AltWeeklies Wire
The Offbeats Finally Found a Producer They're Happy With--Themselvesnew
The Offbeats have released several EPs over the years, recorded and produced by friends and professionals, but lead singer and second guitarist Bryan Foster says the band continually left the studio disappointed in the final product.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
08-06-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Offbeats
Bubba Hernandez Finds Life After Brave Combonew
Two decades of Brave Combo beat deconstruction--turning "Satisfaction" into a cha-cha or "Stairway to Heaven" into a swing tune (with Tiny Tim on lead vocals, no less)--provided Hernandez with an invaluable musical education, but it also made him hungry for a chance to explore his own ideas.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
08-06-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Paul Westerberg Drops the Biggest Format-busting Format Buster of the Digital Agenew
Westerberg released 49 through TuneCore, a digital-music delivery service, and since TuneCore charges artists only $9.99 a year per track (and 49 is technically only one track), Westerberg could simultaneously be looking at the lowest sales price and the greatest profit margin in the history of the music industry.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-30-2008 |
Music
What Laura Says Brings Together Baroque Pop and Rustic Folknew
What Laura Says is really the product of two different bands -- an offbeat pop duo called What Laura Says Thinks and Feels, and a dirty blues trio, called the Expatriates.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-30-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Jacksons' 'Destiny' Reissues Foreshadows the Rise and Fall of Michaelnew
After an awkward stretch which saw them leave Motown, split with brother Jermaine, and languish in bad-song hell, Destiny found them taking over the production reins, writing their own material, and re-establishing themselves as the first family of bubblegum soul.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-23-2008 |
Reviews
Blind Musical Prodigy Juanito Castillo is 19, and He Knows What He Wantsnew
It seems like only yesterday Juanito was a little boy with an accordion in his hands, playing for crowds at Market Square and local church festivals. Hailed as brilliant at an early age, Juanito quickly moved up the ranks to the conjunto elite and captured the attention of many Tejano musicians on the scene.
San Antonio Current |
Kiko Martinez |
07-23-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Jay Reatard: Wonderfully Messynew
When you get past Reatard's productivity (17 original tracks over a two-year period), you notice how seamlessly these disparate singles flow together, as if one song picks up a thought he left unfinished three months earlier.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-16-2008 |
Reviews
Eric Hisaw Explores a Childhood Fascination with the Carnie Lifestylenew
The glowing 13-track pseudo-concept record--Hisaw's lengthiest release to date--blends an old-school mix of rock, country, Americana, and pop.
San Antonio Current |
Clint Hale |
07-16-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Jamie Lidell Lightly Touches His Soulnew
Betraying his roots in U.K. dance music, Lidell applies a slick veneer to his love songs, which can make their seemingly natural swing feel a tinge antiseptic. But that's assuming any objective bystander won’t be too busy tapping his foot to notice such an insignificant detail.
San Antonio Current |
Tim Grierson |
07-09-2008 |
Reviews
Dog Men Poets Swap Juvenile Lyrics for Something Bluenew
On the back cover of their new CD, Dog Men Poets list the artists who inspired each of the disc's 10 tracks. The roster, which runs from Stevie Wonder to George Clinton to Amy Winehouse to Robert Randolph, is pretty impeccable.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-09-2008 |
Reviews
Pregnancy Inspires Thalia's 'Lunada' Beach Fantasiesnew
"In Lunada, I wanted to invoke all my favorite summery songs of all time," Thalia says. "I started to think about the time of my adolescence and the songs I would listen to during the summer. I was pulling together all my favorite songs and writing new songs in the process."
San Antonio Current |
Kiko Martinez |
07-09-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Sean Castillo and the Hubcaps Find the Honky-tonk/Rockabilly Sweet Spotnew
For more than 25 years, Castillo has honed his rock'n'roll chops by playing theme-park circuits and the occasional Texas honky-tonk, and through it all, he has shared the stage with a parade of iconic American roots-music figures.
San Antonio Current |
Sonya Harvey |
07-09-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Thoughts on Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl'new
"I Kissed a Girl" (currently the number-one single on Billboard) is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition, but if you’re not careful, it'll shatter your critical faculties.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-02-2008 |
Music
Ramon Hernandez Squeezes a History of Latino Music into His Apartmentnew
In the early 1960s, he began collecting literature, periodicals, recordings, photographs, and other memorabilia on Latinos in the music industry, from the crooners of the '40s to the rock 'n' rollers of the '50s to anyone who has ever been associated with Tejano, conjunto, and musica ranchera.
San Antonio Current |
Kiko Martinez |
06-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Alejando Escovedo: The Forrest Gump of Musicnew
Whenever seminal events happened, he was usually in the vicinity.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
06-18-2008 |
Reviews
