Stories | Of Note Concerts
So Cow
Published March 10, 2010
Brian Kelly is an Irishman who was living in South Korea when he decided to put together a musical project inspired by the scrappy-sounding likes of the Lucksmiths from Australia, the Clean from New Zealand, and ...
Mexican Institute of Sound
Published March 10, 2010
The Mexican Institute of Sound is not an institute, nor is it much of a band. Rather, it is the side project of one man, a Mexico City–based record company executive named Camilo Lara, whom I ...
Clientele
Published March 3, 2010
In a way, it’s hard to imagine a more English band than the Clientele. Maybe that’s because singer-guitarist Alasdair MacLean sings in a hushed, breathy voice that sounds as if he’s trying to win the heart ...
New Mastersounds
Published March 3, 2010
The best funk band working today is not from the U.S., where funk was invented, but from Leeds, England, where funk and soul have been ... More Post a comment
Appleseed Cast
Published Feb. 24, 2010
Usually, when a band plays one of their classic albums in its entirety, it’s to mark a tenth anniversary or something like that. And usually ... More Post a comment
Mother Hips
Published Feb. 24, 2010
The Mother Hips can sound a bit like the Eagles or the Byrds or even as psych-rock as Wilco. There are these nice, occasional arena-rock ... More Post a comment
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Published Feb. 17, 2010
It’s a great name for a band, We Were Promised Jetpacks. The Glasgow indie quartet is something like a motorcycle — their songs are made ... More Post a comment
Dessa
Published Feb. 17, 2010
You’d be forgiven for not thinking of Minneapolis as a hotspot for hip-hop; the city is better known for its long, cold winters than its ... More Post a comment
Suzanne Vega
Published Feb. 10, 2010
The other day I heard the new song “Wide-Eyed, Legless” by singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, and it made me think of Suzanne Vega’s 1986 single “Left ... More Post a comment
Medeski Martin & Wood
Published Feb. 10, 2010
The jazz fan may be confused by my statement that Medeski Martin & Wood is a jam band with traditional jazz roots. After all, isn’t ... More Comment (1)
Vivian Girls
Published Feb. 3, 2010
A few months ago I came across a wonderful new band with a familiar sound. There were jangly and distorted guitars, raggedy drums, aloof female ... More Post a comment
Eric Bibb
Published Feb. 3, 2010
We know the year Mississippi Delta blues legend Booker T. Washington White died, but we can only guess at when he was born. Sometime around ... More Post a comment
Anvil
Published Jan. 27, 2010
If there’s one story we love, it’s the story of a young person who pursues his dream in the face of obstacles — with his ... More Post a comment
Tom Chapin
Published Jan. 27, 2010
In 1969 Tom Chapin was the sound guy on a film crew that spent several months at sea in search of great white sharks. The ... More Post a comment
Black Lips
Published Jan. 20, 2010
Black Lips came out of Atlanta in the early part of the 21st Century as one of the more promising garage-rock-psychedelic-revivalist bands in years. (The ... More Post a comment
Claire Daly
Published Jan. 20, 2010
Claire Daly blows the biggest of big saxes, the baritone sax. It is a monster, maybe twice the size of its cousin, the tenor sax. ... More Post a comment
White Denim
Published Jan. 13, 2010
The first time you hear White Denim’s “I Start to Run,” it sounds so great you can’t believe it. There’s powerful drumming, a driving bass ... More Post a comment
Otis Taylor
Published Jan. 13, 2010
Like a modern-day John Lee Hooker, Otis Taylor can make an entire song from a single riff. Hooker conjured powerful emotions with little more than ... More Post a comment
Sonic Youth
Published Jan. 6, 2010
In 2007 I was lucky enough to see Sonic Youth play their landmark 1988 album Daydream Nation in its entirety. From opener “Teen Age Riot” ... More Comment (1)
Holdsworth, Bozzio, Levin, Mastelotto
Published Jan. 6, 2010
It is doubtful that anyone who knows who these guys are would mind my calling them a supergroup. In the classic sense of the term, ... More Comment (1)
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Published Dec. 30, 2009
JamBase.com says that L.A.’s KROQ aired the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ 1996 single “Hell,” a giddy calypso thing with Sunday-school overtones, as a joke. But “Hell” ... More Post a comment
Night Marchers
Published Dec. 30, 2009
A few years ago, San Diego punk-rock hero John Reis decided that he was tired of playing in two or three bands at the same ... More Post a comment
Reel Big Fish
Published Dec. 23, 2009
Reel Big Fish has been playing ska-punk since the early ’90s and is best known for the 1997 hit “Sell Out,” but to me they ... More Post a comment
Camper Van Beethoven
Published Dec. 23, 2009
Camper Van Beethoven is a California band and were somewhat big in the ’80s. CVB integrates country rock, psychedelic, and faux ethnic things with violin. ... More Post a comment
Zero 7
Published Dec. 16, 2009
Producers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, with their project Zero 7, have long been leaders in the field sometimes called downtempo music. The genre mixes ... More Post a comment
