Powered by Google
Home
New This Week
Listings
8 days
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Art
Astrology
Books
Dance
Food
Hot links
Movies
Music
News + Features
Television
Theater
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Classifieds
Adult
Personals
Adult Personals
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Archives
Work for us
RSS
Here's the new music you'll hear this week. Click on the track to buy from our iTunes store.
The Killers - When You Were Young
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Cheated Hearts
Keane - Is It Any Wonder
Taking Back Sunday - Makedamnsure
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

Entire playlist >>
 

 

Back in Elvis’s day, when you wanted to put together a rock-and-roll tour, you looked at the charts, grabbed as many hitmakers as possible, threw ’em on stage, and had ’em play 15 minutes each. That general principle lives on in radio-station-sponsored festivals, a convention that’s lasted long enough to provide the local debut of Elvis’s little girl. And Lisa Marie Presley is just one of the dozen or so acts at this year’s KISS 108 FM KISS Concert at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Saturday; only in such a context could she share a bill with pop punks Simple Plan, gravel-voiced hip-hop crooner Ja Rule, TV-star-turned-singer-songwriter Jennifer Love Hewitt, teen-pop latecomer Stacie Orrico, the surviving members of TLC (making their last performances before calling it quits), and " special guest host " Britney Spears. A couple nights later, on Monday, JAM’N 94.5 FM throws its annual " Summer Jam " blowout. And though 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and the rest of hip-hop’s A-list are tied up in a summer package tour, JAM’N has corralled Nas, LL Cool J, Lil’ Kim, Cam’ron, Ginuwine, and Neptunes protégés the Clipse for your listening pleasure at the Tweeter.

The Jungle Brothers and Arrested Development both charted new futures for hip-hop during a golden age when progressivism wasn’t necessarily at odds with commercial success. And though the Brothers never reaped financial benefits equivalent to their subsequent influence, they’ve lasted longer than most of their contemporaries. This week they team up with Black Sheep at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Friday; at Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont, on Saturday; and at Pearl Street (413-584-7810) in Northampton on Sunday. For its part, the original line-up of Arrested Development has re-formed for a tour behind its new Heroes of the Harvest that hits the Middle East on Tuesday.

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, every pasty white laptopper who last semester had his hard drive set on glitch has now invented an X-rated hip-hop alter ego. But if you thought Cex and Gold Chains had skills, here comes Da Hawnay Troof (phonetic Ebonics for the Horny Truth), the gay-sex nom de rap of XBXRX’s Chris Touchton. Da Troof’s debut, Who Likes Ta? (Retard Disco), rocks Dirty South–style rhymes over Erase Errata and Gravy Train samples. Perhaps da troof is in da tour: see for sure at the Shed (413-283-9745) in Palmer on Friday; Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton on Saturday; and the Ecstatic Yod Collective (413-587-9400) in Florence on Sunday.

We would’ve bet you our entire Merzbow collection that there would never have been more than a minuscule audience for Melt-Banana’s scream-blurt-flail noise bytes, but now that the Locust have gotten signed to Epitaph’s Anti imprint with the same gimmick, who’s to say the Japanese originators won’t become this century’s Sonic Youth? They’ve got a new disc, Cell-Scape (A-zap), and a tour that hits T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Saturday and the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Monday.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

Issue Date: May 30 - June 5, 2003
Back to the Music table of contents








home | feedback | masthead | about the phoenix | find the phoenix | advertising info | privacy policy | work for us

 © 2000 - 2006 Phoenix Media Communications Group