Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: This show review promises that Monotonix comes off like Mudhoney playing krautrock, which is high praise, indeed…
Kate McGarry & Art Lande December 2, 2007, Dazzle Better than: Icing on a cold cake. Art Lande is a funny guy, and his sense of humor often shines through in his piano playing. And it was amusing for Lande to open the first set by running his hands up…
As Tall as Lions Into the Flood 01:18-02:03 of “Into the Flood” Hmm… I’m thinking a bit of Slowdive, maybe a dash of Counting Crows and a taste of the Fray. What kind of soup does that make? Utter, replaceable crap soup. Thanks a lot dudes. You totally owe me…
Since opening in October 2006, Twist & Shout’s Lowenstein Center HQ, at 2508 East Colfax, has earned loads of praise from locals like us. Now, folks well beyond the metro area will begin to learn the store’s name thanks to a pair of high-profile releases recorded live in Twist’s terrific…
The Pirate Signal November 29, 2007 The Hi-Dive Better Than: watching reruns during the writer’s strike One thing that’s guaranteed at a Pirate Signal show is passion. No matter how many people are in the crowd, no matter how they’re responding to the music, DJ A-What and Yonnas deliver a…
Brian Malone is a local documentarian who’s taken on subjects as varied as Blinky the Clown and the vagaries of the broadcast-news business. On Sunday, December 2, however, he gets musical with a little help from an in-family pro. Beth Malone, Brian’s sister, built up a reputation among local theater-goers…
Foxy Brown out of the hole When you get locked up, no matter how much of a cool cat you are, you have to show the other inmates you’re not the one to be messed with. Foxy Brown, who is serving a year at Rikers Island for violating her probation,…
Huh. What do you know? Looks like this may truly be the season to be jolly after all. Just received word that one of my all-time favorite hometown bands is getting back together. Sure, it’s just for a few nights, but, hey, I’ll take whatever I can get…
Two years ago, Seattle singer-songwriter David Bazan retired the Pedro the Lion moniker and embarked on a solo career under his own name. Practically speaking, the switch wasn’t that significant. For a decade, he was Pedro the Lion, writing all the indie-rock outfit’s material, recording and touring with an ever-mutating…
More than two years have passed since Team Sleep last toured, and it’s likely that just as much time will go by before the group ventures into venues again following its current jaunt. After all, says Chino Moreno, the Deftones frontman who captains the Team, “We’re not putting out a…
The new one from Hot Chip doesn’t hit stores until next year, but thankfully, the London act is throwing its fans a bone. Put that secondary e-mail address to good use and sign up for the band’s mailing list at its MySpace page (www.myspace.com/hotchip). In return, the Chip will reward…
Writing in 5280, Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer declared that singer-songwriter Jeff Finlin, who headlines at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret on Friday, November 30, “might be one of the finest American troubadours since Bob Dylan.” That’s a bold statement, which Moehringer backs up with references to fans such as Bruce Springsteen…
The music of Brett Johnson is wholly and joyously electronic. There’s never a question of whether the player is live on his records or mixes; the tonalities are purely electronic. While this might seem like a limitation, Johnson manages to find plenty of variety without ever leaving the circuit boards…
I was one of a few hundred people to see Radiohead at the Mercury Cafe in June 1995. To be honest, I don’t remember a damn thing about the actual show; I can only recall brushing up against Thom Yorke, the group’s singer, on the way out of the building…
As Beasts of Burden’s title implies, Workhorse, which joins Front-side Five and Pitch Invasion at the Bluebird Theater on Friday, November 30, is no pretty filly. Rather, it’s an animal willing to do the heavy lifting — emphasis on “heavy.” “Moonshine Mayhem,” the first track, opens with modified calliope music…
Two autumn releases offer glimpses into the folkie-infested Boulder of the ’60s and early ’70s: Karen Dalton’s Cotton Eyed Joe, a collection of live material recorded at the legendary Attic, and a deluxe reissue of Propinquity’s sole LP from 1972. Emerging from Sing-In Boulder, an annual “high school folk music…
Sebastian Bach, Angel Down (Caroline Records). This long-overdue slab of meathead metal from the former Skid Row singer sounds like it could easily be a totally forgettable record. It’s not, though, because Bach somehow got his current BFF Axl Rose to sing on it, and the pair’s duet on Aerosmith’s…
In Defense of the Genre, Say Anything’s 27-song, two-disc quasi-concept album — which is twice as long and nowhere near as good as its predecessor, 2004’s Is a Real Boy — is about Max Bemis’s struggles with drug abuse and his very public bipolarness. (He was busted in NYC last…
Sorry, ’80s nostalgists, but Duran Duran was never a great band, or even a particularly good one. The Duranies gained fame as sleek, sleazy showmen with a strong visual sense and the ability to transform other people’s ideas into garish pop readymades. “Girls on Film,” “Hungry Like the Wolf” and…
What made so many of the rap-rock bands of the past fifteen years so risible is the fact that their music often wasn’t a genuine mixing of genres. In recent years, however, artists like Why? and M.I.A. have employed sounds from a wide variety of styles to craft hip-hop rooted…
Youssou N’Dour gives world music a good name. For almost thirty years, the Senegalese musician has been blending traditional sounds and instruments with influences as far-ranging as American jazz, Afro-Cuban dance rhythms and Western pop music, arriving at something infinitely greater than the sum of its parts. Known in his…
According to legend, Ian Astbury disbanded Southern Death Cult because of overwhelmingly positive press. Fact or fiction, it does explain how he and longtime sparring partner, guitarist Billy Duffy, have methodically alienated their fan base several times. The Cult abandoned gothic frippery for metal at a time when Ministry’s Al…
