If you think that techno is a dead letter today, nearly as dated as a circa-1999 Ricky Martin ditty, you're more than a tad off-base. Sure, hip-hop rules the airwaves and many nightclubs, but the sounds of techno and trance still reign at many nocturnal spots.
After a progression from post-rock to mariachi-influenced rock, Tucson-based outfit Calexico has completed yet another transformation: This week's release of "Garden Ruin" is a realization of the band's steady progression from lo-fi experimental to jazz-influenced rock and finally to a more solidly song-oriented Americana sound.
If the future has a soundtrack, the new Flaming Lips album just might be it. Looking from Earth out into time and space and then back at ourselves, these big, cosmic songs ask the big questions but manage to keep it light at the same time. Plus they make a lot of cool noises, too.
After three years in the dark, fans of the NYC rock collective Yeah Yeah Yeahs finally have something to sink their teeth into. After various deceptions regarding the nature of their new record and its title (specifically one rumor that hinted that the project was to be a concept album about lead singer Karen O's Chilean pet cat), their sophomore effort, "Show Your Bones," hit the shelves last week. But don't worry; it's not of a feline nature.
In their breakthrough 2001 album, "Underground Network," Anti-Flag took a solid stance against corporate media and put their ideas to catchy tunes, creating some of the most popular politically-charged music of the last five years; their latest effort, "For Blood and Empire" is more of the same, but under a shiny, new corporate label.
For anyone with more than a passing interest in pop music, it is incredibly difficult to like hip-hop. So much of the genre seems dominated by repetitive, uninspired, homophobic, misogynistic half-wits whose primary interest in making music is making dollars. For many, these qualities make it difficult to reconcile their appreciation for mainstream rap with their appreciation for good music. As a result, serious music fans who also are interested in hip-hop are forced to listen to a tiny group of creatively acceptable, "underground" rappers that too frequently sound stilted, boring and, worst of all, alike. Caught between maintaining their credibility as fans and satisfying their need for beats and rhymes, serious music aficionados who explore hip-hop often end up unfulfilled.
It's been a productive few years for Chicago-based jam/prog rockers Umphrey's McGee. Thanks in part to a relentless bi-coastal touring schedule and the release of their critically lauded album "Anchor Drops" (2004), Umphrey's has been riding a wave of popularity.
When NBA player Carlos Boozer rented out his house to Prince, he should have known he wasn't going to get it back in the same shape. He should consider himself lucky that the biggest changes were a newly purple exterior adorned with the Prince symbol and the name of his new album, "3121."
In comparison to their 2001 debut "They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top," Liars' new record, "Drum's Not Dead," sounds as if it were made by a totally different band. The stark contrast makes sense, though, as over the course of five years the quartet has lost two members and gained one, and has changed its headquarters from NYC to Berlin.
Remember the days when the artistic expression of a musician was more than a couple of singles? When an entire album was focused around a central theme that wasn't the opposite gender? For those of you who believed the idea of the "concept album" to be a thing of the past, do yourself a favor and pick up Ben Harper's new release, "Both Sides of the Gun."
Opposites attract. This fact is often a governing principle in relationships, as well as the magnetic properties of certain minerals. But is it true for musicians as well? Can two seemingly dissimilar artists successfully unite to create compelling and melodious music? When the combination consists of former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age vocalist Mark Lanegan and former Belle and Sebastian cellist/vocalist Isobel Campbell, the answer is an easy yes. Their latest release "Ballad of the Broken Seas" is proof enough.
The year 1958 was a significant one for contemporary artist Frank Stella. Born in the suburban town of Malden, and a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Princeton, Stella moved to Manhattan in 1958 to begin his life as a painter.
There is an old adage that says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." If something gets the job done, messing with it will probably foul everything up, right? Sure, in our rapidly advancing technological world of today, devices and methods are reconstructed pretty often, but the main principles of the design or practice are always upheld in the final product.
Over the past few years, the music scene of the Tufts community has had a shadow cast upon it by theMark. With a current incarnation made up of seniors Paul Farris, Alec Eiffel, and Jordan DeLiso, recent grad Jason Autore, and non-Tufts newcomer Jay Lovell, theMark has opened Spring Fling and has played everywhere from Hotung to local clubs (including The Paradise and Avalon).
As of late, New Pornographers fans have had much to rejoice about and much new material to relish. The Canadian indie rock outfit recently released 2005's critically acclaimed "Twin Cinema" and treated audiences across the country to a joint tour with Belle and Sebastian.
You know those generic-sounding pop/rock tracks that car companies use as background music in commercials? I had always assumed they were produced by advertising executives, pressed for time and money and lacking any sort of musical talent or experience.
There's a big difference between something that's extraneous and something that's missing. For example, DVDs are loaded with inconsequential deleted scenes, unfunny blooper reels and unrated "Collector's Editions" that give you the impression that you missed out on something when you saw the movie in theaters. When you get home and actually watch the extras - if you even watch them at all - you find 90 percent of them are garbage. No one wants to see Adam Sandler's misunderstood masterpiece "Little Nicky" restored to the former glory of its star's original vision. Nobody should want to get the unrated version of "Old School," because all you see is more of Will Ferrell than is good for you. These scenes aren't missing from the movie, they just weren't good enough to make the cut.
"The face must not be caught in a bearing that is too suggestive of a short period of time." While David Hockney, the best-known British artist of his generation, is referring here to his so-called composite Polaroid pieces, specifically "Billy Wilder Lighting his Cigar," all of his portraits transcend time. He paints a history behind each face.
It is not difficult to see why Charles Dunlap would choose to collect primarily Rococo French drawings and paintings.
In the '60s, the Kinks were a seminal rock band that made their point with blistering riffs and catchy melodies. Even in the '70s and '80s, the band kept on touring and producing new material, although to an increasingly small audience.
