Review: Franz Ferdinand, 'Tonight'

Review: Franz Ferdinand, 'Tonight'

Franz Ferdinand, 'Tonight': Aidin Vaziri | Their previous album was such a disappointment that the members of Franz Ferdinand had no choice but to get it right this time. Nearly four years in the making, the skinny-tied Glaswegians' third release doesn't quite recapture the manic energy of early singles such as "Take Me Out" and "Matinee," but it tries really hard, once again ramping up the scratchy punk guitars, elastic disco grooves and brash hedonism. But now it all comes with an added layer of weirdness. "Come on, let's get high," Alex Kapranos sings over the new-wave squall of the opening track, "Ulysses," ushering in a set that gleefully celebrates backstage life through a thick layer of haze on songs such as the insanely catchy "Twilight Omens," knotty "Lucid Dreams" and downright surreal "Can't Stop Feeling."

Pop Quiz: The Raveonettes

Pop Quiz: The Raveonettes

Aidin Vaziri | The Raveonettes, the impossibly handsome Danish duo made up of guitarist Sune Rose Wagner and bassist Sharin Foo, released one of last year's best underground rock 'n' roll records, "Lust Lust Lust." A rush of surf-pop guitars, heavy reverb and seedy lyrics, it's the kind of album that was seemingly tailor-made for a sweaty, packed live show. Fortunately, the band has decided to play Friday at Bimbo's 365 Club on its current four-date tour.


Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes
Q: You kind of sound like a total stalker on "Lust Lust Lust," which makes for a great record but must totally destroy your chances of ever getting another date.
A: I know. No one has dated me since it came out. I'm not an easy person to be in a relationship with. That's why I've had only three relationships in my entire life.
Q: Do you think it's a good idea to advertise that on an album?
A: I always appreciate honesty and genuine feelings. Tell it like it is. It's kind of nice to be up-front and personal. You can come a long way with that. People respect that emotional outburst because they can relate to it.
Q: It's not very Scandinavian of you.
A: I don't know. At times, I don't feel Scandinavian. I don't really feel like I belong anywhere. I've been traveling so much. Right now I feel like a New Yorker. I've been living here for five years. This is where I call home. This is where I feel most comfortable. It's the city I adore and love. Five years from now I might live in Paris and I'll think of myself as a Parisian. I don't know where life is going to take me. Continue reading.

Review: Lisa Hannigan, 'Sea Sew'

Review: Lisa Hannigan, 'Sea Sew'

Lisa Hannigan, 'Sea Sew': Aidin Vaziri | It's the question that follows Damien Rice everywhere he goes: "Where's Lisa?" On the soul-searching Irish singer's breakthrough 2003 album, "O," and its follow-up, "9," released two years ago, Lisa Hannigan's fragile voice served as the sweet, even-tempered foil to his bitterly tortured wailing. The official reason for the duo's split was that their creative relationship had run its course, but you suspect there was always something deeper at work. Together, each songwriter sounded positively unearthly, their voices and temperaments swirling together in search of emotional catharsis. On the songs he recorded without her, Rice sounds a little more pedestrian. In turn, on her first solo album, Hannigan has lost the drama and despair that made her voice sound like a ray of sunshine cutting through it. In fact, songs such as "Keep It All" and "Lille" are unashamedly pretty, adorned with swooning strings, twinkling glockenspiels and gently plucked acoustic guitars. There are tender choruses and clever lyrics, but the floating tunes are unlikely to connect with the people who came to her looking for the same spellbinding melodies she spun out with Rice. Although, Hannigan does occasionally come close, particularly on the hushed "Splishy Splashy," a song so gorgeous that it should provide her former employer plenty of angst for his next project.

Pop Quiz: Sandra Bernhard

Pop Quiz: Sandra Bernhard

Aidin Vaziri | How is Sandra Bernhard celebrating the 20th anniversary of her breakthrough off-Broadway show, "Without You I'm Nothing"? The mouthy 53-year-old singer, comedian and all-around agitator is bringing back the whole show and taking it around the country, with two San Francisco performances Friday and Saturday at Herbst Theatre. Having once again made headlines during the most heated days of the latest presidential campaign, Bernhard is drawing the same kind of controversy that sparked the start of her long-running career, which has included stops on "Roseanne" and "The L Word" and quite possibly in Madonna's bedroom. Calling from her New York home, Bernhard tells us about how it all began.

Sandra Bernhard
Q: Has it all been downhill ever since "Without You I'm Nothing"?
A: No, au contraire. Everything has gotten better and better. My performances have gotten better. I feel like I've come so far.
Q: It was probably a lot easier for you to walk down the street back then.
A: Well, people were just getting to know me. But it's always wonderful when people come up to you, especially in New York, where everyone is so stylish and sophisticated. I don't mind it at all. Continue reading.

