The writing on a t-shirt that a kid in line for this night’s show was wearing said it all: "Exhume the wretched body from its timeless slumber." The death-roars that singers of metalcore and death metal bands use is the voice needed to awaken the dead. Tonight I was going to witness a perturbed spectacle, an obvious oxymoron of musical and spiritual intrigue—a Christian death metal band (hardcore genre-ists, please forgive me if you feel I am generalizing the use...

“Is ok?” These were the first words from Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, who was clad in draping body wrap, a deep blue turban and the unlikely addition of a single cutaway Martin acoustic guitar. At this point the show had barely begun and the band had only completed two numbers with a stripped down accompaniment of an acoustic guitar, a muted electric rhythm guitar and a choked hand drum. Fans of Tinariwen’s recordings, a thirty-something crowd who filed in late to...

While I have to admit that my heterosexual crush on Damon Albarn failed to reach frightening proportions until I first heard The Good, The Bad and The Queen, I’ve always been a huge fan of his work with Blur and Gorillaz. His Britpop days with the former cemented him as a star in Europe; yet, it wasn’t until his work with latter (the animated band named after a couple of monkeys) that he garnered the widespread attention of Americans. Naturally,...

Check out a photo series from the performance at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco from November 17. More on Johnette Napolitano here: www.johnettenapolitano.com More on David J here: www.davidjonline.com More on The Minor Canon here: www.myspace.com/theminorcanon...

New York City's own Interpol will release Interpol Live, the band's first-ever official live recordings, today, exclusively through thinkindie.com. Thinkindie.com services independent music retailers with exclusive and rare items that are not available via major chain and big-box stores. The six-song Interpol Live EP features two tracks from the band's gold-certified 2002 debut Turn On the Bright Lights ("Obstacle 1," and "Stella Was a Diver And She Was Always Down") and four tracks from Interpol's current...

It has almost become de rigeur for Trent Reznor to release the content from his newest album of the moment to a bunch of DJs and producers, letting them have their way with it and then putting out the results—he's been doing it since Downward Spiral. There's no doubt that the results have been mixed too (Fixed was remarkably weak while Further Down the Spiral wasn't too bad, the Every Day is Exactly the Same EP was boring and so...

Apparently Ryan Adams & The Cardinals can’t get enough of the road and will be continuing their recent string of some of the best-reviewed performances of their career on a west coast tour this winter. These dates will start in mid-January and last through the end of the month. The west coast tour extends what has already been an immensely productive year for Ryan Adams & the Cardinals. In addition to their unanimously acclaimed new album Easy Tiger, the band...

2007 proved to be a stellar year for the remix. From the ludicrous, but nonetheless “we taking over” boldness of DJ Khaled’s “I’m So Hood (Remix)” to the unending abundance of the many reinterpretations of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” (winner goes to Les Rythmes Digitales…sorry Spank Rock and Mos Def), 07 brought its fair share of arpeggios, with each and every one peaking at RSVP-required social gatherings, or if you’re lucky, a party mix a pal might’ve made for you....

There’s something to be said about going to a concert by yourself. Because I tend to hate those obligatory awkward moments standing by myself and pretending to check phone messages I don’t really have—I usually travel with a small entourage. But since the teeny venue sold out quickly (the performance was a rescheduled date after the summer cancellations due to Silverchair’s Daniel Johns’ throat infection), I was forced to suck it up and rock it solo. And you know what?...

There's a dark pall that hangs over the world inhabited by The Cape May. Clinton St. John's slow shuffle of a voice on Glass Mountain Roads invites comparisons to Will Oldham, specifically his Superwolf collaboration with Matt Sweeney, all dour and emotive. The stories—and they are stories—in each track are inflected with the kind of hope that seems destined to fade into the bitter grind of unfulfilled promise. Guitar heroics and drum frenzies aren't going to be heard here; rather,...