Jello Biafra has called Legendary Shack Shakers vocalist J.D. Wilkes “the last great rock and roll front man.” I don’t know about the “last” part, but I agree that there are not many singers left …
January 16, 2008
Back to profile
Stories by William Crain
< Newer stories
Older stories >
Legendary Shack Shakers
Electric Prunes
The Electric Prunes are best known for their 1966 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night),” a great song and a fantastic example of psychedelia kitsch. With its backwards-playing guitars and unusual echo …
January 9, 2008
Get Back Loretta
It’s probably a bad idea to name your band with a Beatles reference, especially if you write melodic, exquisitely arranged guitar-pop songs with lots of vocal harmonies. That’s like having a Led Zeppelin-y hard-rock band …
January 2, 2008
Venice
Belly Up Tavern, Thursday, December 20, 8 p.m. 858-481-8140. $17. Jackson Browne says they're one of his favorite bands, and he compares their vocal harmonies to Crosby, Stills, and Nash -- an appropriate choice, because …
December 20, 2007
Imperial Teen
Back in the mid-'90s, Imperial Teen charmed critics and indie audiences with their simple, hook-filled songs and friendly stage presence. The band members, Roddy Bottum, Will Schwartz, Lynn Perko, and Jone Stebbins, traded instruments and …
December 13, 2007
Scissors For Lefty
San Francisco has been a big town for Britpop since before they called it Britpop. I don't know why; my guess is that it has something to do with the fog. Ordinarily, this simply means …
December 6, 2007
Vampire Weekend
The Casbah, Sunday, December 2, 8:30 p.m. 619-232-4355. $12. In October, New Yorker magazine published "A Paler Shade of White: How Indie Rock Lost Its Soul," an article by Sasha Frere-Jones in which the always-provocative …
November 29, 2007
Robbers on High Street
New York band Robbers on High Street gets a lot of comparison to Spoon (for Robbers drummer-singer Benjamin Trokan's raspy voice and the band's taut rhythms) and the Kinks (for Trokan's smart, detail-rich lyrics) and …
November 1, 2007
Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara Quin have been playing music professionally long enough to have long since moved on from their folk-rock days (they played one of the Lilith Fair tours -- remember those?) and to develop …
October 25, 2007
The Psychedelic Furs' Talk Talk Talk
"If you like Hendrix, you'll like this," my guitar teacher said, handing me a cassette of the Psychedelic Furs' second album, Talk Talk Talk. More than 20 years later, I have no idea what he …
August 11, 2005