SECTIONS
SITE INFO
Interview: Upgrade
27 August 2007Coupled with soft sentimental lyrics, Los Angeles’s Upgrade plays songs that often lull the listener into two divergent yet symbiotic spheres of being.
La Otracina - Tonal Ellipse of the One (Holy Mountain)
7 August 2007La Otracina journeys back three decades to the days when interstellar explorers traveled on waves of guitar riffs, propelled through space and time by hard-hitting drum juggernauts.
Hella - There's No 666 In Outer Space (Ipecac)
27 January 2007Drummer Zach Hill, says their new album, There’s No 666 In Outer Space, is “easily the best thing we’ve done.” And he’s right.
Danava - Danava (Kemado)
15 November 2006Danava is still one of the most interesting bands in underground hard rock. Judging from last night’s show at Mercury Lounge, they’ve only gotten sharper.
Tool with Isis - Staples Center (Los Angeles) - Friday, September 8, 2006
15 September 2006They certainly gave the spectators wings. And any listener who was not a Tool fan probably found it difficult to resist the siren’s call, as Ulysses had in the fabled Iliad.
The Cardiacs: Valiance and the (Not Quite) Irreconcilable
14 September 2006There is one band that has come closer to simultaneously nailing certain elements of both the essential punk sound and the essential prog sound than any other band I’ve ever heard. That band is the Cardiacs.
Live Tonight at Knitting Factory (New York): The Hyperspace Rock Sound of Blind Idiot God
21 July 2006The short answer to the above questions is that BLIND IDIOT GOD made me feel what it might be like to fly in the Millennium Falcon while inside one of its engines… and enjoy it.
Laddio Bolocko - The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko (No Quarter)
8 June 2006When it all comes together, LADDIO BOLOCKO’s music sounds tight and sparse, yet still expansive, as if it had been recorded in a stone cavern with 100’ ceilings or a cinder block practice room with a sun roof.
Isis with Dalek and Zombi - Avalon (New York) - Thursday, May 4, 2006
8 May 2006Three bands playing three different kinds of music in three tweaked-out ways…
Why Can't Gurlz Shred?
26 April 2006If high technical skill is often achievable for women in Classical realm, why is it so much rarer in Rock?
Jack Rabid’s Top 10
Week of August 17
-
Billy Bragg – Mr. Love & Justice (Anti)
-
Bad Religion – New Maps of Hell (deluxe edition) (Epitaph)
-
Ray Davies – Working Man’s Cafe (New West)
-
Ron Sexsmith – Exit Strategy of the Soul (Yep Roc)
-
Billie Holiday – Beautiful Ballads & Love Songs (Columbia/Legacy/SonyBMG)
-
Everest – Ghost Notes (Vapor)
-
Rob Dickinson – Fresh Wine for the Horses (double CD) (Fontana/UNI)
-
Secret Shine – All of the Stars (Clairecords/Tonevendor)
-
The Effigies – Reside (Criminal IQ)
-
For Against – Shade Side, Sunny Side (Words on Music)