Music

Music Seen: Neko Case + Haru Bangs

Neko Case and Haru Bangs last weekend
First things first: Neko Case is the complete package, an unmitigated bombshell (gorgeous, wry, self-effacing) with a singular artistic vision (country/folk songs so heavy on metaphor and animistic and obscure mythological references that you could — and should — unpack them for months) and a voice like an air-raid siren.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | August 12, 2009

Review: Amanda Blank | I Love You

Downtown (2009)
Like many a party person before her, Philly-based electro-rap filly Amanda Blank wants you to know that she has a sensitive side.

By MIKAEL WOOD | August 11, 2009

Review: Robert Pollard | Elephant Jokes

Guided By Voices Inc. (2009)
Pollard doesn't care whether you listen to his music. The entire world could be rendered deaf and he'd still put out a half-dozen albums a year, driven by a need to express the twisted melodies and schizophasic lyrics that clutter his brain.

By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | August 10, 2009

Review: Buffy Sainte-Marie | Running for the Drum

Appleseed (2009)
Recent live appearances by Buffy Sainte-Marie show her, once again, setting herself apart from early colleagues like Joan Baez and Judy Collins.

By GUSTAVO TURNER | August 10, 2009

Review: Fresh Daily | The Gorgeous Killer in Crimes of Passion

High Water Music (2009)
Despite yielding at least half of contemporary hip-hop's subterranean and major-label kingpins, the New York underground is often overlooked when it comes time to dole out props.

By CHRIS FARAONE | August 10, 2009

Flying solo (and duo)

Elijah Ocean and Dave Gutter get busy taking it slow
Think about everything you know about Elijah Ocean and Dave Gutter: Ocean's work fronting the heavy rock trio Loverless, say, or his lead-guitar turn in the radio-rock foursome All the Real Girls; Gutter's piercing vocals out front of Rustic Overtones, or his white-hot bounce in the lead of Paranoid Social Club.

By SAM PFEIFLE | August 05, 2009

Music Seen: Man-Witch CD-release at Geno's

Anyone who doesn't like Man-Witch either didn't watch enough Saturday-morning TV as a kid, or is an incurable sourpuss.

By DAN CLARK | August 05, 2009

Ogre's last hurrah, Dustin Beyette's latest

Sibilance
OGRE 's ROSS MARKONISH checked in this week with some bad news: The band have decided that their 10th anniversary show, September 12 at Geno's, will be their last in Portland.

By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | August 05, 2009

Review: Cobra Starship | Hot Mess

Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance (2009)
Are Cobra Starship's gleeful Day-Glo appropriations and their unbridled enthusiasm really indications of a disparity between intention and expression? Or is their crime simply the meta-mania of their fusion of '80s retro kitsch and '00s celebrity worship? Really, it's neither.

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | August 03, 2009

Review: Howling Bells | Radio Wars

Independiente/Nettwerk (2009)
Australian dream-rock dudes (and dudette) toured North America earlier this year with Coldplay — and like Chris Martin's not-so-merry men, Howling Bells on their sophomore album attempt to dress up what might otherwise be a clutch of dour, namby-pamby white-person ditties with all manner of spicy studio-side textures.

By MIKAEL WOOD | August 03, 2009

Review: Pissed Jeans | King of Jeans

Sub Pop (2009)
Billy Joel told us that the future of Allentown was bleak, but he could never have predicted that out of the decaying Pennsylvania steel mills and a crumbling economy, a sound as ugly and exciting as Pissed Jeans would emerge.

By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | August 03, 2009

Review: Rite Hook | E.ye A.ssume D.amage

Leedz Edutainment (2009)
If it came out that Rite Hook had mysteriously suffocated his baby sister 15 years ago, his fans wouldn't likely be surprised. The Worcester-Boston MC is the kind of dude who tattoos himself, recreationally chokes on half-gram "gaggers," inseminates despicable local groupies, and writes about said activities when he wakes up in the morning.

By CHRIS FARAONE | August 03, 2009

Review: Matt Wilson Quartet | That’s Gonna Leave A Mark

Palmetto (2009)
Whatever else is going on in jazz — fractured meters, indie-pop fusions — it's always good to hear a couple of horns burning through the changes over swing cymbals and a hard-walking bass groove.

By JON GARELICK | August 03, 2009

Review: Speech Debelle | Speech Therapy

Big Dada (2009)
It's unfortunate that there's a glass ceiling in the US market for British hip-hop — but for the lovely, clipped London accent that gives truth to Speech Debelle's delivery, this release would be huge stateside.

By GUSTAVO TURNER | August 03, 2009

The Big Hurt: Pop eroticism, faux sincerity, and sperm motility

Music News in Brief
I am a man who loves a good corporate doofus, and this week's glistening-prize-hog-doofus quote goes to TOM WELCH , Wal-Mart's senior music buyer, who manages to make Foreigner sound even squarer than Foreigner.

By DAVID THORPE | August 05, 2009

Best Music Poll 2009: Anything goes

The underground: saved, salvaged, or savaged?
The underground: saved, salvaged, or savaged?

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 30, 2009

Best Music Poll Concert + Winners

The results are in
View the winners to Boston Phoenix's Best Music Poll; then take part in the live concert on August 1, 2009

By PHOENIX STAFF | August 03, 2009

So good

Spencer Albee's got Spirit. How 'bout you?
One way to experiment with songwriting is to throw convention out the window, eschew verses and choruses, try to be completely unique. Sometimes the idea appears that if a song sounds like anything that came before it, well, that's points deducted like a gymnast who missed her landing. It's derivative!

By SAM PFEIFLE | July 30, 2009

Elijah Ocean, Tony Smokes and the Ladykillers

Sibilance
Yes, we know that there are important albums being released by ELIJAH OCEAN and the new duo of DAVE GUTTER and EVAN CASAS in the very near future. Pfeifle can't review everything in the same week, for Christ's sake, so just lay off and wait till next week.

By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | July 29, 2009

Music Seen: Assemble

Music Seen
This month's Evolve2Advance bash, "Assemble," the latest in a series celebrating the convergence of visual art, music, food, and community, was one of those events whose status update should have read, "Come to SPACE right now for this very cool and under-attended event."

By SONYA TOMLINSON | July 29, 2009