If you're like me this year, your Halloween plans are probably still vacillating as much as the Dow. (Economic jokes are all the rage now, no?) Well, if you're still looking for something really cool to do, let me offer a suggestion.
Feedback - Janet Jackson
Janet "Check Out My Left Nipple" Jackson performed a concert in Michigan last night and cut out a three-song segment of her show that was deemed "too racy."
During one of the three songs, "Discipline," Jackson has been tying down a male member of the audience and "molests" him while back-up dancers simulate sex acts.
Over the last decade the ghostly garage punk band the Spooks have haunted Atlanta's clubs, terrorizing audiences with spectral sounds, and often times dousing onlookers with gallons of blood and severed animal limbs.
The phantasmal five-piece materializes mostly around Halloween to rattle their chains and unleash an unholy cacophony of haunted house rock and roll, usually dressed in tattered white sheets. No one knows who they are or why their unquiet and spirits still linger on earth. Their connection to Atlanta bands the Black Lips, the Kiwis and Baby Dinosaurs vs. Extinction are not clear -- aside from the Die Slaughterhaus Records logo that marks their debut LP, Death From beyond the Grave.
The album's 3-D cover art seals a Pandora's box of echo-heavy rock, disembodied moans and sinister cackles and Theremin squiggles that emanate from somewhere beyond the realm of the living. ... and the songs, "Ceremonial Death March," "California Boys" and "Now I'm Gonna Steal Your Soul" spell out the ghoulish M.O. that drives their beach blanket blood bath sound with horrific clarity.
Crystal Stilts - Crystal Stilts
Slumberland Records remains one
of the best indie-pop record labels of all time, having released albums and
singles from the likes of Stereolab, the Aislers Set, Rocketship, and Velocity
Girl. For much of the '00s, however, the Berkeley-based label has been near
dormant, save for the odd release now and then. Until recently, that is, when
imprint owner Mike Schulman found himself reinvigorated by a new generation of
pop artists and started putting out their records. Two such acts -- Crystal
Stilts and Cause Co-Motion, each from
Louie -- Kimya Dawson and Friends
Kimya Dawson became the unlikeliest of chart-toppers after several of her songs were included on the Juno
soundtrack, but this silly, scatological concept album about kids and
parents isn't inspired by the movie as much as by her own 2-year-old
daughter. Alphabutt is a collection of deceptively simple
sing-along acoustic ditties for, to, and about Dawson's own kid -- and
maybe yours too. Front-to-back, it's her most engaging album ever, even
if it would undoubtedly be too sweet, too homely, and too messy for a
lot of listeners.
Everest - Rebels in the Roses
The Bar - Blink
As the local improvised-music scene has grown, one thing that's defined it is its openness to fresh ideas--rather than maintaining an aesthetic orthodoxy, it's expanded and evolved to accommodate the contributions of new players, both from inside and outside Chicago. On its impressive debut, The Epidemic of Ideas (Thirsty Ear), local quartet Blink. combines jazz, rock, noise, funk, and electronica into an exuberant and impressively coherent whole, the disparate ideas connected by a restless improvisatory spirit.
Red Letter Year - Ani Difranco
She has settled into a life of motherhood and domestic bliss but that doesn't stop Ani DiFranco from opening her new album with a killer line. "New year's Eve we dropped mushrooms and danced round the house," she sings, creating a clever metaphor for the surreal horror of life under the Bush administration. A resident of New Orleans, DiFranco employs the Crescent City's famed Rebirth Brass Band to offer simmering horns that, along with a subtle string section, reinforce the song's pathos. Most of Red Letter Year follows the title track's richly orchestrated template, with the singer/songwriter covering topical and personal material.
From the flower children to their neo-psychedelian children, get hip to the fogtown sounds.
From garage rock to grunge, your guide to all things Northwest.
Club Bangers and Street Anthems.
From indie-rock, post-punk to some styles of music that don't have names yet.
Brand new releases from indie favorites and future dorm room darlings.