The trouble with talking about a discrete movement in pop music is that there’s only so much one can say; and more often than not, what one can say is probably a woeful generalization. Take, for example, Andy Cabic of Vetiver. Willfully nebulous though it may be, there’s probably no current movement more discrete than the quote-unquote “freak folk” Cabic and his more famous friend, Devendra Banhart, have been slowly and steadily bringing to the indie limelight since 2002 or so. It can be …

In 1929, Luis Bunuel directed a film called Un Chien Andalou. Perhaps you’ve heard of it: co-written with then-Surrealist artist and provocateur Salvador Dali and possessed of an infamous opening sequence that still shocks today, it was met with admiration in artistic circles but with much more widespread revulsion from the general public – though not, as is often apocryphally claimed, with the riots which would eventually greet Bunuel’s second collaboration with Dali, 1930′s L’Age d’Or. Look at the first two films by this …

The histories of country and soul music have always run parallel. Both emerged from the lower-class environs of the Deep South in the early 20th century, blending varying amounts of blues, jazz, gospel, and Appalachian folk music to achieve two discrete concoctions whose surface distinctions — mainly bound to race — only served to mask identical hearts. Over the years, more musicians than can be named here have recognized these crucial similarities; from the “Cosmic American Music” of Gram Parsons and the Flying …

What is this, a time warp? Here I am in June of 2006, and the face that stares back at me from the promo CD on my desk might as well have stepped right out of 1981. That curled lip. That spiky fringe of jet-black hair. Those thick clouds of eyeliner around the toughest set of sloe eyes in rock’n’roll. It’s Joan Fucking Jett: trailblazing female rocker, inspiration for Guitar Wolf’s “Jett Rock’n’Roll,” and probably the hottest alleged lesbian ever to pour herself …

Okay, Indie Kids, let’s play Imaad Wasif trivia. We’ll start with the easiest question: what extremely popular (well, in indieland) band is Wasif touring with? Yes, you with the horn rims and asymmetrical haircut. No, the one to your left… Correct! It would be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Now, name two of the three bands he’s been associated with before this solo release. Okay, you, the girl in the Sesame Street shirt who needs to eat a sandwich…Oh man, you totally nailed all three. He …

I have long held the opinion that with every album a band releases, there should be change, evolution, and growth. It’s for this reason that there’s a lot of people out there who would probably consider me to be a punk rock heretic; but the fact of the matter is, when it comes to Southern California’s Bad Religion, I just prefer the newer stuff to the old. This isn’t to say that I can’t appreciate their classics, but with every album there’s a noticeable …

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 …

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 …