Search Results for "David Antrobus"

England’s Polly Jean Harvey — distinct from the group PJ Harvey — came to public attention in 1992 with Dry, a startlingly scabrous and extremely dramatic portrait of a woman on the verge of total emotional collapse. While Harvey would later downplay its trenchancy and focus, it’s important to note how explicit and abject Dry‘s…

With the Fugees on seemingly permanent hiatus since 1996’s multi-platinum The Score, interest has focused on the band’s solo projects. Of the trio — Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel “Pras” Michel — rapper and guitarist Wyclef Jean has been easily the most prolific. Born in Haiti, Wyclef moved with his family to Brooklyn, NY…

New York’s Interpol began to coalesce around former NYU student Daniel Kessler in 1998, and by 2000 settled on the lineup of Kessler (guitar), Brit compatriot Paul Banks (vocals/guitar), Carlos Dengler (bass, keyboards) and Sam Fogarino (drums). Initially playing local venues, they were chosen as the third installment for Scottish label Chemikal Underground’s Fukd I.D.…

Guitarist/singer Matthew Good hails from Coquitlam, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver more noted for soulless serial killers than for acclaimed rock musicians. Which is somewhat fitting, in that Good never wanted to be a rock star (or so he claims). The aspiring writer nonetheless cut his musical teeth in acoustic folk bands, touring half-empty…

This Toronto quartet which initially included Daniel Lanois’ bass-playing sister Jocelyn, once of Martha and the Muffins, played a lovely brand of spartan atmospheric folk-rock somewhere between the Cowboy Junkies and 10,000 Maniacs. On Red Earth, what’s not played seems nearly as important as what is; the ample sonic space makes the sound feel big…

This ambient-dance-cum-lounge-pop band stationed itself on the frontlines of the Bristol, England-generated trip-hop revolution, which could be considered the Newtonian equal-and-opposite-reaction to an increasingly strident, frenzied techno scene. Deploying an electro-torch sound that skirts genres as varied as spaghetti western film scores, ’80s new wave and modern hip-hop, Portishead (the name comes from the blue-collar…

Cat Power, the nom de disque of singer/guitarist Chan Marshall and her occasional backing musicians (guitarist Tim Foljahn of Two-Dollar Guitar and Mosquito and drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth), is a thoroughly intriguing bundle of contradictions. Cat Power overwhelms by underwhelming — Marshall’s voice rarely rises above a straining, plaintive whisper, but the tension…