Next Stop Nowhere
America's new indie-rock capital, Omaha, is overrun with young
bands and hungry industry execs. It's enough to make a singer want
to run away from home
By Spin Staff; Will Hermes 06.29.03 3:00 AM
I'll leave behind dull care / I'm going there, and I'll not be alone.... I'm going back to dear old Omaha--"I Want to Grow With Growing Omaha," Albert Adair and Julius K. Johnson, 1923
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Radiohead, 'Hail to the Thief' (Capitol)
Radiohead turn today's frustration into tomorrow's rock 'n' roll.
By Will Hermes 06.26.03 3:00 AM
It's all right--you can admit it. When the bedroom lights are out and all you can see are the shooting stars on your screen saver, you've heard yourself whisper: "It's so not okay, computer. You mediate our work, our play, even our sex lives. Do you have to mess with our rock bands, too?"
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Massive Attack, '100th Window' (Virgin)
Massive Attack see through a glass darkly.
By Will Hermes 06.26.03 3:00 AM
Between U.K. MC Ms. Dynamite's debut and the rhyme battle rumored to be brewing between Birmingham's Mike "the Streets" Skinner and Brixton's Roots Manuva, 2002 may go down in history as the year the British rap scene finally blew up.
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The New Ice Age
Do you suffer from skammdegispunglyndi? For many
Icelanders, the cure for this brand of wintertime depression--in
addition to drinking--is making weird pop music. And with the
unlikely success of majestic drone-rockers, Sigur Rós, the
world is looking to the tiny island for the sounds of tomorrow
By Spin Staff; Will Hermes 06.26.03 3:00 AM
Do you suffer from skammdegispunglyndi? For many
Icelanders, the cure for this brand of wintertime depression--in
addition to drinking--is making weird pop music. And with the
unlikely success of majestic drone-rockers, Sigur Rós, the
world is looking to the tiny island for the sounds of tomorrow
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Four Tet, 'Rounds' (Domino) / Prefuse 73, 'One Word Extinguisher' (Warp)
Blip-hop don't stop!
By Will Hermes 06.26.03 3:00 AM
Since Timbaland and the Neptunes started alchemizing freaky beats into platinum rap, broke-ass avant-indie hip-hop producers have surely been doubting their career paths. So show ’em some love--not all rap fans are MC freaks, after all, and there’s plenty of fertile creative turf left for instrumental hip-hop to plow.
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Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 'Yanqui U.X.O.' (Constellation)
By Will Hermes 06.25.03 3:00 AM
Godspeed's 1997 debut CD, f#a#∞, began with words so eerily prescient that it's a wonder the Montreal band aren't currently being held at Guantánamo Bay. ("The buildings toppled in on themselves," intoned a shredded male voice.
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