I have compiled a list of several prerequisites for nautical-themed rock. Number one: it should either sound like the ocean, the shore, the wind, or the creaks of a boat. This is hard to do without getting all spiritual and New Age, but it’s still a requisite.
Two: it should be able to catch the mood of pirates. While Johnny Depp is currently the king of pirates, one of my housemates put it correctly when he referred to Tom Waits as “pirate rock.” But I’m going …

Of all the overused, overemphasized, overrated terms in modern indie music, “honesty” must be close to the top. An unfortunate outgrowth of the 1980s’ integrity-obsessed first wave of alternative rock (in the same way that gonorrhea can be an unfortunate outgrowth of sex), “honesty” has served as many a wannabe critic’s highest standard of quality, its absence the cruelest and most demeaning of epithets.
Take a perfectly good, kick-ass rock’n’roll band, who maybe just happen to like a little semi-ironic Spandex in their stage gear, …

A few weeks ago, the Sex Pistols answered their inevitable nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with what many fans trumpeted as an especially “punk” gesture: an open letter, hand-scrawled and atrociously spelled, declaring their contempt for the corporate institution and vehemently declining to appear at the ceremony. And it was pretty punk of them, insomuch as our concept of “punk” in the 21st century has been informed by mass-produced bondage pants, vague notions of “sticking it to the man” …

As anyone who has had the misfortune of taking a postmodern theory course knows, nothing can escape its history. And usually, this historical entrapment is the biggest downfall of most modern music: singers, as we know, have a knack for getting ensnared in the coil of their influences. So with that in mind, you might be tempted to ask who is this Destroyer, with his Tyrannosaurus Rex and Ziggy Stardust feel?
Well, listen up kids: despite the fact that this album was loved by …

There are few bands in recent underground music history who command – and deserve – as much respect as Mudhoney. Survivors of the late-’80s/early-’90s Seattle explosion, singer Mark Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, drummer Dan Peters, and bassist Matt Lukin (replaced in 2001 by Guy Maddison) have been at it since 1988, when their seminal EP Superfuzz Bigmuff accidentally helped to father grunge with its blend of fuzz-drenched Stooges dynamics and ironically detached punk nihilism. In the years since that debut, they’ve plowed an …

For about two years now, the online music magazine buzzword has been “derivative.” Here is an example of how an online music magazine/indie rock know-it-all would use this word: “Oh my God, I can’t believe that no one has noticed how Interpol are so derivative! They’re ripping off Joy Divison!!!! And they’re not even having seizures!!!”
But why exactly is “derivative” such a dirty word? Why is there the belief that every album must be entirely new and original for it to receive a …

Infiniheart
Chad VanGaalen
(Sub Pop)
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the indie singer-songwriter. Yeah, you know the type: plaintive, high-pitched vocals, unorthodox guitar chords. Probably all recorded on a four-track in the artist’s own bedroom. Let’s toss in a quirky album cover, too, with hand-drawn artwork and typeface just to seal the deal. Think Slanted and Enchanted, or the promo art for that Thumbsucker movie. Put it all together and it’s the stuff the Myspace set have wet dreams over, whether they admit it or not.
So good news for Chad VanGaalen: he is, and …