Photos at West Coast Sound.  Like The Editors and the Shitty Beatles, Cut Copy practically begged for derision the moment they named themselves. Let’s be honest, these guys aren’t exactly re-inventing the synthesizer, openly cribbing from New Order, Duran Duran, and Human League. Had they signed to Island and been unable to wrangle DFA linchpin […]
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  While inferior but fine noise + noun outfits like Wavves, Women and White Snake, elicit the brunt of blogger bombast, Wooden Shjips stay buoyed if not blotted. Other than Dusted (who consistently get it right), judging from the relative critical and public apathy Wooden Shjips have received, the San Francisco four-piece seem fated for […]
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More excellent photos from Timothy Norris can be found in slide show form at Play. Of Montreal’s career can be cleanly cleaved into three distinct categories. Emerging as part of the second-wave of Elephant 6 bands, the first incarnation of the Kevin Barnes-fronted band recorded a handful of acoustic-skewing and schizo albums, split between tiny […]
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  I wouldn’t describe myself as a “happy” person. Not to say that I’m some sort of lugubrious, sepulchral soul brooding over melancholy poems by lamp light,* but rather, I find “happy” one of those banal adjectives that I tend to associate with watchers of CBS sitcoms, I’m From Barcelona fans and protagonists of the […]
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Larry David articulated the maddening, finger-nail gnawing, pre-election neuroses far better than I can, so no need to reiterate. This final descent towards election day has been excruciating for us all, to the point where it’s nearly impossible to talk about anything else. Hell, on Friday night one of my friends ended up heckling some […]
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Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek on stage at the Palladium. Click on image to view entire slideshow. Photo by Timothy Norris. The irony of Jay-Z being asked to open the revamped Hollywood Palladium wasn’t lost on the man who calls himself “the black Frank Sinatra.” After all, it was 68 years ago last month that the […]
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Prior to Lee Perry and the technicolor Lucky Charms Coat taking over that Mormon bastion, the El Rey theater, I watched Pacewon and his DJ/producer/token white boy, Mr. Green deliver a capable, simple set of beats and rhymes. It was fine, but the entire time I couldn’t help but wish I was watching an Outsidaz […]
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You can get the finger What Finger? The Middle. -Kriss Kross A pox on your house, El Rey Theater. Don’t take it personally. I dig the art-deco interior, the adjoining cafe serving spectacular sweet potato fries, the fact that ticket prices are usually kept decent. Really though–you guys blew it last week. Wail all you […]
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Photo Via New York Times Zimbabwe native and ex-Stylus scribe Andrew Iliff knows more about African music than Vampire Weekend. He also rocks better sunglasses. The house lights finally dimmed, the final stragglers in their places, a single spot lit up over the stage at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, illumining a […]
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(photos by Timothy Norris) Sometimes, I think music critics hate jam bands for the jokes. After all, on that endless litany of items capable of inspiring comedic rancor, nothing is easier to mock than hippies, save for maybe George Bush, nu-Metal and/or Coldplay. It doesn’t exactly help matters either when the moment that you park […]
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