Email Author RAYMOND CUMMINGS

2011 Stories by RAYMOND CUMMINGS

• Designer Drugs

  published December 21, 2011

  It's easy to ghettoize electronic dance music, and with "dubstep" becoming an increasingly loaded term, it's been amusing to watch taste-makers... More >>

• Asher Roth

  published December 14, 2011

  Just a few years back, Philadelphia's Asher Roth was nth-gen rap's Great White Hope, a wiseacre Jewish stoner with a Gangsta Grillz co-sign, an... More >>

• Zoo Troop Gang

  published December 14, 2011

  Perhaps you've heard of the Zoo Troop, a corps of adults who entertain children while wearing outsize anthropomorphic animal costumes. While... More >>

• Dan Zanes

  published December 7, 2011

  When critical acclaim dries up and the other members of your indie-rock band split, there's no shame in funneling your creative pop energy into... More >>

• Wu-Tang Clan

  published December 7, 2011

  As Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan closes in on its 20th anniversary as a doggedly self-mythologizing rap squad, it's sobering to note that their... More >>

• White Hills

  published November 30, 2011

  White Hills albums are kind of like Herman Cain interviews: You never know exactly what's going to happen, but you'll be glad you took the time to... More >>

• The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

  published November 16, 2011

  Truculent, defiantly curled-lip, and raucously realized as they may be, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion LPs are no substitute for Jon Spencer Blues... More >>

• Wiz Khalifa+Snoop Dogg

  published November 16, 2011

  One of underground metal’s most storied bands, the members of New Orleans–based sludgers Eyehategod are known for their controversial... More >>

• G-Side

  published November 16, 2011

  Huntsville, Alabama's G-Side represent an affront to the idea that anvil-hard is the default setting for come-up rap duos. The whispered, murmured... More >>

• Pill

  published November 9, 2011

  Despite vocal dexterity, a twangy flow, and a willingness to leapfrog onto posse cuts, Q-rating elevation has proved difficult for Pill. While the... More >>

• Coke Bust

  published November 9, 2011

  Cramped venue + jittery crowd + Coke Bust = instant, almost viral mosh pit melee. Whether you're throwing elbows in the audience or trolling... More >>

• 'Sneaker Pimps' w/ Kendrick Lamar+Stalley

  published November 2, 2011

  Interestingly representative of hip-hop's current pan-regional polyglot, this Stalley is. The Massillon, Ohio MC's hypnotic, acrobatic flow is all... More >>

• Kimya Dawson

  published November 2, 2011

  Think of Kimya Dawson’s courageous-bard bravado this way: twee naiveté mixed with agit-prop napalm. The harder the former Moldy Peach... More >>

• Korn

  published October 26, 2011

  What's that, you say? Petulant bleating, drop-D tunings, steamroller bass, and sinister album art are all long out of vogue? On forthcoming album... More >>

• Chickenfoot

  published October 26, 2011

  Big riffs, big dicks, big chords, bigger bank accounts: that's the circa-1987 rock'n'roll fantasy Chickenfoot sells so convincingly, even if Sammy... More >>

• Jeff Mangum

  published October 19, 2011

  While Jeff Mangum's indispensability can certainly be explained in terms of idiosyncratic sonic streams—brackish bass wraiths, effects-pedal... More >>

• Man Forever

  published September 28, 2011

  Talk about your Iron John gone Rain Man. In his Man Forever guise, Oneida drummer Kid Millions crams the sonic frame with multitude... More >>

• Cyndi Lauper

  published September 28, 2011

  Prior to acquitting herself as a celebrity apprentice and becoming a heroine to the LGBTQ community, Cyndi Lauper made her bones as a tomboy pop... More >>

• Gang Gang Dance

  published September 28, 2011

  Physically, Gang Gang Dance call Manhattan home, but artistically and psychically they're gypsies, nomadic insurgents drawing from so many musical... More >>

• The Black Eyed Peas

  published September 14, 2011

  Whatever your position on the Black Eyed Peas' steroidal post-sellout oeuvre, there's no denying that this Michael Jackson revering quartet puts... More >>

• Youth Lagoon

  published September 14, 2011

  The songs on The Year of Hibernation, Youth Lagoon's debut, tend to open with a mawkish timidity: a clutch of nervous chords, pianos... More >>

• The Olivia Tremor Control

  published September 7, 2011

  Beatles-indebted pop outfits—English and otherwise—are an iTunes dollar a dozen. This is one of many reasons why so much excitement... More >>

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

  published September 7, 2011

  In light of Michigan's storied, mounting miseries, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s immersive, florid pop registers as something of a non sequitur.... More >>