Three years after releasing the raw, dynamic Grinderman, the quartet of Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, and Jim Sclavunos return, and up the ante, with Grinderman 2.
After three albums that touch on personal topics, the scratchy, soulful material of folk singer and banjo player William Elliott Whitmore gets a thematic overhaul, angling toward subdued political themes.
Our list of favorites from last year includes devastating dub metal, organ-fueled psychedelic grind, a re-released classic-rock gem from nearly four decades ago, an international assemblage of punk-infused field recordings, and an Indian/surf/metal take on John Zorn‘s Masada material.
Details emerge about new albums from Isis, Tortoise, Akron/Family, and Stinking Lizaveta; Zu announces some dates for a world tour (a pair of which are with Mike Patton); Dark Meat will go on tour with its 17 members; the Scion Rock Fest hosts a spate of crushing metal bands in Atlanta on February 28.
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Femi Kuti confirms US tour dates, Ennio Morricone will write music for Quentin Tarantino, and we have previews for new albums by Andrew Bird, Burnt by the Sun, William Elliot Whitmore, and Powersolo. Read on.
Spread over five days and dozens of venues, the Pop Montreal music and art festival continues this weekend with seemingly limitless options. If you caught its first two days of great shows and need more, here are our picks for the weekend.
Being in Chicago means always having great show options, and this weekend (bleeding into early next week) is no different. If you’re around our city this weekend, you may see one or all of us at the following shows, including sBACH, the buzzing Nintendo rock project of Hella guitarist and The Advantage drummer Spencer Siem (shown left).
DeVotchKa talks about being cast as a gypsy band, overcoming tepid interest from record labels, and early personnel challenges.
Despite increasingly miserable mainstream hits (how can the radio get any worse?), 2007 was an excellent, indulgent, fulfilling year of music. Here is a look at our favorite ten albums of the year.