No gangsta-rap label is more infamous than Death Row: Federal criminal probes, coastal beefs, strong-arm violence, unsolved murders, and shady business practices exemplified Suge Knight’s Los Angeles-based conglomerate, whose artists, known as “inmates,” represented a ’27 Yankees-caliber pool of rap talent, including 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre. Now known…
Even with heavy-metal genes, electronically enhanced vocals, and a fashion-punk backing band, Kelly Osbourne couldn’t rock. Her debut disc, Shut Up, filled with powerless ballads and mild outbursts, stocks more bargain bins than Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath. Like Pink, another artist who turned in a stylistically unflattering inaugural release, Osbourne…
It’s not easy for a band to induce quiet, reflective, or somber moods without lapsing into murky languor, but that’s precisely what the Six Parts Seven does with its instrumental post-rock. Like its previous work, the Kent, Ohio, septet’s 2004 album, Everywhere and Right Here (Suicide Squeeze), maintains a gentle…
Didja happen to notice those breasts on the cover of this issue? Many a local band would be far better off if they had a rack like that. Forget talent, drive, and ambition — it’s the milk pillows that matter. OK, wee exaggeration. Try this: An old and mostly true…
Like most rockers, most rock critics drink. At night, they get dopey on the tonsil polish, but during the day, journalists get smashed on hype. And everyone — from writers to readers, musicians to fans — knows that hype, like hooch, has the unfortunate tendency to make you fall in…
It’s one thing to hit all the right sonic touchstones; it’s something else to balance your influences with a unique artistic sensibility. Led by Kylee Swenson’s bold, breathy vocals, San Francisco dream-pop fivesome Loquat floats on faraway synths, glistening guitars, and tiptoe drum programming; images of an Edie Brickell-lead Church…
Blessed with exquisite musical taste and an enviably large record collection, Four Tet (British producer Kieran Hebden) has maximized those assets over four increasingly accomplished albums since 1999’s Dialogue while incidentally becoming the foremost proponent of “folktronica.” Four Tet’s mastery of the laptop and sampler culminates on Everything Ecstatic, a…
Plenty of Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden buffs have been hoping Audioslave would produce a great album on its second try, but they’ll have to settle for pretty good. Although Out of Exile is solid and listenable, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, and Tim Commerford are ultimately pushing…
Of all hip-hop wünderkind Madlib’s multiple identities, Quasimoto remains the most compelling — a Munchkin-voiced dope fiend who’ll say and do just about anything. But the real marvel is that his creator finds equally colorful settings for this comic-book creation: first on the 2000 classic The Unseen, and now, upping…
Just in time for Father’s Day, Broward MC Bloody Phill arrives with this EP, featuring six tracks — three originals and instrumental versions of each. The focal point is the male-empowerment anthem “Baby Daddy,” giving big-ups to all the real-deal dads who put time, money, and love into raising their…
For the first time in his life, Beatcomber is running without anybody chasing him. About a month ago, he trotted around his neighborhood heart trail, dismayed at the lung butter he coughed up and the strange euphoria that arose from the exertion. He’s as shocked as you are that it’s…
We’re 30,000 feet over the Atlantic, going down fast, about to crash, and Keith Michaud of Summer Blanket has just gotten me slammed in the balls by an attractive young blond of surprisingly muscular build. That’s how he suggests this article start, punning off a scene from Almost Famous, with…
Uhh… Err… Umm… Wha??? I’m at a loss for words. Funtymz’s revelatory, six-song CD Love Factory is so devastatingly atrocious that it enters the rarefied realm of the superlative. As in: this is the most unlistenable music I’ve ever heard. In its own ridiculous way, it’s perfect. Like Cheetos. Am…
It’s remarkable that after a half-decade of audacity, eccentricity, and pulverizing hype, the White Stripes still genuinely surprise us. Get Behind Me Satan begins with the blasé single “Blue Orchid,” but from there, it gets infinitely better, not to mention weirder. “The Nurse” is a delicate shaker-and-marimba lullaby periodically and…
In a span of five years, Chris Martin has gone from being an irritating bloke mewling about yellow stars to his current role as movie-star boinker and fruity-name bestower. Inside the music business, he’s also seen as the man most likely to resuscitate the industry, and X&Y, the latest from…
Los Bros. Gallagher return after their Heathen Chemistry produced not a banging wallop but a fizzling so-what. Perhaps it was their master plan all along to lower the bar and then leap over it when no one was expecting it, unless they were making bad records on purpose, in which…
“I feel like an old railroad man,” Mark Everett, a.k.a. E, sings during one of the many forlorn weepers on the Eels’ indie-label debut. He sounds like one too, because his vocal filters work like reverse purifiers, enhancing grit and sediment. After two ill-fated ventures into rocky territory, Everett returns…
In the cluttered, money-mad landscape of modern R&B and soul music, the figures who stand tallest stand alone. Prima donnas like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill have the creative vision and iron-fisted drive necessary to elevate themselves among their peers; Usher and R. Kelly work their mack-daddy game as lone…
For hip-hop purists, Common and Kanye West’s collaboration on Be is akin to the genre’s prodigal son meeting King Midas on the road to redemption. A succession of mid-’90s classics — 1994’s Resurrection and 1997’s One Day It’ll All Make Sense — established Common as one of the most talented…
Unlike Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 unplugged masterpiece, the Boss’ latest is a big-production acoustic venture, larded with atmospheric keyboards, earnest mandolins, and all the accouterments money can buy. To his credit, Springsteen has crafted his finest album in years, far better than dronefests such as The Ghost of Tom Joad…
A word of caution to the 20 diehard Gorillaz fans who have held on since the “cartoon band” debuted four years ago: Blur’s Damon Albarn is the only contributor to return for Demon Days. While the same fictional characters fill the liner notes, every real-life musician has been replaced, and…
On its seventh record, Portland trio Sleater-Kinney finds itself in the same predicament as its heroes Sonic Youth and tour mates Pearl Jam: It’s honed its sound so precisely that it has to decide where to go next. With The Woods, the answers are jumping to indie-label heavyweight Sub Pop,…
