Ever been present and able to recognize when you're witnessing an exceptional moment? It's not always easy to do because, nine times out of ten, you're usually doing nine other things at the same time so you're only able to catch it peripherally but, when it happens in plain view, the sensation can be elating; it's as if everything fell into place in an almost charmed way and the resulting experience is both mesmerizing and fantastic. Such is exactly the...

You have to respect the chutzpah of an artist who chooses to work in the 7” vinyl medium. Think about it; basically, a band has little choice but to offer just two songs in hopes of establishing itself in a listener's mind. Even more daring are the groups who enter into a split 7” arrangement with another artist; then it's one side – one song – and the bands have to establish something memorable about themselves in hopes of not...

By now, it must be common knowledge that NoFX is one of the best EP-producing bands in modern rock – if not the best. Since the band first came together in 1983, NoFX has kept up a long tradition of releasing EPs, and has seemed to relish specifically in the 7-inch vinyl format; in twenty-seven years, the band has released no less then thirteen EPs as well as a multitude of 7” singles. That dedication would be sort of cool...

There's a sort of limbo period for any band at a certain level that can prove to be difficult to take initially, and it is the downtime that comes when a tour recently let out and it isn't yet time to record another album or head back on the road again. For The Flatliners, that time is now; with Cavalcade, the band's second full-length album for Fat Wreck Chords, now out for almost exactly five months and the first stretch...

Hey kiddies, Can you believe it? This SWAG Report thing has reached twenty editions and nobody's clamped down on us yet! Who woulda thunk it could trail on so long? Not me, that's for sure – I figured somebody woulda tried to shut me up or shut me down by now, but everybody's shallow, plastic money trench (the music industry – for those that never crack a book) is still letting me run free and has yet to find an...

Ranked third for most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Rush brought their legendary live show to Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California on Monday night. Bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart performed their epic 1981 album Moving Pictures in its entirety along with old-school classics, songs from a new album due out next year and recent tracks from 2007’s Snakes and Arrows. It really doesn’t get any better...

I couldn't believe it either. I mean, it doesn't shock me that Weezer has signed a new record contract but, seeing that anyone might have ever referred to Weezer as an indie band as the headline above (which also appeared on the press release that was emailed to me) implies was enough to make me do a double-take. It's true though, this morning it was announced that Weezer has officially inked a new deal with the largest indie label in...

When you've got two weeks to explode, what do you do? If you had two weeks – that's just fourteen days – to try to make an indelible impression and stand out from a crowd rather than simply be a face in it, how could that not be looked at as an imposing task? It couldn't be easy, that's for sure, but Cobra Skulls singer Devin Peralta isn't sweating; when his band, Cobra Skulls, was offered a two-week tour covering...

At some point in its' career (if it has taken off and become successful), a band will start to realize who it is; whether it's because they're eating better or have a little extra money to throw around. At that point, they get a little bit confident and why shouldn't they? They paid their dues, left pints of proverbial blood on innumerable stages and got some recognition for it all but (whether as a contrived measure or not) kept its'...

Ever spend a day looking at different things with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? It can utterly change your perception of the world; suddenly pristine surfaces get rough and abstract-looking, simple things appear very complex and complicated and a whole other world of possibilities opens up right before your eyes upon close examination. On its' ANTI– debut, All Alone In An Empty House, Lost In The Trees seems to have taken a magnifying glass to its' own...