Listen! Download “Heaven Is Still Coming,” or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. The final track on Grayskul’s new album, Bloody Radio, “Heaven Is Still Coming” is perhaps the perfect apotheosis of the Seattle group’s dark craft. The lavish drama and horror-movie ambience of their […]
Chris Parker
Bio: After a fond stint in the Triangle, Chris Parker lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where he writes about music and politics for a variety of newspapers and magazines. He has written about music for INDY Week since 2002.
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On Rise Above, The Dirty Projectors cover Black Flag’s debut
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Since punk came along, the cover song has been a frequent expression of disparagement toward mainstream culture. The early template involved stringing up perishable pop goods and eviscerating them with a shotgun blast, as the Circle Jerks did on “Golden Shower […]
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Johnny Irion
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. I don’t know how much time Johnny Irion spent on his new album, Ex Tempore. He’s a veteran, after all. His early ’90s band, Queen Sarah Saturday, signed to Thirsty Ear while he was still in high school, and he’s recorded […]
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Regina Hexaphone
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. After the gentle, hazy drift of its debut, The Beautiful World, it’s strange and thrilling to hear Regina Hexaphone exchange their exquisiteness for greater muscularity. Bassist Chris Clemmons’ presencein concert with Jerry Kee’s tasteful percussionis felt throughout, a wonderful chrysalis that […]
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Randall Bramblett
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Randall Bramblett released two critically acclaimed albums for Polydor in the mid-’70s. For the next 20 years, he entered solo interruptus, playing in the Allmans offshoot Sea Level before backing Gregg Allman, Robbie Robertson, Warren Haynes and Steve Winwood as an […]
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Dale Watson
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Creative people probably don’t have the temperament to be major label record executives. For decades, the big-money machines have been run by risk-averse accountants. Their process essentially translates into slapping some fresh paint on whatever sold last year and waiting for […]
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Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew was playing in a costumed cover band in Nashville when Frank Zappa discovered him in 1977. He’d never played odd time signatures and couldn’t read music, but according to Belew, “[Zappa] wanted to be able to do some of the funnier music and wanted somebody there who wouldn’t object to wearing a dress […]
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Drive-By Truckers’ “Gravity’s Gone”
Listen! Download the Song of the Week. Or stream it: If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. The Drive-by Truckers have always harbored a bit of Replacements envy, particularly Patterson Hood. But “Gravity’s Gone,” the ultimate anthem to the down and out, actually comes from Mike Cooley. A wry, […]
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Merle Haggard
It’s not surprising that Merle Haggard’s music helped set the stage for outlaw country. He was a convicted felon who served three years at San Quentin for burglary. Released in 1960, he was fully pardoned a dozen years later by California Gov. Ronald Reagan, undoubtedly influenced by conservative affection for Haggard’s song “Okie from Muskogee.” […]
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Los Lobos
For some, Los Lobos is nothing more than the band that covers “La Bamba” in the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic of the same name. Were they content with such pop novelty, they might be a lot richer right now. Instead, they’ve established themselves as one of the country’s most enduring, inventive roots-rock outfits, blending Tex-Mex, […]