At the heart of a good cover pulses synthesis. Requiring more than just fidelity to note, timbre, and technique, a few good covers exceed their predecessors (dare I suggest The Byrds' version of "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man"?) but most re-workings of widely loved and well-crafted songs simply bring about works of faithful, albeit limited, duplications. A good rendering obliges more than just love. In listening to the eclectic collection of songs and songsters on this album I realize that a...

On October 18, 2000, Zack De La Rocha announced that he was leaving Rage Against The Machine. Less than a month later, in a storm of irony that not even Oscar Wilde could have dreamt up, our current president won his first presidential election. Rage had always flown in the face of the Clinton administration, and now an even less desirable political camp would take power easily and entirely un-raged against. As the din quieted from the Rage faithful, the...

Eddie Argos is coincidental. After forming a band, he and his fellow Art Brut members got together and practically ad-libbed their debut sensation, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. “It was nerve-wracking this time around,” exclaims Argos. “We had written all the songs live. I never sat down and wrote words, I just sort of sang things and they became songs. Not doing that was different. We became obsessed with equations and maps as well when we...

Almost a year-and-a-half after releasing the darkly mellow album Makers, Rocky Votolato is heading in a new direction with his soon-to-be-released The Brag and Cuss. He is still the same singer/songwriter whose raw vocals evoke real emotion, but this time he's with a full band and has chosen a sound even closer to his Texas roots. Lyrically, Votolato sticks to storytelling, drawing inspiration from places you would never guess, including the 60's Beat Generation and Transcendentalist philosophers. Thoughtful and artistically...

Just when you thought you’ve outgrown heavy metal, along come a band called Mastodon. Their name alone evokes a primal, prehistoric struggle for survival in a world that can be both dangerous and healing. The growling wails of vocalists Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds appeal to the most ancient parts of the cerebral cortex as you take in music that franticly expresses the struggle of man on a gut level. Mastodon is able to transform their music from calm to...

A recent discussion went like this: Me: Dude, Bill Callahan is playing with Jandek. Female Friend: The only good thing Bill Callahan has done recently is to put it to Joanna Newsom. Me: Are you kidding? His records keep getting better. Female Friend: What? No way. Me: Everything since Red Apple Falls has gotten better and better. Female Friend: That's funny, because that's when I stopped listening. Me: Knock Knock? Even the last one, A River Ain't Too Much to...

Is it me or do all music festivals have to have ridiculous names? Lollopalooza is pretty dumb. Bonnoroo sounds like there will be an overwhelming amount of patchouli and hacky sacking to enjoy. And then there’s Sasquatch! who could probably use a few dabs of the oil to hide that hundred-year-old stench. But, in reality, it could be called Colon-Cleanse-fest 2007, and as long as Bjork, Interpol, Blackalicious and Tokyo Police Club are playing, I might have to go buy...

Having just experienced Mastodon live last night at the Wiltern in L.A., this news is quite welcome to my everlastingly ringing ears. According to a MySpace bulletin witnessed by Press McGee himself, it looks like Stoner-rockers High On Fire have confirmed that they will be entering the studio this month to record the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Blessed Black Wings (Relapse). The new album will be called Death is This Communion. Enlisting the chops of legendary producer Jack Endino...

The Echo is a place for atmosphere. While the enclave often finds itself housing playful local bands adopting a more lighthearted approach, there are some of those nights that remind Angelenos why they go to shows in the first place. The ethos of the night was set by the lovely, sexually alloyed actress-turned-indie-princess Jena Malone and her band. Malone took the stage with a black bob wig over the top of her mouse brown head, supported by an almost caricatured...

The third installment of Lunarcast features David Wingo, the lead-vocalist and songwriter for the Brooklyn-based band, Ola Podrida. Wingo has been back and forth from Austin to Brooklyn—as well as a few months in San Francisco—before settling down to write the self-titled album out now on Plug Research. The music’s cinematic, storytelling feel stems from a long history of scoring films with childhood friend David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls). But for Ola Podrida, this is an...