Metallica Dust Off Cobwebs at L.A. Benefit Gig
Career-spanning set features cameo by Flea, whose Silverlake Conservatory of Music was the beneficiary of last night's show.
By Mikael Wood 05.15.08 7:55 AM
There's no doubting that plenty of the approximately 2,000 people who paid 200 bucks to see Metallica play a benefit concert at L.A.'s Wiltern Theatre last night took pride in the fact that their money was going to support a good cause -- namely, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a nonprofit music-education center founded in part by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The Last Shadow Puppets, 'The Age of the Understatement' (Domino)
Arctic Monkeys whiz kid conducts a dramatic makeover.
By Mikael Wood 05.05.08 6:57 PM
Judging by the title of his new side project's debut, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner believes we're living in a pseudo-Victorian era of restraint. Has he ever read one of his band's wildly enthusiastic reviews? The Monkeys are emblematic of an epoch of exaggeration -- hype-machine poster kids whose music reflects a culture in which the LOL has supplanted the sly chuckle.
Does It Offend You, Yeah?, 'You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into' (Almost Gold)
Disco-punk copycats do their Homework, make Discovery.
By Mikael Wood 04.15.08 4:30 PM
The only offensive thing about this English electro-rock outfit's debut is how blatantly they rip off Justice ripping off Daft Punk. (Contrary to the CD's title, if you've read a music blog sometime during the past two years, you'll know exactly what you're getting yourself into.) That said, DIOYY?
The Raveonettes, 'Lust Lust Lust' (Vice)
Danish rock duo embrace their gloriously trashy roots.
By Mikael Wood 03.20.08 12:34 PM
This style-fixated pair first appeared several years ago with a heat-seeking update of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s fuzz-soaked '60s-pop thing. But unlike the Reid brothers, singer/guitarist Sune Rose Wagner and singer/bassist Sharin Foo looked like people who’d rather be having sex in an alley than poring over Brian Wilson's old studio logs by candlelight.
The Mountain Goats, 'Heretic Pride' (4AD)
Indie rock's writer-in-residence weighs in.
By Mikael Wood 03.11.08 3:05 PM
On the last two Mountain Goats albums, singer/guitarist John Darnielle exchanged the densely detailed character studies of his earlier records for an introspective account of his
The Gutter Twins: Up From the Gutter
With 40-odd years in rock between them, the Gutter Twins' Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan have two lifetimes' worth of war stories. But rather than rehash their checkered pasts, they'd prefer to let the music do the growling.
By Mikael Wood 02.24.08 12:59 PM
When we went into the studio, we had nothing," says Greg Dulli, 42, the former Afghan Whigs and current Twilight Singers frontman, from a corner booth at Footsie's,
