Music

CD by Nudity. Discourage Records. Chances are that if you’ve been grooving to the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Earthless and Wooden Shjips, or taking advantage of the recent slew of psych/space rock reissues, then Nudity is more of what you’re looking for. The influences are easy to spot, and as the band will tell […]

CD by Garth Vader. January 2008 saw the release of Mr. Garth "Culti"-Vader’s second album Unpredictable Individual. Rebellious and independent, the album is the evolved expression of a talented hip hop artist firmly centered in the place he lives. Garth represents California, specifically Humboldt, and of course the roughneck weed-growing culture, in more than 20 […]

Live Feb. 8 at the Van Duzer Theater If a creek could gather itself together into human form and walk onto a stage to pour forth its voice it would sound like the Del McCoury Band. There, the clear, crisp water pattering over hard rocks, merry and relentless as Rob McCoury’s banjo headed pellmell toward […]

Book by Sherman Alexie. Little, Brown Young Readers A diary is kept, usually in secret, as a means of disclosing one’s true feelings. To publish a diary during one’s lifetime is simply social suicide. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,however,is meant to portray the fictitious observations and drawings of a boy, […]

Live Jan. 27 at the Red Fox Tavern. Last week offered a stunning collection of hip hop shows — more touring legends than anyone could possibly see in seven days. The competition for fan dollars was stiff and many folks had to choose between conscious star Mr. Lif, Masta Ace’s new supergroup EMC and LA […]

CD by The Magnetic Fields. Nonesuch Records Distortion is supposed to be Stephen Merritt’s take on the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy.This from Merritt himself, who’s been touting J&MC’s 1985 masterpiece as the last good pop album ever made in recent interviews. (Maybe he never heard Radiohead. Or Oasis. Or Nirvana. Or the Postal Service. […]

DVD Directed by Dean DeBlois. Xl Recordings Since critics are legally required to refer to their music as "epic," you might expect a film about Sigur Ros, who are better at creating spacious hugeness than any other working rock (post- or otherwise) band, to be overtly grandiose itself. Two obvious predecessors, U2’s Rattle and Humand […]

Live performance Jan. 20 at Yoshi’s San Francisco Seattle-based jazz guitarist Bill Frisell claims two very different guitar players as main influences: Jim Hall and Jimi Hendrix. He was a student of Hall, whose cool harmonic style was Frisell’s primary jazz influence, and like most electric guitarists who came of age in the ’60s he […]

CD by Pet Genius. Hydrahead. From the primal angst of Cave In to the quirky pop meanderings of his numerous side and solo projects, Stephen Brodsky has always displayed a penchant for inspired and inventive songwriting. What is baffling, however, is that outside limited circles of the indie underground, Brodsky has not received the success […]