Soundscraper
Soundscraper
Graves, Dukes and Amoré
December 8th, 2011
If you’ve checked Vegas Seven’s blog recently, you heard the news: Synth-rockers Imagine Dragons signed with Interscope. (The band relocated to L.A. to work on its debut album with Nicki Minaj’s producer, but the band members own houses in Vegas, so I claim these musicians as Sin Citizens.) Now if other major and indie labels will get off their asses to ink deals with other incredible bands here. My recommendations: Halloween Town, Most Thieves, Demon Lung, Candy Warpop and Minor Suns. Read more »
Soundscraper
Frisco soul, fruit and freaks
November 24th, 2011
Because my job entails scraping past the bullshit to unearth unusual, diverse areas of Vegas sound, I often take perverse pleasure in piling up wildly different genres into a single column. This week I may have outdone myself. Start baking me a cookie now, please. Read more »
Soundscraper
Shredding, Spellcasting and Shandaleer-ing
November 17th, 2011
Guitar wizard Raj Rathor has been kicking around town since ’95, playing in bluegrass combo The Pickadillos, in the jazz-powered Raj Rathor Quartet, in a torch-song duo with his beautiful and gorgeously voiced wife Diana Smith, and in flamenco outfit Los Hombres. Now Rathor strips everything away with a delicate-yet-shredding solo-instrumental album, Tales of Time and Eternity. The fleet-fingered ax-man throws a CD-release show 6 p.m. Nov. 18, at Garfield’s (2620 Regatta Drive, Suite 118), a cool nautical-themed restaurant in Summerlin. Read more »
Soundscraper
Sound ordinance, Singaporeans and Sludge
November 10th, 2011
Glance at this column, and you know what I love: eardrum-killing music executed without regard to an audience’s well-being, much less to sleeping habits of a rock club’s surrounding neighbors. But something crucial was omitted from September’s City Council-led discussion of a proposed noise ordinance for Fremont East. Downtown music venues need to get their shit together. Read more »
Soundscraper
Japanese rock, nerdcore and naptimes
November 3rd, 2011
I made the mistake of telling friends that this would be a quiet weekend for me. After all, the Vegas Valley Book Festival is taking place, and what can be noisy about literary people celebrating the art of writing? Boy, was I wrong. Turns out there’s plenty of live music for me to experience in the coming days. Read more »
Soundscraper
Anarchy, angst, asteroids, anvils
October 27th, 2011
Hometown boys (four of the five members reside in Las Vegas) Five Finger Death Punch confuse the hell out of me. Given the title, I’d hoped their new album, American Capitalist—released last week and recorded right here in Grammy-nominated producer Kevin Churko’s The Hideout studios—would capture the zeitgeist of our Occupy Wall Street era, focusing on the soft terrorism inflicted by NYC’s financial district. Read more »
Soundscraper
Cadavers, Vibrators, Sheep (oh my!)
October 20th, 2011
Like many Mac and iTunes users, I’ve been saddened by the death of Steve Jobs. But the loss of the music man responsible for technologizing my enjoyment of music in the last decade is something I’ll get over. Read more »
Soundscraper
Resin alt-rock, Miami metalcore, Skid Row Sinners
October 13th, 2011
Does the name Steve Albini ring a bell? It should. He’s responsible for recording so many classic Gen X-era alt-rock albums: The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, Nirvana’s In Utero. Read more »
Soundscraper
Carpenters, whales, cocaine busters
October 6th, 2011
I ran this week’s Soundscraper selections by a friend living in a much cooler city, and he had to admit it—Las Vegas is a great live-music town with lots of cool, diverse and underground choices. It’s what this column is all about! Check it: Read more »
Soundscraper
Sweet explosions, Saxon sounds and British metalcore
September 29th, 2011
Your friendly neighborhood Soundscraper is keeping it loud and proud, and a bit Union Jacked this week. So grab some earplugs, down a pint of Newcastle and get ready for a rowdy British Invasion. Read more »
