Past Stories
WEEKLY JIVE
Sian Alice Group—59:59 (The Social Registry)
Oh, to be young and over-hyped. By virtue of the company they keep on their debut—including members of Spiritualized, Spring Heel Jack, and Gang Gang Dance—this Lon...
The Weekly Jive
Sabbat—History of a Time to Come/Dreamweaver (Noise Records reissues)
While the rise of Stateside thrash metal—Metallica, Anthrax, etc—is well documented, similar speedy ‘n sinister happenings on the oth...
The Weekly Jive
The Hands—The Hands (Selector Sound)
The Hands eponymous release is like a shrink-wrapped bar fight. The album takes about 30 seconds to gain its momentum, and then you’re caught up in their social altercation, fist...
The Weekly Jive
Lightspeed Champion—Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (Domino)
Buzz here is that Dev Hynes has butterflied after stints as Nigga Bullshit and other pupal stages of self-discovery, but the truth is that, as with all super ta...
The Weekly Jive
Evangelicals—The Evening Descends (Dead Oceans)
So let me get this straight: The point here is that the drugs are obviously stronger in Norman, OK—and the Evangelicals have snorted, eaten up and smoked every last tr...
The Weekly Jive
Marah—Angels of Destruction (Yep Roc)
It takes a distinctive voice to overcome the solipsistic march-of-the-clichés that characterize most Hello Sobriety records, so hand it to Marah for keeping the navel-gazing in...
The Spinal Tap of hip-hop
Govinda Sky—Surrender (Govinda Sky Music)
The Spinal Tap of hip-hop, Boston’s Gavinda Sky not only claim to have “created a new genre”—“Transcendental Hip Hop”—but have copyrighte...
The Weekly Jive
OneRepublic—Dreaming Out Loud (Mosley Music/Interscope)
OneRepublic aren’t a band; they’re a cynically contrived cash-grab. Dreaming Out Loud isn’t an album; it’s a pathetic, groveling attempt to please as many people...
The Weekly Jive
The Brit Box—UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium (Rhino)
This wittily packaged, four-disc, 78 band/song boxed set offers the most thorough document of 15 influential years (1984-99) of British-base...
The Weekly Jive
Gram Parsons with The Flying Burrito Bros—Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 (Amoeba Records)
Though he was country when country wasn’t cool, Gram Parsons was also cosmic when cosmic absolutely was, and the LSD/twang ...
The Weekly Jive
Siouxsie Sioux, Mantaray (Decca)
Despite her less-than-promising punk beginnings—bumbling through the Lord’s Prayer at London’s 100 club in 1976 and loitering awkwardly behind the Sex Pistols during their lege...
The Weekly Jive
Insane Clown Posse—Jugganauts: The Best of the ICP (Island)
The sad part is that Insane Clown Posse became at least ten times more significant than The Beatles ever did, because while The Beatles hypothesized love as a pa...
The Weekly Jive
SERJ TANKIAN—Elect The Dead (Serjical Strike/Reprise)
A baroque barrage of schizophrenically shifting ingredients—exotic harmonies, red-faced rants, muscle-bound beats, burly guitars, glacial piano and orchestral gi...
