Everyone's a Critic
The sold-out Belly Up show saw a front-row throng of doe-eyed hippy chicks in tangled hair casting quixotic glances at Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros singer Alex Ebert while eight other performers sing and …
I guess it's in their DNA. There must have been a Yiddish progenitor of Dylans Bob and his son Jakob sitting around campfires with cowpokes singing and strumming. First came Bob's "Lay Lady Lay," and …
There have been moments in Frisell's career where he may have been the most startlingly original guitarist in jazz; on this night, he sounded like Jerry Garcia on Thorazine. The concert began with 10 minutes …
What initially presents as a rather unremarkable collection of subdued sounds with thoughtful, poetic words rewards re-listens by gradually fanning out like a deck of lovingly drawn oracle cards. Guitarist/singer Itai Faierman ("storyteller" seems as …
With a repertoire dating back to the late ’70s, Elvis Costello's stop at the Balboa Theatre featured an eclectic mix of old, new, and rare. Playing in a solo, mostly acoustic setting, the U.K.-born singer-songwriter …
Diminutive, 68-year-old Polish free-jazzman Tomasz Stanko led a new quintet of 30-something Scandinavians through a thoughtful, occasionally fiery 90-minute set. Stanko has come a long way from when he was initially dismissed as a Lester …
"Dammit people, I am NOT up here casting spells!" my band teacher often brayed when rehearsals got stuck. Arrington de Dionyso, though, just might be casting spells. Sure sounds like it. He sings everything on …
When was the last time you went to the symphony to hear an electric guitar riffing over the orchestra? Or a conductor introducing a musical number in a tunefully improvised a capella (when he isn't …
On their debut prog-y concept album, Louisiana-based metal quartet Tetrafusion dare to depict the life of the universe -- sans vocals! Not only are they up to the task, they have created a tour de …
Actress Zooey Deschanel has nailed a role that legitimizes her as a singer-songwriter, not just some hipster starlet testing her cred. Backed by songsmith M. Ward, She & Him's new LP is loaded with stripped …
The eight members of the Hutchins Consort schlepped their fiddles to the Encinitas Public Library to give a demonstration of microtonalism. They play instruments built by the late Dr. Carleen Hutchins to cover the entire …
In a March BeatCrave interview, Lanterns guitarist-vocalist Lowell Heflin expressed the band's collective admiration for the Ramones and the Clash, then went on to share how the local foursome got "really hard..." into Sonic Youth …
The Black Eyed Peas opened their 17-song set with, appropriately enough, "Let's Get It Started," and the song got the job done, as it just got better from there. Fergie was given the stage to …
So maybe manager Kim Fowley did want to sheath them in transparent togs and call the whole thing statutory rape. That's one of many myths you won't find addressed in Bud Scoppa's liner notes, settling …
Lord Howler played their third show to a crowded Bar Pink. A Flying V and a left-handed Les Paul harmonized leads over driving, Van Halen bass. “Let's get it on!” Front man Charlie says. “This …
If MGMT's first album, Oracle Spectacle, was fine wine, then sophomore set Congratulations comprises the dregs. The album lacks the pop appeal and cocaine bass lines that commercial radio has become addicted to. The nine …