The Heartbreak Kid
We watch two burly customers in tank tops and aerodynamic Oakleys take aim, snicker, and reload. The average paintball rifle has a muzzle velocity between 200 and 300 feet per second; the Freak's protective suit resembles a Jackson Pollock canvas. Do the math. Feel the contusions. From behind a pair of state-trooper sunglasses, Carrabba takes it all in.
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My Morning Jacket, 'It Still Moves' (ATO/RCA)
Think of It Still Moves--the third album by Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket and their first for Dave Matthews’ ATO Records--as a Tennessee Williams play revamped as Southern-rock opera, all gothic romance and alcoholic ardor.
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Dashboard Confessional, 'A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar' (Vagrant)
Mondo Generator, 'A Drug Problem That Never Existed' (Rekords Rekords/Ipecac) ; Fu Manchu, 'Go For It...Live!' (SPV)
Back in 1995, when Kyuss finally disintegrated, nobody outside of a certain sunburned cult could’ve predicted that the Palm Desert goliaths would turn into an influence--that their wide-open spaces, deep-focus guitar, and lizard-killing low end would spawn an entire genre, known as “stoner rock.”
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The Locust, 'Plague Soundscapes' (Anti-)
There are a handful of legendary groups--the Ramones, the Velvet Underground—who never sold mega-millions of records, but who famously inspired an unusually huge number of kids to start their own bands. The elemental ferocity of songs like “Teenage Lobotomy” and “Sister Ray” seemed to scream out,“See?
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Bubba Sparxxx, 'Deliverance' (Beat Club/Interscope)
Back in 2001, Bubba Sparxxx played Eminem to Timbaland’s Dr.Dre. But instead of riding the pale wave to success, he found that a short white man could cast a long shadow. His forceful debut, Dark Days, Bright Nights, might have been lauded in leaner times; instead, it became a footnote to Marshall Mathers’ massiveness.




