Paul Rogers

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Snot

Paul Rogers
There was a moment in the late 1990s, in the wake of Korn’s genre-blending 1994 eponymous debut (and before “nu-metal” became synonymous with knuckle-dragging bilge), when heavy metal, hardcore punk and hip-hop were cross-pollinating in fascinating and invigorating fashion. The opening offering from Santa Barbara quintet Snot, 1997’s Get Some,......
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KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas

Paul Rogers
An annual sampler of so-called alt-rock, Almost Acoustic Christmas squeezes into two nights more than three decades’ worth of bands that have all but defined the genre, alongside half a dozen relative newcomers vying for similar status. Night one brings together Pixies-aping 1990s Brit radio staple Bush; 2000s guitar-based juggernauts......
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The Icarus Line

Paul Rogers
In the age of Auto-Tune and American Idol, The Icarus Line’s bluesy, Stooge-y and utterly organic punk rock could earn kudos and cred simply by standing still. But this frenetic, sometimes perverse L.A. sextet is seldom static in its simultaneously raucous and psychedelic creativity. Their latest full-length, last summer’s Slave......
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In the Valley Below

Paul Rogers
Apparently blissfully unaware of the past two decades of pop culture, In the Valley Below drape classic Fleetwood Mac coed call-and-response, squelchy Alan Wilder–era Depeche Mode synths and heyday Phil Collins melodicism in a shroud of bluesy, woozy, out-in-the-woods mystery. Visually, they’ve cultivated a cult-ish, folk-country aura: Angela Gail with......
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In the Valley Below

Paul Rogers
Apparently blissfully unaware of the past two decades of pop culture, In the Valley Below drape classic Fleetwood Mac coed call-and-response, squelchy Alan Wilder–era Depeche Mode synths and heyday Phil Collins melodicism in a shroud of bluesy, woozy, out-in-the-woods mystery. Visually, they’ve cultivated a cult-ish, folk-country aura: Angela Gail with......
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Off!

Paul Rogers
The hair-flailing zeal of guitarist Dimitri Coats permeates and personifies Off!, the band he co-founded with former Black Flag/Circle Jerks frontmouth Keith Morris in 2009. With the exception of Morris (who for many fans is L.A. punk incarnate), Off!’s members arrived from a broad palette of styles: Coats formerly fronted......
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Off!

Paul Rogers
The hair-flailing zeal of guitarist Dimitri Coats permeates and personifies Off!, the band he co-founded with former Black Flag/Circle Jerks frontmouth Keith Morris in 2009. With the exception of Morris (who for many fans is L.A. punk incarnate), Off!’s members arrived from a broad palette of styles: Coats formerly fronted......
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Onslaught

Paul Rogers
When thrash bands started speeding up heavy metal in the early 1980s, it was principally American acts (notably Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth) that popularized this reckless assault on a previously most Anglo of genres. Visionary black metallers Venom aside, one of Britain’s few retaliatory volleys was Bristol’s Onslaught, which......
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Future Islands, Rose Quartz, Speak

Paul Rogers
Seldom has a TV appearance brought a band as much attention as Future Islands’ Late Show With David Letterman performance in March. Much of the viral love shown to the trio’s rendition of “Seasons” that night was due to the outlandish antics of singer Samuel T. Herring, who at once......
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Weezer

Paul Rogers
The undisputed lords of revenge-of-the-nerds rock for more than 20 years, L.A.’s Weezer still never get the girl, and mainman Rivers Cuomo remains perpetually the teenage dork who awoke, blinking, to find himself fronting a band before thousands of adoring fans. But it’s not the quartet’s cartoonish goofing that’s shifted......