Review: Varsity Fanclub

Review: Varsity Fanclub

Varsity Fanclub, 'Varsity Fanclub': Aidin Vaziri | Isn't it too early for a boy-band revival? We only successfully rid ourselves of the last batch of frosted-tip dancers and their digitally enhanced falsettos about five years ago. The polite thing to do would be to wait a full decade before introducing a new group into the fray, especially considering that the Jonas Brothers and their guitars have yet to fall from favor with adolescents. But with the music industry going haywire, it seems as if Capitol can't wait for a group whose faces would look good on lunch boxes (it's not going to be Coldplay, is it?), so here we have Varsity Fanclub, an outfit so formulaic that it took hours of research to confirm that they were not just some record company executive's dated attempt at satire. So, yes, they're real, which is the main thing they have going for them. They've also got some of the top purveyors of mall pop providing them with tunes, including Ryan Tedder (One Republic), Evan Bogart (Rihanna), and Diane Warren (Whitney Houston). But the single "Future Love," a convincing throwback to the heyday of the Backstreet Boys, is as good as it gets. The rest of the album is made up of brain-dead R&B and techno hybrids like "Zero" and "We Will" that make the five guys out front with the funny moves more dispensable than ever.

Pop Quiz: The Greatest Hits 2008

Pop Quiz: The Greatest Hits 2008

Aidin Vaziri | Here's a look back at some of our favorite conversations from the past year:


The Greatest Hits 2008
KATY PERRY
Q: Is "I Kissed a Girl" based on a real experience?
A: All of my songs are kind of like chapters from my brutally honest diary of my life. With that song, I was reading a magazine and opened it up to a picture of either Scarlett Johansson or Megan Fox, and I turned to my boyfriend and said, "You know, if they walked through the door and asked me to pucker up, I would just do it."

SARAH SILVERMAN
Q: Why do you like touching your butt so much?
A: Just making sure it's still there.

GLEN CAMPBELL
Q: Do you know how I can get a copy of your mug shot?
A: Boy, did that scare the hell out of me. I quit drinking, I can tell you that.
Continue reading.

Review: Glasvegas

Review: Glasvegas

Glasvegas, 'Glasvegas': Aidin Vaziri | So, you see, James Allan cheated on his girlfriend, and the whole thing has become a bit of a mess. She's hurt. He's paranoid. And the only thing that can possibly make anyone feel better at this point is a barrage of guitars turned up to 11. "Let the raining teardrops rain down on me tonight," the Glasvegas singer wails in his thick Scottish burr as his group tears into the emotional snowstorm that heralds "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry." From there, the song turns into a litany of self-hatred and self-doubt as our hero catalogs empty one-night stands, ineffective drug trips and, well, this: "I'm feeling so guilty about the things I said to my mum when I was 10 years old." If you're not in a puddle on the floor by the second verse, feel free to cannonball off the next bridge - you're already dead. That's not even the rawest moment on this Glasgow four-piece's ravishing first album, a place where Phil Spector-style tom-toms and primitive rock 'n' roll chords collide with jangly guitars and Allan's soulful confessions. Throughout, the Joe Strummer look-alike and former professional football player operates without a filter, bringing the same gut-wringing intensity to a song about being abandoned by his father ("Daddy's Gone") as he does to one about his favorite social worker ("Geraldine"). And while the band could use a few more shiver-worthy melodies, this is a hell of a start.

Five Questions for Maynard James Keenan

Five Questions for Maynard James Keenan

Aidin Vaziri | Maynard James Keenan, best known as the reclusive front man for big-time hard-rock outfits Tool and A Perfect Circle, doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would know the difference between a Riesling and Petite Sirah. But it turns out that the 44-year-old musician, whose latest project is called Puscifer, has secretly been a wine connoisseur this whole time. Now he's appearing at three Whole Foods Markets in the Bay Area to sign bottles of his Arizona Stronghold Vineyards wine.


Maynard James Keenan: Rocker, winemaker:
Q: So what makes your wines different than a jug of Gallo?
A: We're in an area that hasn't been pioneered in winemaking. If you want consistency, go with Gallo. It's just going to taste like that. We want the wine to taste where it's from, a particular spot on the earth. That's the idea behind boutique wine making. This particular way the weather is, the way the soil feels. Every year should taste different.
Q: Don't you have an image as a satanic weirdo to maintain?
A: Tool is not Slayer. I went to art school. I spent three years in the military. There's more to me than throwing devil horns. Continue reading.