Stories | Of Note
Howlin Rain
Published July 23, 2008
It was a few years ago when a friend told me about a band called Comets on Fire. I would hear other descriptions of them later — most labeling them as “heavy psych” — but all ...
Los Lonely Boys
Published July 23, 2008
When the members of Los Lonely Boys, a trio of brothers from West Texas, began writing songs, they didn’t stray far from their roots. It would be fair to assume that when they became a ...
Earlimart
Published July 16, 2008
When Earlimart started releasing records eight years ago, the Los Angeles band had quirky song structures and fuzzy guitars and garnered a lot of comparison to the Pixies. Later, the band’s songs slowed down, Aaron ...
Good Charlotte Published July 16, 2008
Good Charlotte came to be during a time when rock was in post-grunge misery and feeling about for new direction. Dozens of bands emerged thereafter ... More Post a comment
Scarlet Symphony Published July 9, 2008
With the exception of their personal career choices, as musicians I don’t think that Scarlet Symphony makes many mistakes. That’s a large statement, but listen ... More Post a comment
Harry and the Potters Published July 9, 2008
Earlier this year the Harry and the Potters duo announced on their website that they had broken up: The two members could not agree on ... More Post a comment
Creepy Creeps Published July 2, 2008
Jack Johnson may be the new sound of surf rock, but it wasn’t always that way. The pop music that was pumping out of Southern ... More Post a comment
Retribution Gospel Choir Published July 2, 2008
The Retribution Gospel Choir is a side project of the long-running indie outfit Low, but it’s a side project that stretches the meaning of the ... More Post a comment
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Published June 25, 2008
The Led Zeppelin reunion got all the big headlines last year, but the really good reviews went to singer Robert Plant’s collaboration with bluegrass star ... More Post a comment
Smithereens Published June 18, 2008
The Smithereens spent the first few years of their career developing a formula and the next two decades touring behind it. Some have correctly identified ... More Post a comment
Islands Published June 18, 2008
Montreal’s Unicorns had good songs, but they were one of those indie pop acts that gets by mostly on goofy charm. Their cheap-sounding instruments, unpolished ... More Post a comment
Hiromi Published June 11, 2008
There’s jazz, and then there’s jazz — there’s traditional jazz that has not changed since the ’50s, and there’s a newer breed of jazz informed ... More Post a comment
Times New Viking Published June 11, 2008
Here’s how I imagine the recording process went for Times New Viking’s Rip It Off: Guitar, keyboards, drums, and shouted vocals play at maximum volume ... More Post a comment
Les Sans Culottes Published June 4, 2008
Please bear with me for a brief history lesson: In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were a dangerous element of the Third Estate. They were ... More Post a comment
Firewater Published June 4, 2008
Firewater’s first album, 1996’s Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire, introduced the public to an agitated blend of world music ... More Post a comment
Black Angels Published May 28, 2008
The Black Angels take their name from a Velvet Underground song, use a photo of Nico on their T-shirt designs, and proudly declare their allegiance ... More Post a comment
Sonny Landreth Published May 28, 2008
I first heard Sonny Landreth when he was playing behind John Hiatt. The Goners, of which Landreth is a member, have logged a lot of ... More Post a comment
Mayfield Published May 21, 2008
Grunge fixed a lot of rock’s problems in the early 1990s. Much as Van Halen led us back from Euro-synth hell in the ’80s, grunge ... More Post a comment
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Published May 21, 2008
The music blog Idolator recently posted an item called “Three Indie Rock Nightmares.” My favorite: “I’m stuck in a world where indie rock has slowly ... More Post a comment
The Kooks Published May 14, 2008
The best of the Kooks’ material has teenage lust and drama written all over it. Singer Luke Pritchard wrote some of the songs that ended ... More Post a comment
Kathleen Edwards Published May 7, 2008
There’s a song called “Oil Man’s War” on Canadian alt-country singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards’s new album Asking for Flowers, but it’s not about you-know-who or you-know-where. ... More Post a comment
Stanton Moore Published May 7, 2008
New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore’s jazz has more to do with the rowdiness of rock than with free-form intellectual explorations of melody. That’s not to ... More Comment (1)
Mike Doughty Published April 30, 2008
“I went to school with 27 Jennifers/ 16 Jenns, 10 Jennies, and then there was her,” sings Mike Doughty in the song “27 Jennifers” from ... More Post a comment
Po' Girl Published April 30, 2008
When I tell Allison Russell that I think her band Po’ Girl has a slightly sloppy feel to it, I am instantly sorry for not ... More Post a comment
Victor Wooten Published April 23, 2008
It was legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson who proved that the electric bass guitar needn’t simply follow along with the drums in a generic fortification ... More Post a comment
The Breeders Published April 23, 2008