Unwritten Law
Published Dec. 16, 2009
In 2002, someone planted some homemade bombs — dry-ice sealed in plastic jugs — at the apartment of Unwritten Law guitarist Steve Morris. MTV’s website ... More Comment (1)
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Published Dec. 9, 2009
Grace Potter, a Vermont organist-guitarist and singer, showed up on the indie scene five years ago with a rock quartet and the usual stuff: a ... More Post a comment
Tape Deck Mountain
Published Dec. 9, 2009
On their website, you can watch a video of Tape Deck Mountain playing a cover of Danzig’s “Mother” that’s both inappropriate and perfectly right. These ... More Post a comment
Stellastar
Published Dec. 2, 2009
The major eons of rock: In the ’60s it was psychedelic, folk rock, and the British invasion. The 1970s were punk and new wave. The ... More Post a comment
Fresh & Onlys
Published Dec. 2, 2009
I first met Shayde Sartin when he was playing bass in a San Francisco garage rock band called the Hotwire Titans. Later I would occasionally ... More Post a comment
Mike Wofford
Published Nov. 24, 2009
Jazz pianist Mike Wofford once performed with Michael Jackson. Sort of. “This was when it was the Jackson Five,” says Wofford. “It was a summer ... More Post a comment
Big Pink
Published Nov. 18, 2009
The Big Pink take their name from a famous album by the Band, but their music sounds — at first, anyway — as if it ... More Post a comment
Black Crowes
Published Nov. 18, 2009
Georgia rockers the Black Crowes launched their career on the back of two hit records from their landmark debut album Shake Your Money Maker, which ... More Post a comment
Lover!
Published Nov. 11, 2009
Does anybody remember Lost Sounds from Memphis? Cheery tunes, dark themes, noteworthy members. Alicja Trout played in the Clears; Jay Reatard and Rich Crook both ... More Post a comment
Raveonettes
Published Nov. 11, 2009
When the Raveonettes’ Facebook account announced the release of their new album In and Out of Control last month, one disillusioned fan commented, “I don’t ... More Post a comment
Sea Wolf
Published Nov. 4, 2009
When Sea Wolf released their first album a couple of years ago, they had a name taken from a 1904 Jack London novel, music with ... More Post a comment
Electric Six
Published Nov. 4, 2009
I first got tipped off about the Electric Six when a friend sent me links to their videos on YouTube. Funny stuff, in a lowbrow ... More Post a comment
Shonen Knife
Published Oct. 28, 2009
I saw Shonen Knife sometime around ’94, and I remember this odd feeling that I was playing out a role that had been written for ... More Post a comment
Chelsea Girls
Published Oct. 28, 2009
It was close to midnight, and there was an old guy out on the street scrubbing plastic restaurant floor mats. The restaurant was closed. I ... More Post a comment
The Mashtis: Itai Faierman
Published Oct. 21, 2009
They call themselves the Mashtis: Itai Faierman is back with a new band after a four-year hiatus. Before he took off, Faierman spent a lot ... More Post a comment
The Ditty Bops
Published Oct. 21, 2009
The Ditty Bops’ song “Walk or Ride” starts off sounding as if it’s going to be an environmentalist-lesbian-cycling anthem. That would make sense: Ditty Bops ... More Post a comment
Yo La Tengo
Published Oct. 14, 2009
My wife is a practical Midwesterner and doesn’t have a lot of patience for songs that go on for more than three minutes. If we’re ... More Post a comment
Black Heart Procession
Published Oct. 14, 2009
Sit down and pour yourself a big cup of melancholy, and while you’re at it, set some extra places at the table tonight for panic, ... More Post a comment
As Tall as Lions
Published Oct. 7, 2009
When As Tall as Lions played the Casbah this summer, Dan Nigro told the audience that he’d been waiting 27 years (basically, his entire life) ... More Post a comment
Dean & Britta
Published Oct. 7, 2009
When the Andy Warhol Museum decided recently to hire a band to write a soundtrack for Warhol’s famous silent-film screen tests, it couldn’t have picked ... More Post a comment
Bernard Fowler
Published Sept. 30, 2009
The Rolling Stones, who have not recorded anything of consequence for 20 years, have become a road show with their best songs behind them. No ... More Post a comment
Miike Snow
Published Sept. 30, 2009
Miike Snow appeared earlier this year as a near-anonymous trio of Swedes with a name that looks like a typo and a logo that looks ... More Post a comment
Dodos
Published Sept. 23, 2009
Too bad for San Francisco’s Dodos — some critics were not happy with the changes that producer Phil Ek brought to their sound on Time ... More Post a comment
Om
Published Sept. 23, 2009
Om is a metal band — sort of. I should just get that out of the way first, because otherwise the following is going to ... More Post a comment
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Published Sept. 16, 2009
Twenty-three years ago, the British music paper NME (New Musical Express) released C86 on cassette, featuring 22 songs by 22 new bands. Soon, music critics ... More Post a comment
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