Hey, dudes. Glad you could make it to The Cube, The Gelatinous Cube, Cube House; where the house is square but nothing else is, ha-ha, sorry. If that’s a bit obvious, at Gel’ House we feel like inside jokes are exclusionary. It’s not that we don’t have a sense of humor; we just don’t identify as funny. You can park anywhere. Just make sure you duck tape the windows and leave a band member in the van at all […]
In late 1996, I heard the band Rex for the first time. A few friends had recommended their music and I, eager to delve further into the new-to-me world of indie rock, embraced their album C. A few months later, I helped put together a show that they played at NYU. I kept on listening to C over the years, though — for whatever reason — I never again saw them live. Were I to venture a guess, I’d say […]
Shannon and the Clams make classically stripped-down music: over tautly-played guitars, the interweaving vocals of Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard lay out surreal narratives. It’s a timeless style, and it works. Their new album, Dreams in the Rat House, continues their tradition of taking a solid garage-rock sound and taking it to surreal places. (Think The Cramps; think Panther Burns.) It doesn’t hurt that both Shaw and Blanchard also make music as part of other, equally impressive, groups: Hunx and His Punx and […]
I’ve been listening to “Spanish Bombs” by The Clash on obsessive repeat all weekend. Even though London Calling is one of those albums that I’ve listened to a thousand times, “Spanish Bombs” always just acted as one of the songs that go into making the London Calling one of the best complete albums ever pressed to vinyl, no more important than the title track, “Lost in the Supermarket,” “Death or Glory,” or any of the other songs on the near-perfect […]
The first time I heard the music of Chris Salveter, it was in Low Skies, a band whose songs sat at some taut crossroads between the elegaic and the Gothic. Their 2006 album All the Love I Could Find remains a favorite, and I was thrilled, when listening to the latest album by Judson Claiborne — my first exposure to the band — to hear a familiar voice in the mix. We Have Not Doors You Need Not Keys is Judson Clairborne’s third album since […]
Last month I found myself in an almost dangerously sweltering show at Death By Audio in Williamsburg, contemplating the ongoing 90’s alt-rock revival from up close. The evening started off with the riff-heavy California X, whose crunchy guitar sound brings to mind a hundred different grunge and alternative singles from my early adolescence, and continued with Roomrunner, a group whose music is specifically designed to encourage headbanging. By the time headliners Speedy Ortiz took the stage, the crowd had entered […]
Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen by Al Jourgensen with Jon Wiederhorn Da Capo; 278 p. In the collection of moments of stylistic dissonance that is Stephen Spielberg’s 2001 film A.I., one choice stands out in particular. Partway through the film, the central characters end up trapped in a rural fair, the sort of place at which families attend as one, musicians play on homey stages, and unhealthy food is consumed en masse. (Admittedly, this county fair is […]
Rick Moody’s fiction has touched on everything from industrial New Jersey wastelands to surreal Southwestern landscapes of the near future. He has been an advocate for iconoclastic artists ranging from Amy Hempel to The Feelies; a book of his writings on music, On Celestial Music: And Other Adventures in Listening, was released last year. This year brings with it the release of Night, Sleep, Death, the third album from the Wingdale Community Singers, Moody’s band with David Grubbs and Hannah Marcus. Via email, […]