Results tagged “johnb”

Will Sheff's voice sounds something like Imogen Heap's (you know, the woman who sings "Hide and Seek") stripped of every bit of sheen. Sheff jumps octaves as often and with as much animation, though the results are rougher, darker, uglier––more appropriate to sing about, say, killing people, or to take the character of a man about to commit suicide or the ashamed father of a porn star. Throw in a trumpet, guitar or two, organ, piano, and drums, and you've got the makings of Austin's Okkervil River, a band so filled with joyous hate that it's impossible for their music not to constantly verge on catharsis. And you've got the reason why the band easily sold out Lee's Palace on Friday night.

British fashion magazines have been talking about "new rave" (or nu-rave) since early last year in outlandish glossies like Super Super and Pop. The genre's name is a little misleading, however, as it shares only small parts of the "old rave" aesthetic and none of the beats, which is why the movement has been generally confined to magazines about clothes, not about music. Related to dance-punk and no wave, new rave scenesters don day-glo, glitter paint, glowsticks and visors, among other old rave accessories, but are noticeably lacking in the trouser width department.