Sorina Diaconescu

Photo by Eric Josjo Some journalists are able to affect a healthy skepticism toward the Swedish rock band the Hives. Not me, though. Every time I see them play, I fall in love with rock & roll all over again. I just can’t help it. Nor can most people I’ve......

SOUTH BY SOUTHWESTMarch 17 through 20, Austin, Texas, at various venues At this year’s SXSW indie-music fest, a line snaking for blocks outside the tiny Red Eyed Fly venue could mean only that some of those almost-famous upstarts from New York City were tearing it up inside. First up, Ambulance......

Photo by Matt Batista Modern man has always been ill-equipped to cope with the demands of his history, so he coined the helpful adage “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” to justify his shortcomings. That was of course before Weird War came up with the more elegant solution If......

Photo by Steve Gullick “The police start chasing you, but you just drive faster. It’s easier to run than to explain.” Sleepless nights, bubbling asphalt, twisted arms, riffs, rattles & hisses: Boo! We’re the Kills, and we’re coming to git ya . . . Singer-guitarist VV, a.k.a. Alison Mosshart of......

Julio Venegas was nothing if not unpredictable. Coming of age in El Paso, Texas, he wrote, painted, recorded songs, played his bass guitar and — before he attempted suicide, before he became a cripple, before he shot rat poison up his arm, before he jumped off a freeway overpass into......

The only song that made me cry this year was a cover of the Stooges’ “No Fun.” There’s something cruel about stripping the classic rock song of its menace and symbolism — this was, remember, the last tune the Sex Pistols mangled together onstage before imploding in ’78 — and......

Photo by Søren Solkaer Starbird Their name, like much about the hottest Danish band of the moment (or ever), is misleading. The Raveonettes are not a gaggle of beach bunnies running 'round in go-go boots, ponytails a-swinging. They are a dark and handsome pair — she stares from photographs with......

TOWARD BRENDAN BENSON — SON OF NEW ORLEANS, Detroit and L.A., silversmith of insanely addictive pop songs and possibly the most talented troubadour of the moment — you feel protective. Not that the man himself is some kind of hothouse flower, but when you get down to writing about his......

"THERE'S NO FAKERY IN our shows. No amp kicking. No poses. We just play rock & roll," says front man-guitarist Jason Stollsteimer minutes before his band, the Von Bondies, take the stage to testify at October's Ain't No Picnic emo-rock fest in Irvine. That proud creed epitomizes the stripped-to-the-bone aesthetic......

THE BELLRAYS, THE DATSUNSat the Troubadour, November 15 Minutes before they hit the stage at the Troubadour, the Datsuns could be heard revving up in their dressing room -- “yeaaaah! whoohoo!” -- like a rugby team pre-huddle. The lights dimmed, and out they tumbled in their tight, flared Levi‘s, and......