Search Results for "Michael Krugman"

The recorded output of this Atlanta popcore foursome gives truth to the old saw that great live bands often make mediocre records. On stage, Magnapop is electric and alive with garage-rock simplicity, punk dynamics and classic new wave songwriting, sealed by Linda Hopper’s molasses-sweet trill and, most important, the action-packed axe antics of genuine guitar…

The popularity of the neo-hippie H.O.R.D.E. caravan gave rise to Dave Matthews and Blues Traveler, but those two are Dylan and the Dead in comparison to Pittsburgh’s Rusted Root. The seven-person troupe of raggle-taggle patchouli-soaked minstrels is like a multi-culti Cowsills sharing a commune with 10,000 Maniacs and a percussion collective. The lineup includes three…

One Dove brings a sense of trad pop tunecraft into the ever-mutable sound of late-’80s UK club culture, that no-limits stir fry of techno, acid house, ambient, hip-hop and just about every other musical thing up to — and often including — the kitchen sink. The Glasgow trio of Ian Carmichael (keyboards), Jim McKinven (onetime…

Never mind the fact that Gene does bear a marked resemblance to the Smiths. The British foursome had a similar approach to UK guitar pop — a love of joyous songcraft composed of equal parts intelligent words, cheeky melodies and a sense of grandiose melodrama. But where Morrissey basks in his miserabilia, Gene singer/lyricist Martin…

Emerging as the brats of the Britpop movement, Oxford’s Supergrass burst onto the scene whipping out immediate, punchy tunes with a distinctly English accent, sort of like Green Day by way of the Small Faces and Buzzcocks. Singer/guitarist Gareth (Gaz) Coombes and drummer Danny Goffey had been teenage members of the Jennifers, a quartet whose…

Way back in the hazy winter of the late ’80s, the northern English city of Manchester became known as a debauched clubland for the disenfranchised Thatcher generation, famed for baggy rhythms and endless Ecstasy. Coming from a working class universe of soft prospects, hard chemicals and even harder house beats, Happy Mondays became the kingpins…

Pulp proves that old saw about perseverance. It took ages, but singer/auteur Jarvis Cocker grew to become a star, recognized as British pop’s most astonishing storyteller and acerbic social commentator, beloved by those with a taste for wit, fashion and panache. But in Pulp’s earliest incarnation, it sounds as if Cocker’s goal was to be…

Having named themselves after the 1962 NY Mets’ infamously hapless first-baseman, “Marvelous” Marv Throneberry, these Cincinnati pals of the Afghan Whigs might well be your standard-issue indie-rock dweebs with low self-esteem. Instead, Sangría opens with singer/guitarist Jason Arbenz informing the world that “I’ve been touched/The hand of greatness has selected me.” You’ve got to admire…

Boston’s under-appreciated Miles Dethmuffen proudly wear their skinny-tie new wave influences on their sleeves, to the point of declaring on one song that they “believe in the ’80s.” Indeed, the four bandmembers are unwavering in their love of happy hooks, jangling melodies and clever wordplay. Produced by Paul Q. Kolderie, the terrific Nine-Volt Grape positively…

Sincola’s take on angular post-Pixies pop — all herky-jerk hooks and jagged cadences — is made special by virtue of a pervading scent of enigmatic gender-fuck. The ambisexual Austin fivesome tweaks the standard boy-meets-girl pop text by imbuing its fizzy tunes with a chaotic, amorphous nature that ping-pongs between sexual notions of hetero-, homo- and…