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J. Mascis Unplugs The Dinosaur
With sarcastic stops and stutters, coughs, hoops and hollers, Dinosaur Jr. leader J. Mascis held the would-be moshers at bay, charging haphazardly through an hour’s worth of solo acoustic material at SoHo’s dingy Mercury Lounge Thursday night. Best known for pioneering the garage-rock jet set with the distortion-soaked Bug and Green Mind, Mascis production for…
Read MoreEdwin McCain: ‘Mr. 100,000 Units’ 10 Year Plan
Edwin McCain’s whispy blonde hair smothered the singer/ guitarists’ swollen, sleep-stained face. Jarred from a much needed couch-bound slumber, the South Carolinian — whose debut release, Honor Among Thieves, is cruising up the charts on the strength of “Solitude,” his duet with Hootie and the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker — gained consciousness slowly. Speaking in a…
Read MoreShane MacGowan: Boozing Celtic Crooner Does Not Disappoint
When former-Pogue frontman Shane MacGowan finally yielded to Guiness-soaked pre-show bellowing and lumbered on stage at New York’s Irving Plaza Thursday night, the boozing Celtic crooner did not disappoint. But when introduced as “a man who won’t be around much longer,” expectations are low. Wrapping punk’s rhythmic momentum and Joycean lyrical darkness into a furious…
Read MoreBuffalo Tom @ The Acadamy: Loud, Fast And Out Of Control
Buffalo Tom frontman Bill Janovitz took a broad stab at his dual Marshal amplifiers, twisting his volume knob past eleven as the Boston trio tore their current single, “Summer,” to post-punk shreads. With eardrum-splitting deftness, the band ripped through nearly twenty songs in just over an hour, drawing heavily from 1993’s Big Red Letter Day…
Read MoreAni DiFranco At Irving Plaza: Powerful, Peerless
Songstress Ani DiFranco performed a powerful, peerless set — the second of two sold out shows at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza — despite a barrage of setbacks that included shoddy monitoring, stubbornly out-of-tune guitars, broken strings and visable exhaustion. The 25-year-old songwriter was armed only with her Alvarez acoustic guitar, black-taped Lee Press-On Nails and a…
Read MoreSuperchunk Pummells Sold-out Crowd
Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan’s convulsed with dizzying recklessness Tuesday night as Chapel Hill’s reigning hook-monger pummelled the sold-out crowd with seething bursts of guitar noise. Spinning and faltering like a Tazmanian across Irving Plaza’s stage, McCaughan came perilously close to knocking pogoing uber-bassist (and former girlfriend) Laura Ballance into the wings. But Ballance and drummer John…
Read MoreLuna Abandons ‘Penthouse’ For Stage
Though frontman Dean Wareham’s deadpan delivery and perpetual straight face were little indication, Luna’s shimmering guitar pop shone brilliantly Saturday night, illuminating the bleak and twisted landscape Wareham navigates with such svelte. Waking their latest triumph, Penthouse, from its mordant and mellow foundation, Wareham and Sean Eden’s wall of swirling, simmering guitars blared a full-tilt,…
Read MoreThe Mainstreaming of Better Than Ezra
It’s a sweltering summer afternoon when Better Than Ezra’s Cary Bonnecaze shows up late from soundcheck 24 floors above the impending clamour of the MTV Music Awards. The band is in New York City to kick of the CMJ New Music Festival with a show at The Academy, collect their gold record and, apparently, shop.…
Read MoreMatthew Sweet: 100% Fun
Late afternoon. Near Montreal, Quebec. Matthew Sweet checks in from his tour bus. Touring with Canada’s Tragically Hip, Inbreds and Spirit of the West along with Eric’s Trip, Reo-Static, Blues Traveler and Ziggy Marley. Having already played a forty minute set, Sweet is phoning in one of five interviews in a row in support of…
Read MoreBetter Than Ezra Is Better Than ‘Good’: Live At The Academy
Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin may well be Lemonhead Evan Dando’s heir apparent as pop’s newest poster boy. Scissor kicking and hip swaying in his red cords, suede Cons and gold Strat, Griffin peered through his curly mop top at the homogenous throngs of hair flippers and head bangers with apparent appreciation for the 800,000…
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