With no need to demonstrate malicious intent, upbeat DJs leave their given names unaltered (Paul Oakenfold, Sandra Collins), use their initials (BT) or select a jovial, oxymoronic alias (Fatboy Slim.) By contrast, it’s clear that drum ‘n’ bass crews Robot Death Squad and Evol Intent have an intimidating identity to reinforce. RDS’ Signal and Evol Intent’s The Enemy (pictured) co-headline…
Nodes of Ranvier unveils its full arsenal during the instrumental overture “The Renewal,” which isolates gloomy guitars, staggers breakdown riffs, surges into an upbeat groove, and shifts into thrash overdrive. The group cycles through this procession in some order during almost every song, and its devotion to variety extends to the vocals. NOR splits its membership between Sioux Falls, South…
Arrington de Dionyso’s voice — Exorcist creepy, low and commandingly visceral — is the key to Old Time Relijun, his decade-old trio. Like his undeniable influence, Captain Beefheart, de Dionyso wrings a raw hysteria from the most direct lyrical, mythical and fantastical narratives as the band flails tunelessly behind him in primal, caveman repetition; Old Time Relijun may be one…
The social warfare of the ’60s defined Joan Baez, but, unlike many of her compatriots, she didn’t forget the struggle when it became unfashionable. Forty-two years after her landmark In Concert albums were released, America has changed … supposedly. Yet somehow Baez is no less relevant than she was then, her fluttery soprano still hypnotic in these stripped-bare performances recorded…
When will the New Pornographers finally put out some crap? If they never lower the bar for themselves, there will be no triumphant “return to form.” More infallible hooks, more effervescent harmonies, more ’60s-inspired pop manna — this is getting decadent. In truth, the Vancouver sextet’s third album does have some twists to distinguish it from its predecessors. The prominence…
A few weeks ago, The Source’s editor-in-chief resigned after a squabble over Little Brother’s upcoming review. And while the magazine’s October issue will only be awarding it a rating of four mics instead of the originally intended four and a half, The Minstrel Show is sure to be one of the most talked-about hip-hop albums of the year. Since LB’s…
One glance at this year’s Irish festival line-up reveals a staggering trend toward youth, volume, innovation — and bands from Scotland. Enter the Haggis, a gang of indie-looking hooligans, falls into the growing category of bands familiar with both The Thistle and Shamrock and the latest String Cheese Incident news from JamBase. Wolfstone (not to be confused with the well-loved…
We loathe stage banter. Shut up and play, seriously. Unless, that is, you’re Oakland’s the Heavenly States. Frontman Ted Nesseth always wins us over with his genuine, self-deprecating humor and arsenal of light bulb jokes. If the music wasn’t so clever and alluring, we’d be fine giving the rest of the band a night off, letting Nesseth soliloquize the night…
When John Lee Hooker passed away in 2001, the world lost more than a legendary, badass bluesman. It lost one of the last remaining musicians to hail directly from the Delta blues heritage of the Deep South — a region responsible for most music heard today. Fortunately Hooker left behind more than his blues. His son, John Lee Hooker Jr….
arped Tour was disgusting,” says Shots Fired drummer Billy Johnson. It’s a provocative statement, at least until it becomes clear that Johnson uses “disgusting” as a synonym for huge. For example, he later says “My Chemical Romance is disgusting now, which is great.” If anything, the Kansas City trio’s several-weeks-long summer Warped experience was aseptic, with the band spending most…
All hail that doe-eyed siren known as Fiona Apple! Though she can be pretentious and sometimes seem unstable, these are faults we can forgive. Therefore, we do not fatwa Apple, even though her last album title had twice as many words in it as a standard Ramones song. We like Fiona Apple. That is why we heard her newest album,…
Radio might like to ignore Robert Earl Keen’s lyrically subversive folk-country, but that doesn’t stop him from regularly drawing sold-out crowds to his shows. His latest, What I Really Mean, is earning the Texan some of the best reviews of his career, suggesting a tectonic shift into mainstream might even be nigh. But the real question is, “What does he…
Chicago band Bang! Bang! calls itself a “sex-rock trio,” offering an uproarious mix of sleazy indie rock and dag-nasty punk. We asked bandmates Jack Flash, Gretta Fine and Mike Wednesday to field a few saucy, sordid questions from one kinky group of rock-and-roll kids. Dear Bang! Bang! I hear you guys met while Gretta Fine was rollerblading down the street…
As I approach Starlight Theatre on the evening of Tuesday, August 23, for a concert featuring the White Stripes, I wonder who will be there. The tickets are expensive, the opening act (the Greenhornes) is virtually unknown, and the Stripes get tons of commercial radio play, so that rules out hipsters. The first stock-concertgoer-type I notice — after the parking…
In the five years since its formation, Ghosty has evolved from a workaday alt-rock outfit to one of the more imaginative bands in the area. Fronted by singer-guitarist Andrew Connor, the group’s penchant for strong melodies and imaginative backing tracks has steadily grown, despite the numerous lineup changes that have reshaped the group’s sound. The following recounts the band’s history…
Ain’t nothing in this world more tedious than highbrow erotica, which works itself into a lather and then wipes off the sweat before anyone notices how awfully and inappropriately worked-up it got. Asylum, adapted by Closer’s Patrick Marber and Chrysanthy Balis from the novel by Patrick McGrath, is just that sort of chaste entity: soft-core, soft-focus, and plain ol’ soft,…
At the opening of The Constant Gardener, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of the novel by John le Carré, we hear a conversation before we see it. The screen remains black, still running credits, as a man and a woman negotiate a departure. Slowly, the scene dawns, revealing the couple on an airstrip, in shadow. Behind them, a white…
Paragraph break: Regarding Mike Springet’s August 11 letter in response to Gina Kaufmann’s July 28 SeeSaw about our exhibit, What’s the Matter with Kansas?: I’d like to correct Mr. Springet’s derailed logic. He refers to the eclectic, complex and critically hailed work in the show as “painfully boring” — I’m sorry he missed it. It’s also curious that Springet complains…
Hip-hop MC Priceless Diamonds describes herself as a “boss bitch” who grew up boosting clothes and turning the occasional trick. She’s no angel, but she’s got advice. So listen up, y’all. I got a parking ticket at the library for being late paying my meter. Is it OK to write, “Here you go, bitches!” in the memo section of my…
With the new school year starting up, the Strip is feeling nostalgic. Not for its own days in the hallowed halls of education, but for the juicy school scandal that gripped this metro just two years ago. It was back in 2003 that we all learned how a couple of Independence cross-country coaches had turned out to be scheming frauds….
The Pitch staff had so much fun on last year’s road trip that we had to do it again this year. Toward the end of last summer, we grew restless. We simply had to get out of the office. So we all got in our cars, like any respectable Johnson Coun- tian would do, and drove down Metcalf Avenue. Making…