In loudQUIETloud, a film about the Pixies’ 2004 reunion tour, you get to see one of the most influential bands of all time play your ... More Post a comment
Mark Mallman Published April 16, 2008
Minneapolis madman Mark Mallman was in between songs at a 2006 show when his guitarist started fiddling around with a riff from “When Doves Cry.” ... More Post a comment
Dengue Fever Published April 16, 2008
It wasn’t enough that the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever took ’60s Cambodian pop as their main architecture. They had the random good fortune to ... More Post a comment
New Monsoon Published April 9, 2008
New Monsoon came with so much of rock’s past in their sound and performed with such accuracy that at first listen I thought they might ... More Post a comment
Scout Niblett Published April 9, 2008
If you look at the photos on Scout Niblett’s website, you might not think that all of them picture the same person. In one she’s ... More Comment (1)
May Fire Published April 2, 2008
May Fire’s “You Make It Right” starts off with some fuzzy guitar and singer-guitarist-keyboardist Cat Tasso singing a simple melody through a distorted microphone. She ... More Post a comment
Ministry Published April 2, 2008
The release of The Last Sucker last September was heralded as Ministry’s final studio album. Al Jourgensen’s announcement of semi-retirement coincides with the coming retirement ... More Post a comment
Jay Reatard Published March 26, 2008
Jay Reatard is the questionable stage name of prolific Memphis resident Jay Lindsey, who has been recording and releasing music for about ten years as ... More Post a comment
New Model Army Published March 26, 2008
I tell Justin Sullivan that without rock, I might not have survived adolescence. I tell him that my 1960s teenage alienation was overwhelming, that rock ... More Post a comment
Cheryl Wheeler Published March 19, 2008
Cheryl Wheeler’s voice runs the table in terms of emotion. A singer/songwriter in the new-folk tradition, she teeters on the edge of a full-throated country ... More Post a comment
Built to Spill Published March 19, 2008
As the millennium turned, Built to Spill was one of the bigger names in indie rock, even if the band wasn’t actually on an indie ... More Post a comment
Explosions in the Sky Published March 12, 2008
One night I was flipping channels on TV and came across someone interviewing shred-guitar hero Joe Satriani. Satch was talking about how his music expresses ... More Post a comment
Vampire Weekend Published March 12, 2008
“Their music isn’t revolutionary,” says my friend of Vampire Weekend, “but it’s light and silly, and it makes me smile listening to little blips of ... More Post a comment
Bad Religion Published March 5, 2008
From the beginning, Bad Religion, a Los Angeles band, thought they had a plan for the world. “Don’t you know the place you live is ... More Post a comment
New York Dolls Published March 5, 2008
Everyone from Morrissey to Mötley Crüe name-checks the New York Dolls as an influence, but no one really sounds like them. Hardly anyone even tries. ... More Post a comment
The Raveonettes Published Feb. 27, 2008
The Raveonettes are a duo, and their sound is all about dualism and contrast — noisy guitars and careful vocal harmonies, Danish accents and American ... More Post a comment
Cannonball-Coltrane Project Published Feb. 27, 2008
“The initial thing was just to have a fun time one night,” says Luther Hughes via telephone from his L.A.-area home. Hughes is speaking of ... More Post a comment
Liars Published Feb. 20, 2008
Last week I interviewed Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, and something he said has been nagging at me: “The music that I always found ... More Post a comment
Marilyn Manson Published Feb. 20, 2008
“I don’t mean to be nosey,” says David Letterman during an interview with Marilyn Manson, nonplussed by the vampirish figure seated before him, “but do ... More Post a comment
Stan Ridgway Published Feb. 13, 2008
“We were not really part of that whole MTV, new wavey thing,” says Stan Ridgway, speaking about his old band, Wall of Voodoo. This comment ... More Post a comment
Richard Elliott Published Feb. 13, 2008
Richard Elliott first caught my ear during the mid-’80s as a member of one of the West Coast’s hottest funk/jazz bands, Tower of Power. Later, ... More Post a comment
Black Mountain Published Feb. 6, 2008
A couple of weeks ago I went to a party for an indie rock listserv I’ve belonged to for a long time and found myself ... More Post a comment
Rodrigo y Gabriella Published Feb. 6, 2008
If the acoustic duo Rodrigo y Gabriella sounds more like a trio, it is because Gabriella Quintero’s right hand does the work of two guitarists. ... More Post a comment
Swarmius Published Jan. 30, 2008
With his long curls, wire-rim glasses, and red plastic shoes, Joel Bluestone looks the part of the rock star. I’m backstage with him at Mandeville ... More Post a comment
Rogue Wave Published Jan. 30, 2008
Does this ever happen to you? You’re listening to your iPod on shuffle mode and a song comes on that you just can’t identify. It’s ... More Post a comment
Stanley Clarke Published Jan. 23, 2008
Stanley Clarke is back after a five-year respite from solo recording. He has a new CD and a hot young band that is reviving the ... More Post a comment
Health Published Jan. 23, 2008
Los Angeles band Health (or, as the band members like to spell it, HEALTH) has two MySpace pages — one to showcase the band’s noise ... More Post a comment
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