For more than 50 years now, the GRAMMY®s have ignited the ire of the entire music industry more than Rebecca Black, Lana Del Rey and William Hung combined. Mostly because it always brings up one simple question: what did the Academy get right this year?
As it turns out, more than you'd think — a fact that's reinforced, year after year, in the following sale, a carefully curated collection of winners (and… more »
When I was 16, Calvin Johnson (K Records) asked me to drum for Beat Happening on their upcoming U.K.tour. I asked my parents if it was OK for me to drop out of high school and go on tour. My dad said it was, under one condition: I had to prove that I could support myself. He arranged for me to stay with my grandparents, where I did piecework in a cucumber… more »
Along with the critical cheers for singer-songwriter Ben Kweller, there’s also been some scattered murmuring that this Frisco kid hasn’t quite lived up to his hype. That, instead of having found his voice, Kweller had found too many voices: whiny Neil, anxious Kurt, wobbly Garcia. No more. Go Fly a Kite is his finest and most focused effort to date.
Ironically, commercial failure’s been good for Kweller’s self-esteem. The rocker, “Mean To Me,” sports a commanding guitar hook and the lines, “Gotta scream at the top of your lungs/Just to get ‘em what you want ‘em to hear.” Country-ish “Out the Door” is another winner, powered by forceful acoustic strumming. The ballad “The Rainbow,” mates Sticky Fingers-era Stones with Beach Boys… more »
Given the utter mediocrity of all participants’ output over the previous quarter-century, there was no reason to expect that A Different Kind Of Truth — the first Van Halen album with David Lee Roth singing since 1984 (albeit with young Wolfgang Van Halen now playing bass) — would be remotely enjoyable. That it holds its own in the context of the band’s late-’70s/early-’80s heritage, and might even be a better long-player than, oh, Diver Down in terms of muscle, idiosyncratic song construction, and pure-assed entertainment value, is downright shocking.
That said, it takes a few tracks to get the engine started. Opener and first single, “Tattoo,” just kinda plods — it sounds like the sort of flyover-country clunker you’d… more »
Not even the otherworldly, questionably authentic personalities behind South African rave-rappers Die Antwoord are immune to dance music’s global takeover. Thanks to beatmaster DJ Hi-Tek, scuzzy techno figured largely into $o$, the manic debut from MC Ninja and his mulletized lady sidekick, Yo-Landi Vi$$er. But their newest effort oozes mainstream oomph-oomph: “Never Le Nkemise” skids to several dubstep halts, and “I Fink U Freeky” is poppy enough to even warrant spins at pretentious bottle-service affairs. After cutting all major-label ties, and retreating to Cape Town, the trio’s typical smut-laden, XXX-lyrics are even sleazier this go-round, but the seeds of this shtick truly blossom when simple off-color antics give way to Ninja’s typhoon flow on “feel-good gangster shit” cut “So What?”… more »
Chances are that Chuck Prophet is either one of your favorite musicians, or you don’t know him at all. Through the 1980s, he was member of the edgy West Coast roots band Green on Red. A solo artist since 1990, he’s a musical omnivore who may remind you of iconoclasts from Alex Chilton to Delbert McClinton, with an internal jukebox, a panoramic passion for pop culture, and a gift for storytelling who creates his own alternative musical universe.
Temple Beautiful is a tribute to longtime hometownSan Francisco. The title song, rich in power chords and handclaps, draws on both ’70s Mott the Hoople and ’80s Kinks, and remembers what it can about days of excess at… more »
The office folks at Righteous Babe Records put this playlist together for eMusic. It has some choice songs from the Righteous Babe catalog but also some friends, openers and influencers we either work with or just plain like to play. Hope you enjoy! more »
