Lou Reed has gone on the record several times as saying that one of the keystone songwriting principles which informed his writing for the Velvet Underground was Raymond Chndler's writing. With a perfectly understated and almost deadpan tone, Reed will drop lines like “That blonde was as pleasant as a split lip” on documentary film camera lenses to illustrate how potentially exciting and inspiring Chandler's images can be – and the further beauty of them is that they all use...
The moments when a band is recording a new studio album can be remarkable, under the right conditions. With the right songs, the right producer or even just the right moment and energy, the music that the band records could end up being the stuff which, years later, will be regarded as the first big break they enjoyed in a celebrated career. Nothing is ever guaranteed, of course, but the band may discover that they're really onto something and start...
If there are two bands from the Eighties who compliment each other perfectly, it has to be the Go-Go's and the B-52's. Both are still going strong after thirty-plus year careers, have had numerous hits and are responsible for some of the most recognizable songs of the decade. Seems like a no-brainer for both of them to share the bill on a Summer jaunt together. Opening the evening with "Planet Claire,” the B-52's got the near sold-out crowd on their...
What exactly is so wrong with cliche that it makes everyone who works in the music business (be they musician, critic, publicist or whatever) cringe when someone acknowledges its presence on a new record? Contrary to popular belief, cliche can be a handy tool in the pop idiom; in the right hands, it can act as a perfect way to access a sound and let an artist manipulate it – they could even make it sound fresh and vital again...
Let it never be said that Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl didn't have a sense of humor. Those who require proof that not everything was so dire in the Nirvana camp in 1993 as it has since been painted will get a perverse little giggle when they see a great, bizarre and bizarrely great promotional video which was recently unearthed. Presumably re-discovered by the powers that be as they sought to get a little hunger stirring for a...
'Ey youse, Yeah “HEY YOUSE” junky, don' act like ya din't see me! I ben lookin' yer youse! What's yer story lately huh? I ain't seen youse nowhere junky, are you straighnin' out on me? You betta not be…. Well, I got some stuff fer youse dis week, and while the package ain't big, it's fulla really, really primo dope. Firs', I nabbeda newest tune I could find by Dinosaur Bones an' put it innere. Dis tune is hands down...
The rollercoaster ride has been running full-tilt for CUSSES for almost a year already – they released their self-titled debut album on October 30, 2012 and have been touring hard through the Southern States ever since – but the rough-riding Georgia-bred rock band has proven that they aren't quite ready to get off yet. On May 28, 2013, CUSSES began a new kickstarter campaign to help them produce their second full-length album (simply entitled LP2) and, while response has already...
It may seem hard to believe, but the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has been steamrolling its way across America with a solid tour of premier Metal bands for six years now. That sort of history is impressive in its own right but, if the Mountain View stop on this year's tour is any indication of the tour's future, I think it's safe to say that Mayhem has permanently cemented itself as one of the summer's most anticipated tours. Although...
It feels like the height of rock critic snobbery to claim that, after over a decade together, Toronto's Maximum RNR have finally slammed together an effort which truly deserves attention on a massive scale, but there's just no other way to qualify how good Rough Side Of The Dial is. Prior to this point, sure – Maximum RNR could record a good seven-inch and make listeners recognize how good a band they were on the strength of that (the band's...