GOD FORBID To Embark On Canadian Tour; Launch GFTV Early next month GOD FORBID will embark on a weeklong Canadian trek as direct support to Protest The Hero, which will be their most extensive run of this country yet. The tour kicks off on Dec. 9th and wraps up on Dec. 16th and will be preceded by a GOD FORBID headlining show in Levittown, NY. Their complete touring itinerary is listed below. Doc Coyle (guitars, vocals) states: “GOD FORBID is...
The purple one will start performing every weekend starting Nov. 10 LOS ANGELES – Prince fans, fire up that Little Red Corvette and head for Las Vegas: the purple one will be performing there every weekend starting Nov. 10. The diminutive rocker will play Friday- and Saturday-night shows at 3121, a nightclub inside the Rio hotel, spokeswoman Alissa Kelly said Wednesday. Tickets for the 21-and-over shows cost $125 and will be available beginning Nov. 2. Prince will also host Wednesday-night...
World Waits is damn right, Mr. Enigk. It’s been ten years since the indie pioneer (we refuse to use the now-bastardized term “emoâ€) has released a solo recording. His 1996 solo effort was a gorgeous, whimsical dark album. World Waits shows off Enigk’s flair for grandeur in production, sweeping strings and organs along with that unique sandpaper voice that conjures up nods to a frenetic Peter Gabriel (hello reverb) or Sting before he lost his mojo. Fans of Enigk (and...
M. Ward has always made a neat trick out of fusing certain varieties of American music—from elegiac Louis Armstrong riverboat rags to wistful Beach Boys blues—into something uniquely, compellingly his own. On Post-War, his latest album for Merge Records, Ward once again succeeds in conjuring a burnished nostalgia while remaining rooted firmly in the here-and-now. Whereas his earlier efforts have been marked by a creeping hour-before-dawn vibe, Post-War sounds open and happy, the product of a group of friends drinking...
After making the leap from indie to major, the Atlanta-based metal band Mastodon release their long-awaited third album Blood Mountain. Not many bands have the skill to evolve and encapsulate an entire ideology of metal from one album to the next. The first two Mastodon records—2002’s Remission and 2004’s Leviathan—were thunderous and venomous, while Blood Mountain seems to have a little more groove. It’s still heavy enough to rip paint from the walls, but it’s just not as ominous. It’s...
Enlisting the who’s who of hip-hop, such as Common, Guilty Simpson, Black Thought and more, Dilla drops the beats and the flow comes natural. As far today’s hip-hop goes, The Shining does exactly that—shine—like a bright star guiding you through the crunk-filled crap clogging the airwaves. This is as real as it gets. And as the sample on “Baby” expresses, “How do I feel about radio hip-hop? I think it’s whack. Most of the shit they play is straight garbage.”...
The Long Winters aren’t necessarily my cup of tea but that won’t stop me from acknowledging that their new album Putting The Days To Bed is pretty good. After going through nearly a dozen crappy press kits, hearing a CD with actual songs and coherent lyrics and good musicianship felt like a gift. The songs themselves are like a nouveaux Americana sound, more filled out instrumentation-wise than folk but as conversational and personable as it. At times, the album definitely...
The only bummer about this record is having to type the word “Mistake” four times in a row when you want to reference the title, otherwise this electropop disc is a lighthearted bit of magic. It’s the kind of album that lures you in with its whimsical songs then you check the notes and see collaborators like John Tejada, Jenny Lewis and artist Geoffrey McFettridge Then you read a little further and go, “Oh, it’s Jimmy Tamborello…” who most people...
Back in 2003, the Cheebacabra burst onto the scene with funkified jams that earned praise from KCRW to Filter Mag’s top albums of the year. Now Cheeba is back with another grooving, laid back album and his very own label, Macrosoft. Exile in the Woods is a snythed out version of a funk album that features collaborators/ producers ranging from Money Mark to Peter Scherr of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. All the synths on Exile definitely conjure up references to...
For longtime fans of Placebo, Meds seems to be another solid album with a few extra perks. As usual, the band displays a range between high energy anthems and more heartfelt ballads. On the delicate “Song To Say Goodbye,” Molko laments the drug use and destructive lifestyle of a fellow musician who is left unnamed. The catchier-than-hell tune “Infrared” sees the boys using their usual arsenal of hard hitting drums, a wall of guitars, electronic embellishments and coy lyrics. However what differentiates this...