By Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Anti-/Mute Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, the new release from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is Cave’s pop record. Well, it’s his version of pop. Following on the heels of the elegant, stylistic, white gospel, two-disc epic Abaittoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheusand the cathartic dirge of his Grinderman side […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Terror’s Advocate
DVD, directed by Barbara Schroeder. Magnolia Home Entertainment Terror’s Advocate opens with a bucolic scene of the Cambodian countryside, followed by patient shots of a pastel-colored temple amidst the trees and carefree monks strolling barefoot down a dirt path. Cue the soft, tired voice of Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge, responsible […]
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Sixty Days and Counting
Book by Kim Stanley Robinson. Bantam Dell. This is the third and concluding volume of Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy about an alternate present or near future when the world is forced to face a catastrophic climate crisis. But this isn’t another apocalyptic dread-feast. Extraordinary events shape and bend the everyday, but they don’t break it. […]
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Puzzle Pieces
There’s a certain fusion of ancient and modern in the music of Toubab Krewe that grabbed me instantly. At first listen you might think it’s an African band, perhaps brothers to the electric Saharan desert blues of Tinariwen — and they are — but Toubab Krewe is from Asheville, N.C., and their musical merger comes […]
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Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
CD by Leviathan. Moribund Records. Leviathan, aka Wrest, is a one-man black metal project from the Bay Area that has played a crucial role in the development of American black metal, bringing a sense of legitimacy to a scene that for years was perceived to be inferior to its Scandinavian counterpart. Massive Conspiracy Against All […]
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Sway: A Novel
By Zachary Lazar. Little, Brown. Zachary Lazar’s Sway: A Novel is a guide to self-involved characters slopping around in the sexual mud and quicksand of the ’60s. All of the characters are members of The Rolling Stones or were associated with them as the 1960s counterculture went the wrong way. Many had to scream "Gimme […]
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Rip it Off
CD by Times New Viking. Matador. The lo-fi rebellion has come and gone, but its echoes ring in underground rock to this day, liberating bands from the creativity-limiting atmosphere of studio recording and allowing them to hone their expression at home. Years of being a necessity for underground rock bands have made low fidelity a […]
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Slings and Arrows
DVD, Acorn Media. Slings and Arrows was an award-winning Canadian TV series that ran for three seasons there and on pay cable in the U.S., ending last year. The DVDs are showing up now in area video stores, with all 18 episodes available as a set. Set in a Stratford (or even Oregon Shakespeare Festival) […]
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Real Emotional Trash
By Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Matador. Stephen Malkmus, the former frontman and singer/songwriter for Pavement, revels in playing the role of the trickster. His lyrics are often puzzles, roaming the geographical (and metaphorical) map from Bristow, Calif., to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, while sprinkling in references ranging from the photographer Richard Avedon to film noir. […]
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Following the Stream
When you hear Leo Kottke play guitar, you know the instrument is something like his soul mate — playing guitar is what he’s meant to do. As he explained in a recent interview on Minnesota Public Radio, he did not find the guitar initially. When he was a boy, he’d actually taken up trombone and […]
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Sea Lion
CD by The Ruby Suns Sub Pop FellowJournal reviewer Spencer Doran remarked on the "Beach Boys-in-an-airplane-hangar vocals" and sampler loops on Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox’s 2007 album, Person Pitch. Sea Lion, the new release from the Ruby Suns, an ever-changing New Zealand group fronted by multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Ryan McPhun, could be an extension of that […]
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Vs. (Definitive Edition)
CD by Mission of Burma Matador "We hope you remember us as basically a wimpy band with nothing to say," Mission of Burma guitarist Roger Miller disclaims moments before the band bashes their way through the closing number of their last hometown show, included as a bonus DVD to this deluxe reissue of their lone […]