George Strait, Somewhere Down in Texas (MCA). The white-hatted man is still filling discs with casual variations on C&W verities, as he’s done since the early ’80s. Texas is no Hank-n-Merle-style classic, but in comparison to most of the treacle that passes for contemporary country, the disc tastes like fine…
On “I Don’t Buy It,” Patrick Meese asserts, “Every song I make sounds the same to me/ I can’t swallow fake/Give it to me straight.” Granted, each of the songs are decidedly piano-heavy and similar in tone and texture, but rather than undermine the proceedings, they add to the album’s…
Country folks sure like their red dirt. Woody Guthrie practically sanctified the stuff during the dust-bowl era; Emmylou Harris and Brooks & Dunn issued semi-concept albums with Red Dirt Girl and Red Dirt Road, respectively; there’s even a weekly Sunday-night broadcast from Stillwater, Oklahoma’s KVOO called Red Dirt Radio that…
By the time pop punk caught up to the Alkaline Trio (right), the band had already outgrown it, incorporating death-obsessed lyrics and metallic riffs into their evolving sound. While the Alkies’ melodic punk-n-roll fits perfectly on emo standard-bearer Vagrant Records, a goth image and lack of whining set the group…
The notion of forming a band that pays tribute to an extant group might wilt your hemp, but that’s precisely what the plucky lads in Phix did back in 2000. While the guys from the mother band, Phish, hung up their tie-dyes last year (after hosting a muddy and emotional…
Soylent Green, in the sci-fi flick of the same name, was the government-dispensed food product made out of (surprise!) people. Similarly, the music of New Orleans’s Soilent Green could pass for the agonizing crunch of a hundred thousand human corpses being pulped in a mammoth meat grinder. The quintet’s fifth…
Being pals with Jack White can’t hurt one’s musical career. Just ask Brendan Benson, whose recent collaboration with the Raconteurs, White’s latest side project, is being hyped as Detroit’s answer to Nevermind. Back on planet Earth, however, Benson has already enjoyed the erratic career of a self-absorbed singer-songwriter, one who’s…
The late-’90s success of Erykah Badu figuratively opened the door for women who prefer bold, thoughtful R&B to the cleavage-exploiting, azz-shaking approach popularized by lowest-common-denominator hip-hoppers. To date, only a few females have found commercial success by following her example, and maintaining it has proven to be even tougher, as…
The Journey you’re thinking of no longer exists. That Journey — which had Steve Perry singing alongside four guys whose names you probably never knew — is long gone. Of course, Journey existed before Perry, but its first three albums delivered zero hits, which is why manager Herbie Herbert hired…
A quartet masquerading as a trio, Garage A Trois sounds a lot better than it looks on paper. The biggest name in the band is guitarist Charlie Hunter, a legit jazzbo (he’s spent much of his career recording for Blue Note), albeit a notably accessible one. In contrast, saxophonist/keyboardist Skerik,…
The Trampolines formed in February 2004 as an acoustic collaboration between Ordinary Poets’ Mark Sundermeier (left) and Losing November’s Chris Stake. By the following January, after a year of performing as a duo, the Trampolines officially became a full-fledged band, with the addition of former Battery Park keyboardist Todd Davis…
It’s often difficult for musicians to separate the music from whatever drama is consuming their lives. But when an artist leads a particularly interesting life, the outside influence can be a good thing. Take, for instance, Miss Honey Dijon. The fact that this New York-based DJ is a transsexual should…
Wobbling on antique Schwinns and dressed in vintage shades and button-up shirts, Michael Daboll and Matt Hunt are riding down Broadway looking like extras from the set of an old B-movie. It’s a humid afternoon in early July, and the two members of the Omens are arriving at the Irish…
Last fall, Immortal Technique came through Denver as part of a voter-registration-themed tour called Stand Up and Be Counted. As he urged young people to make their voices heard in the 2004 election, little did the Peruvian-born, Harlem-bred MC — who’s known for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration…
Back in 1983, Blackie Lawless claimed to be an animal who fucked like a beast. But today, it seems that the W.A.S.P. frontman is really just an asshole who fucks people over. In one night, this relic from the Revlon era managed to enrage any enthusiasts he might have had…
Now that even Grandma gets Dave Chappelle’s goof on Lil Jon, crunk faces the challenge of all overexposed genres: how to stay relevant. One way, of course, is through the time-honored bid for “artistic growth.” But when it’s Atlanta’s Ying Yang Twins talking about such matters, you have to worry…
“Whenever, Wherever,” Shakira’s 2001 English-language breakthrough, managed to irritate much of the planet’s populace, thanks to its moronic hook and singing that seemed to emulate the bleat of a sheep stuck in a barbed-wire fence. Thank goodness Fijación Oral isn’t nearly that ba-a-a-a-d. The Spanish half of a planned two-disc…
With Blinking Lights, the reliably melancholic and irresistibly melodic Eels deliver a packed-to-the-gills, two-disc album that roams roads both worn and new. Songs worth pulling over for include the wistfully shimmering “In the Yard, Behind the Church,” the nursery-school-sweet “The Stars Shine in the Sky Tonight” and the knee-pumping “Hey…
Forget neo-soul: Jamie Lidell resurrects the old school so effortlessly you barely notice that Multiply is essentially a one-man orchestra of expressive electronic splicing and dicing. Wielding a voice that alternates between gruff Otis Redding purrs and tight James Brown breakdowns (with moments of Prince’s pre-Jehovah’s Witness sonic orgasming thrown…
When bands in the ’90s like Grade and Boy Sets Fire first employed a jarring mix of tuneful whining and cathartic screams, it felt like a smack in the face — the good kind. Since then, the recipe’s become as rote as reality TV, with the same sense of fabricated…
Truth be told, most bands here and elsewhere fall into a few narrow categories. Planetary Nebula, in contrast, busts through descriptive barriers with aplomb, and the combo’s unpredictability makes Ornamental a lively listen. The group’s instrumentation is hardly radical: two guitars, bass and drums intermittently supplemented by saxophone, cornet, strings…
World Leader Pretend, Punches (Warner Bros.). There is a land where rock groups care more about marketing themselves and aiming for the Coldplay-listening demographic than, well, rocking. World Leader Pretend is its secretary-general. Some advice: No matter how hip you think irony is, it’s never a good idea to put…
