IS IT ME OR DOES a lot of the best current club music seem to be inspired by the slaloming-down-the-Himalayas rush induced by crystal meth and coke? Now, I’m not advocating the intake of those drugs, but it’s hard to deny that their effects can lead to some extraordinary recording sessions. And, you’ve surely noticed, […]
Dave Segal
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Eight-Track Mind
Ariel Pink’s Decadent Pop
“I DON’T HAVE ANY ambitions,” declares Ariel Pink. “I suppose I’d like to retire while I’m still in my 20s. That takes money. I want money. What else is there?” Well, music, love, and sex, for three. But like just about everything from the mouth or keyboard of Ariel Pink (born Ariel Rosenberg in 1978), […]
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Stranger than Fiction
Cage’s Explicit (Dis)content
A helluva movie could be made about the life of rapper Cage (Chris Palko)—one that would make 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Tryin ‘ seem like Disney fodder. In brief: Cage’s Germany-based MP dad had his young son tie up his arm so he could shoot junk; dad went to jail when Cage […]
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Regal Tender
Broadcast’s Euphoric Inertia
Couples in rock: Don’t you just adore ’em? Kim and Thurston, John and Yoko, Sonny and Cher. To this impressive pantheon add Broadcast, who’ve been led since 1995 by vocalist Trish Keenan and bassist James Cargill. Their partnership is a testament to the concept of finding a niche and sticking with it, despite countless lineup […]
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Unhinging the Doors
Black Dice Break Your Third Ear
Black Dice Wed Oct 5 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside In this time when every musical niche is lousy with earnest bands and solo artists angling for a minuscule sliver of attention, it becomes increasingly difficult for said bands/artists to bust through the morass of mediocrity clogging the portals. As you read this sentence, […]
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Bloody Outrageous
The Hospitals’ Radical Ear Surgery
The Hospitals Thurs Sept 15 Food Hole 20 NW 3rd If at all possible, stay the hell away from hospitals. They are horrific places, incubators for disease, and hazardous to one’s mental health, even under the best circumstances. If confronted with the Hospitals—a San Francisco trio consisting of Adam Stonehouse (drums, vocals), Ned Meiners (guitar), […]
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Doom for Improvement
Earth’s Big Twang Theory
“There were certain things I wanted to hear that weren’t out there, I guess,” says Earth major-domo Dylan Carlson in a halting nasal twang.
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Oh, the Inhumanity!
The Juan Maclean’s Robot-Rock Redux
The dirty little secret about red-hot label DFA Records is that it’s populated with grumpy, semi-old men
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Rays of Dope
Sunburned Hand of the Man’s Eternal Jams
Sunburned Hand of the Man Thur Aug 25 Loveland 320 SE 2nd “You gotta see ’em live to really understand their greatness”—Sunburned Hand of the Man epitomize that common saying. The large, amorphous collective’s music seems diminished on disc or wax. Live, however, Sunburned excel at shamantric, extemporaneous workouts, as wild spirits inhabit their bodies, […]
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Space is Displaced
Metalux Fry You to the Moon
Metalux Thurs July 28 Food Hole 20 NW 3rd <p. Metalux guitarist J. Gräf habitually snaps photos of her band’s audiences. Reversing the usual fan/artist interface has resulted in many interesting shots. Metalux crowds “often have a mysterious combination of looks,” Gräf relates. “They’ll simultaneously be really attentive and open while looking horrified. Which is […]
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Rustbelt Rustics
Blanche’s Motown Country
Blanche Fri June 24 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside Blanche’s If We Can’t Trust the Doctors… is probably the greatest alt-country album ever to come out of Detroit. This work possesses the air of something built to last and resonate deeply in the hearts and minds of the genre’s hardcore–and with people indifferent to […]
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Confusion Is Sex
Gang Gang Dance Battle that Not-So-Fresh Feeling
Gang Gang Dance Wed June 8 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd “When the going gets tough, the weird turn pro,” the late Hunter S. Thompson famously muttered. Which may explain why the troupe of bizarre New York bohos known as Gang Gang Dance are touring dozens of European and North American cities to crowds consisting […]