Search Results for "Jason Cohen"

Lloyd Cole is a pretentious twit — in the nicest possible sense. Which is to say the English (Buxton, in the north) singer/songwriter is highly literate and ultra-sensitive. Always has been, ever since he first turned up, after forming a band while attending college in Glasgow, with 1984’s Rattlesnakes. Coming on like a typical new…

“Post-punk” has always been more of a chronological term than an aesthetic one — when it comes to the actual music, “pre-punk” might be a better tag for the way many Reagan-era bands chose to cast new light and darkness on the classic rock and seminal obscurities of the ’60s and early ’70s. Case in…

johnboy were briefly Austin’s most promising underground mayhem-makers, having caught the ear of Butthole Surfer King Coffey (who signed the band to his Trance Syndicate label) as well as the favor of then-newly arrived local hero Bob Mould. But the trio self-destructed just before the release of its second album, leaving artistic promises unfulfilled and…

These Texans began as the Dig, but were forced to yield the moniker to some other faceless young band vying for four of those all-important 120 Minutes on MTV. Seed got theirs with a nonsensical day-glo video for “Rapture” — a sweet, sundrenched ditty that falls somewhere between Blind Melon and Boston, with shrill harmonies…

One of the advantages of growing up musical in Texas is that you can play cowboy rock without getting all stupid and selfconscious about it. Austin’s Texas Instruments don’t waste a lot of time or fuss detailing their stylistic concepts, the unpretentious trio just gets on with it, delivering crisp post-punk songs in a distinctly…

Though the group hails from the indie-rock breeding ground of North Carolina, Jennyanykind stands apart from its statemates with a sound that doesn’t particularly lend itself to 7-inch singles, pogo dancing or triple-bills with Superchunk and the Archers of Loaf. Instead, the trio of bassist Tom Royal and the Holland brothers — Michael (vocals/guitar) and…

By the measure of popular acceptance and record company balance sheets, Eleventh Dream Day’s place in the alt-rock annals is among the most frustrating could’ve-beens. But to a healthy assortment of fans and critics, the Chicago band is a class act all the way, an underrated and reliable font of powerful, expressive rock’n’roll. Formed by…

All punk rockers grow up eventually, but few have done so as gracefully as Penelope Houston. In her solo career, the one-time teenage Avenger treads a softer, often folk-oriented path, successfully avoiding the enervating trap of generic roots ennui. The reasons are simple enough. Over the years, the Californian’s songwriting has become sharp and well…

Downy Mildew is one of those bands whose name approximates its sound, a sound that remains forever tied to a particular place and time: post-paisley underground Los Angeles in the R.E.M.-jangled ’80s. To that basic psychedelifolk construction, the group adds large helpings of 4ADism, arriving at a drenched, delicate and beauteously murky brand of California…

For years, Chuck Prophet did his talking with his fingers, playing the lone guitar-slinger to Danny Stuart’s downbeat raconteur in the core of Green on Red. So it was a pleasant surprise when the San Francisco native finally opened up his mouth and his songbook, revealing a deft, brooding and fully formed singer/songwriter. Brother Aldo…

As long as Green on Red kept going, there was no real reason for vocalist/songwriter Dan Stuart (unlike guitarist Chuck Prophet) to pursue a solo career. But after six records as a fully operative band and four more (plus a live LP and a best-of) with various auxiliary members, Green on Red finally fizzled out.…

Post-punk Americana probably didn’t need its own version of the Traveling Wilburys, but that pretty much describes Gutterball, an offhand fusion of Steve Wynn, the House of Freaks (Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott), occasional HoF touring bassist (and ex-Silo) Bob Rupe and former Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy. As with any impromptu not-quite-supergroup, Gutterball gets by…

Austin’s Stretford has often been accused of affecting its time-honored Britpunk sound a tad too efficiently, right down to the “whoa-oh” harmonies and thickly accented vocals. But the truth is Stretford major domo Carl Normal is an actual ex-pat who was at it well before the Green Day-inspired renaissance. The men and women of Stretford…

The Loud Family by any other name would sound just as poppy, post-modern, kaleidoscopic and nasty/sweet. In other words, it would sound like Game Theory. Loud Family singer, songwriter and guitarist Scott Miller was the driving force in that California band for much of the ’80s; at the end, the group’s ever-revolving lineup had gone…

The first band to appear on New Zealand’s vaunted Flying Nun label (with the “Tally-Ho!” 7-inch in 1981), the Clean technically existed for a mere eighteen months before sending its members (David Kilgour, Hamish Kilgour, Robert Scott and, at times, Peter Gutteridge) off to a multitude of other projects. But over the years, the trio,…

Led by bespectacled University of California philosophy student-turned-professor Franklin Bruno, the prolific Nothing Painted Blue purveys fine, nervous aggro-pop which earned the band a reputation as logorrheic eggheads (for one thing, the obviously self-aware trio named one of its limited-edition cassettes Logorrhea). But though ØPB — the preferred abbreviation, natch — are certainly brainy sorts,…

The Leatherwoods were a loose duo comprised of Kansas-to-Minneapolis transplants Todd Newman and Tim O’Reagan, with assistance from utility man “Pablo Louseorama” (aka Paul Westerberg, who co-wrote two songs while contributing guitar, bass and keyboards). Topeka Oratorio is a lost classic that skirts the edges between exuberant power pop and mournful folk-rock, a record that’s…