It’s not like they’ve truly gone MIA or anything. But the brainy UK outfit of Wire was keeping a rather low profile until (minus founder Bruce Gilbert) they reunited for a solid 2008 comeback, “Object 47,” and hit the road to prove they’ve still got it.
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Ready for the first big breakout artist of 2011? Then meet 22-year-old British wunderkind Eliza Doolittle, who wrote her first song at 12, signed a publishing deal at 16, and now happens to have the iTunes single of the week — a whimsical little puff pastry of pop that’s bound to stick in your humalong head.
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Los Angeles roots-rockers Los Lobos have many projects in the works — not all of them as a band. Co-guitarists Louie Perez and David Hidalgo are composing the score for a production called “Evangeline, the Queen of Make Believe.” Keyboardist/horn player Steve Berlin is producing and overseeing projects from young outfits such as Baltimore’s Bridge and Tapwater from his new home in Portland, Ore. Berlin, in a recent interview, mentioned that group has a 6-month-old album, “Tin Can Trust,” selling well, and an upcoming tour with Eric Clapton.
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Sonoma-based twang-smith Natasha James still chuckles about how when she handed a local producer her first screenplay, “Beach Baby Blues” — a hardscrabble tale of a teenage girl living by her wits while traveling the world alone — she was told her plot was totally unbelievable since young women did not lead such trashy lives. Little did the impresario know, says the now-50-ish James, that the play was fairly autobiographical. She left home at 14, never looked back and wound up having more cosmopolitan adventures than Phileas Fogg.
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Some old sci-fi-horror flicks fade with time.
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Good news for Dave Wakeling boosters. The UK-bred founder of such ska-reggae stalwarts as The English Beat and General Public is resurfacing in a very big way — with two brand-new albums that he’ll be issuing this year, plus an already-released acoustic track, “The Love You Give,” available through Acoustic For Autism. All proceeds go to organizations that are making a direct, positive impact on children and their families affected by autism.
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Just before Christmas, we checked in with Welsh soul-stirrer Duffy, who was on a whirlwind press trip through the States. And talk about changes.
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Nashville mainstay Tim McGraw currently has the No. 1 country single in the United States and Canada — “Felt Good On My Lips,” a bonus track culled from his recent two-disc “Number One Hits” package for Curb.He also happens to be the No. 1 Country Touring Act of 2010, according to a Billboard tally.
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Some bands have strange background stories. Others have bios that read like old “Twilight Zone” scripts, like that of Holzfeuer, the Austrian-born frontman for local punk-metal outfit ArnoCorps (which is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in the Bay Area with a show at Slim’s this Saturday).
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Spanish Bombs is the name of local Americana guitarist Chuck Prophet’s new side project with power-popper Chris Von Sneidern, and it’s definitely a double-entendre.
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We thought we'd leave you with a little something to mull over for the new year -- a quick addendum of top-notch Also-Rans in the 2010 Top Ten department. Here are five more records you might have missed:
1) O Children; "O Children"; (Deadly People Recordings). Been longing for a spooky new update of that sinister Sisters Of Mercy sound? Get ready, Goths -- your new superghouls have arrived, straight out of the UK/'80s tombs.
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If you missed the two rollicking 'X-Mas With X' shows at Slim's this week, you'd be well advised to bend over like Artie Fufkin from "Spinal Tap" and beg anyone within earshot to kick you. HARD. But we caught up with band co-vocalist Exene Cervenka after the exhausting, Ray Manzarek-assisted sets to hear all the good news she had to report.
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The event name says it all. Tonight, Aaron Axelsen’s long-running local club night Popscene is throwing a “Farewell to 330 Ritch” Dance Party to bid a fond adieu to the location that’s housed their events for 12 incredible years.
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It’s not often that a modern American band will refer to itself by that dated old UK term from the ’90s, “shoegaze.” But that’s exactly how San Francisco outfit Young Prisms have tagged themselves on MySpace, and it’s an apt description for their dreamy, ethereal drone-rawk, heard on songs like “Sugar” from their upcoming “Friends For Now” debut (out Jan. 18 on Kanine).
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Primus anchor Les Claypool says he never gets nervous, not even when he’s plotting his annual New Year’s Eve shows, like the 20th anniversary ones he’s playing today and Friday at the Fox Theater in Oakland. But in March, the bassist was sweating bullets when he performed Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio” for the band’s induction into the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. “I was really nervous,” he says. “We played in front of a society crowd and the Rush guys, with cello, marimba and vibraphone, then I said a little speech.
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