glaringly obvious. Seventh grade, when we considered oversized BUM sweatshirts haute couture? Sadly, no. Sophomore year, when we chopped our long blond locks into a seriously misinformed pageboy?…
The Boys Next Door It’s quite rare that mentally retarded adults are portrayed onstage, much less with a dignity that doesn’t come off like artificial sweetener. Set in a group home for developmentally disabled men, Tom Griffin’s drama-with-comedy was a hit Off Broadway and turned into a 1996 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie (with Nathan Lane) that never felt cloying….
During the intermission of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s The Voysey Inheritance, some audience members were overheard expressing fits of boredom. A quartet of middle-aged matrons in front of me looked at each other like, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” And one college-age guy even asked his friends, “Did you hear me snoring?” Maybe they had mentally checked…
Other People are the cause of all problems. Slow, stupid traffic would not be an issue if I were the only driver on the road. If nobody else were around, I would never have to hear the phrases “That’s hot!” or “My bad.” And tattoo artists? In the absence of Other People, they would ink whatever the hell they wanted….
The land of bears and bulls has birthed a new breed of animal. Wild and untamed, the Ponys mean to trample an overcrowded garage scene. And like the group’s hometown Cubs, you can’t help rooting for this lineup. With a signature blend of short and punchy guitar-driven ditties, these purebreds made up for their relative anonymity with an undeniable catchiness…
For all its aggressively inaccessible tendencies (grotesque album art, feedback-throttled shows), Unsane remains just a buzz clip away from the airwaves. The New York-based trio’s ominous tones, scratchy solos and distorted screams add sonic danger to its Southern-style, groove-heavy metal, and its staggered but steady riff progressions and striking countermelodies keep the music tethered to a tuneful core. Blood Run,…
Being a top house DJ in Chicago is like being the most popular prostitute in Nevada: The competition makes the feat all the more remarkable. Carlos Sosa moved to the Windy City in 1983 and earned the nickname “Sneak” as a graffiti-tagging artist. He worked parties and standard club gigs in the saturated scene, using his spinning skills to pay…
C. Gibbs looks like the first Marine over Hill 14, or maybe Nick Cave’s younger brother, but lately the man’s practically been a horse dealer. There’s his song “Parade of Small Horses,” a “Wild Horses”-era-Stones-style metaphorical association through both a pasture and a hip urban neighborhood. There’s also his song “Tenhorse,” with its loping lament of being thirsty as a…
Lauded rock bands such as the Arcade Fire and Stars are finally making up for Canada’s decade-plus streak of embarrassing Bryan Adams sapfests. But the country’s electronic scene tends to get overlooked — which is puzzling, because Canada’s wintry climate forms the perfect backdrop for the minimalist techno and frozen-hearted laptop pop of Junior Boys. The Hamilton, Ontario, duo’s brittle…
After six years, several breakups and some truly bizarre setbacks, the String and Return finally unveils its second full-length record Saturday at the Brick. On What Cheer, Andrew Ashby’s vocals sleepwalk over obtuse guitar passages and a comprehensive collection of drum clicks and crashes as isolated riffs trigger noise explosions, like high-pitched tones on snowy slopes causing avalanches. Ashby maintains…
Spend five minutes listening to Keane, and you’ll wonder how the guys in Coldplay found the time for such an impressive side project. Spend five more minutes doing your homework, and you still might not believe it’s an entirely different band. There are, of course, the obvious similarities. Both bands hail from England. Both have roots linked to stalwart indie…
Most have written it off as an ’80s fad buried somewhere between the grave sites of Run DMC’s unlaced high-tops and MC Hammer’s parachute pants, but breakin’ is still an integral part of hip-hop culture. Born of the dense urban environs of the South Bronx, B-boyin’ (or B-girlin’) has evolved into an artistic discipline of show-and-prove body tricks, the best…
Nearly a decade ago, exceptionally talented skins man Jimmy Chamberlin was the black sheep of the Smashing Pumpkins family, finally getting drummed out of the group (and publicly shamed by his bandmates) after a particularly egregious 1996 run with Racehorse Charlie that resulted in the overdose death of Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin. These days, however, he appears to be…
Everybody knows that Green Day issued an instant classic when American Idiot hit the shelves last September. But critics, fans and MTV have been so busy embracing Idiot, they’ve forgotten that Green Day remains a band best experienced in concert. Yes, Billie Joe and company have aged, and no, they don’t sound or look remotely close to punk-rock anymore, but…
The problem with a throat lozenge is that, as it works and your throat cools and your passages clear, you suck it harder, need it more and reduce it to juice. An Aimee Mann disc is a lot like a lozenge: The less attention you pay it, the longer it lasts. Despite its innovations — some pedal steel and a…
A popular explanation for the latest new-wave revival holds that listeners are seeking a return to fun, sexy songs. That theory might be true, but it ignores the genre’s intellectual appeal. In the ’80s, new wave was to music what science fiction is to literature. Songwriters explored societal alienation and technological terrors, then packaged their paranoia-ridden product with interstellar-travel-ready outfits…
Trent Reznor may be remembered as rock’s Stanley Kubrick, a flawed yet brilliant recluse whose painstaking creative process produced great art and great frustration. It’s hard to believe that Reznor has issued only four full-length albums of original material in 16 years. Like his 1999 opus, The Fragile, Reznor’s latest does away with the frenetic pop hooks that made his…
Since originating as an obtuse instrumental group, Electrelane has inched toward accessibility. Last year’s The Power Out attached tuneful vocals to actual hooks, creating the all-female quartet’s first sing-along moments. Abetted by producer Steve Albini, Electrelane shoots back into the sonic stratosphere with Axes. The album opens with an ominous held-note buzz as the group’s guitars idle high, like heavy…
Behind the titular smirk and sarcastic band name, you won’t find derisive piss takes on the genres so evoked. Rather, on this album, Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon and his collective of collaborators tinker away at the intersection of Avant Garde Avenue and New Weird America Boulevard. Generator hum rumbles under listless violin-bow-dragging and feedback in a near-drone nirvana….
Smartasses in more ways than one, Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian may not be the first to have read media critic Danny Schechter while pumping Slayer and actually absorbed both. But on Mezmerize, System of a Down’s third and most consistent album, the frontmen, now equally billed, revive a threadbare theme — the anaesthetizing effect of mass media — and…
If you’re like me, you don’t really give two shits about the sound at most concerts. I’ve heard the CD; now I just wanna see a fuckin’ kickass show — preferably without the mid-set demands for more snare in the monitor or the mistreated-kindergartner frowns when a microphone gives a little feedback. If everything’s at least audible, quit complaining and…
Nine years ago, a major label laid off Detroit pop savant Brendan Benson. Now he’s ready to make his third first impression with the help of another big label, Jack White and The Alternative to Love. SW: How did you end up on V2? BB: “I was on a tiny Brooklyn label called Star Time, and V2 handled the European…
In this age of media overload, it’s astonishing that the wilds of America can still conceal vital, outstanding music that remains unrecorded and largely unheard. Matthew Johnson, a skinny white boy from Mississippi, should know — he found a heap of it in his own backyard. In the early ’90s, turned on to blues by a University of Mississippi class…
Jane Fonda comes from a good Hollywood family and used to be a pretty fair actress. Klute and Coming Home were among the better films of their time. But after getting a look at herself in her first movie in 15 years, Fonda might go straight back to the house and stick her head in the oven. The director…
