[Thie piece appeared in Popshot.]

Included in the elaborate artwork for Talking Heads’s recent box set, Once in a Lifetime, is a page of David Byrne’s notes for possible songs. Typed in all capital letters is his idea for one song: “MY ATTEMPTS TO BE AMERICAN.” Byrne, born in Scotland and raised in Canada, was an alien in the US. He was also an alien at art school: the Rhode Island School of Design. There he met Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, but he left RISD before graduating (Weymouth and Frantz completed their degrees). Byrne lived briefly in Baltimore and San Francisco before returning to Providence (where he formed the Artistics with Frantz) and then to New York.
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The Sounds with Division of Laura Lee @ The Mercy Lounge, Nashville, 4/21/04

Firstly, the bass players of these two bands are terrific rock sidemen. Jonas Gustavsson of Division of Laura Lee plays the perfect Keith Richards of the band – feet wide apart, knees pointed together, strumming his bass across the neck. When he stepped up to sing “Dirty Love,�? it was like Keith’s “Little T & A�? – a little bit cooler than Mick’s songs. (more…)

Imaginary Baseball League
Revive
(What A Waste Recordings)

Like a host of emotional British rock bands – Radiohead, Coldplay, Travis - Imaginary Baseball League tend toward broad, athemic tunes often held together on gossamer guitars and faint keyboards. Despite their epic quality, IBL’s songs explore the intensely personal. They create maudlin anthems of intimate events. And when IBL flirts with the rhythms of Americana music, they do with authority – Imaginary Baseball League hails from Murfreesboro. (more…)

After success as a member of Goodie Mob and guest of Outkast, Cee-Lo Green really established his presence with his solo debut, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections. Part player, part preacher, Cee-Lo produces a fluid assimilation of hip-hop, funk, gospel, and rock. The result is the rare musical style that suits its practitioner perfectly. His new album Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine backs up its titular declaration with easy head-bobbing grooves and smooth musical accompaniment.
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[This preview of a DOLL show originally appeared in All the Rage.]

A couple of years ago when great bands suddenly started spilling out of Sweden, they were immediately saddled with a retro stigma and filed under “garage rock.�? Sure, The Hives and The (International) Noise Conspiracy dressed and sounded like they been raised in American garages in the 1950s and 60s. And the Sounds were the spitting image of a late 70s Blondie. But another fine Swedish band, Division of Laura Lee, mistakenly got lumped together with this new wave/garage revival. (more…)

[This piece originally appeared in All The Rage.]

You could be forgiven for being intimidated by The Distillers. Their first two albums for Hellcat Records epitomized punk rock’s ethos: nasty, brutish and short. Anger, revenge and freedom were the main themes. Their third album, last year’s Coral Fang, released on Sire Records, marked a turn in The Distillers’ sound. While still vicious, it is less jagged and more streamlined — in the way that a stiletto is an improvement upon a shiv. Singer/guitarist Brody Dalle’s voice no longer grabs your short hairs on the first note, but seduces you before going for your jugular. New guitarist Tony Bradley adds dimensions to the songs, which are broader and more dynamic.

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Led by two sisters, HKK play bare-bones, shouty garage punk. Eleven songs go by in a brief 25 minutes. Best of all, they recall when “pop punk” still sounded a little punk.
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