After Spacemen 3 called it a day around the dawn of the decade, singer/guitarist Jason Pierce was free to expand upon his more classicist theories of dream-state drone as pure pop with Spiritualized. Only slightly less narcotic in effect than his previous band, this free-flowing aggregation has proven slightly more likely to assent to verse-chorus-verse…
Formed in 1996, the Lucky Bishops were something of an anomaly in the Britpop era: the quartet of Luke Adams, Rich Murphy, Tom Hughes and Al Strawbridge came not from one of the urban centers of cool Britannia but from rural Dorset in the West Country. Their hook-laden blend of power-pop and neo-psychedelia paid close…
Mobius Band is Ben Sterling (vocals, guitar, synthesizer), Peter Sax (vocals, bass, synthesizer) and Noam Schatz (live and electronic drums). With producer Peter Katis (Interpol, Guster, Philistines Jr.) at the controls, the group’s debut album, The Loving Sounds of Static, dusts formulaic indie-rock with a subtle digital sheen. Although the results are uneven, in places…
It’s hard not to pre-judge a band by its name, especially when that name is as enticing and modern as your grandfather’s underpants. That said, even if the Bob Sharkey Quartet were actually called Your Grandfather’s Underpants, the New York-based band’s music would still win you over. Foolish Nightmare certainly has a retro flavor. There’s…
It’s hard to believe that Trouble Is Real is the debut album by a 21-year-old. While Johnathan Rice’s husky, careworn voice makes these youthful tunes sound like songs of considerable experience, the mature feel of this record has as much to do with his versatility and reach as a writer. Rice moves effortlessly between genres,…
With the exception of Trbovlje’s Laibach, Slovenian rock hasn’t really enjoyed much international success. And there’s little danger of Sensation doing anything to change that. Their idiosyncratic novo-metal may be of comedic or anthropological interest but nobody with even a modicum of taste will find much of value in Sensation’s endeavors. Other than a drawing…
Listening to San Diego’s 34Below, it’s hard to believe that rock ‘n’ roll was once considered the devil’s music. Masses Collide is the sound of rock dry-cleaned and pressed, sanitized with Howard Hughes-like fastidiousness and then exorcized for good measure. Fronting a quartet that is competent, slick and stadium-ready, singer Steve Ybarra has a fine…
Despite the name, the American Dollar isn’t all about bang for your buck. Rather, New Yorkers Rich Cupolo (keyboards, guitar, bass) and John Emanuele (drums, bass, keyboard) favor an understated blend of organic and electronic sounds, crafting evocative instrumentals with a strong melodic sense. The duo’s self-titled debut balances textured atmospheric explorations with more purposeful,…
In the late ’70s, Brian Eno said that, although the Velvet Underground didn’t sell a lot of records, it seemed as if everyone who bought one went out and started a band. In the ’80s and ’90s, it would not have been an exaggeration to say the same about Wire — or specifically, about the…
Anachronistic Australian bar-room rockers the Money are so full of testosterone it’s a wonder they can walk upright. Turbo Nicko (guitar), Slick Trigger Mick (guitar/vocals), Doctor Rock (bass) and Liam (drums, obviously the quiet one) are purveyors of a cheerful balls- to-the-wall-and-everywhere-else garagey rock ‘n’ roll that makes no concessions to originality, sophistication or subtlety.…
The haut-rockist concept of the supergroup might have seemed outdated by 2004, but the phenomenon was resurrected by Githead, albeit in a modest post-rock fashion. Initially a trio of Wire’s Colin Newman (vocals/guitar), Minimal Compact’s Malka Spigel (vocals/bass) and multimedia enfant terrible Robin Rimbaud (who traded his police-radio scanner for a good old-fashioned ax), Githead…
Teamed with dubmeister Adrian Sherwood and his Tackhead associates (Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald), ex-Pop Grouper Stewart produces what could best be described as avant-garde reggae on Learning to Cope With Cowardice. Making a wide left turn past Sly and Robbie, the disc is dark and forbidding, with a plethora of ghostly, off-center…
Between the Smiths/Echo and the Bunnymen and the Britpop resurgence, this London quartet briefly caught England’s late-’80s imagination on the strength of stunning early singles, leader Guy Chadwick’s forceful, smart persona, lead guitarist Terry Bickers’ array of powerful, echoed sounds and the sustained promise of importance and (or) greatness. But the realities of building substantial…
The Bevis Frond is Londoner Nick Saloman, an artist of singular vision whose staunch devotion to the spirit of vintage psychedelia has yielded a shelf full of unmistakably ’60s-derived albums. But there’s more to the Bevis Frond’s extensive catalogue than mere hippie revival. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist’s twisted pop tunes, reflective acoustic excursions and extended guitar freakouts…
As a member of the Walker Brothers, Scott Walker was a teen pin-up with one of the most distinctive voices in ’60s pop music. In his subsequent solo career, he reinvented himself as one of rock’s more cerebral and challenging artists: think Robbie Williams, during his tenure with Take That, morphing into Lou Reed. By…
Born and raised in Bristol, England, the Massive Attack collective is responsible for summoning up the spooky, clubby and groovy sound made most popular by another Bristol band, Portishead. Spawned in 1987 from the Wild Bunch, a group of musicians — including Neneh Cherry and Nellee Hooper (subsequent leader of Soul II Soul) — who…
After Australia’s chaos-wreaking Birthday Party immolated in the early ’80s, singer Nick Cave set out to develop his bleak, twisted ideas about American country music, spiritual music and Delta blues. Backed by the Bad Seeds — featuring bassist Barry Adamson (ex-Magazine), guitarist Blixa Bargeld (moonlighting from Einstürzende Neubauten) and drummer Mick Harvey (the Birthday Party’s…
Van der Graaf Generator committed several of prog-rock’s cardinal sins and confirmed some of its dodgier stereotypes: they mixed jazz, rock, classical and even operatic sensibilities; they assembled lengthy, often multi-partite, occasionally bombastic songs; they oozed musicianship, delighting in complex time signatures and tricky chord changes; their lyrics were literate, philosophical and sometimes utterly ridiculous;…
This Toronto four-piece plays rootsy, country-flavored rock under the influence of the usual suspects (Gram Parsons, the Stones, the Band, Neil Young). On the group’s self-titled debut, soulful, banjo-tickled ballads (“On and On”) and twangy, harmony-laden waltzes (“My Secret,” “Picture in Pocket”) attest to considerable songwriting prowess, but FI occasionally tries too hard to rock…
In keeping with his small-scale pseudonym, Terence J. McGaughey takes a minimalist approach on Love Won Out, crafting modest, idiosyncratic music that worms its way into your brain. These intimate, although lyrically obtuse songs combine sparse organic instrumentation (rudimentary guitars, some lumbering bass) and lo-fi electronics (clockwork rhythms, synth noises) with results that are best…
