There’s a popular theory among those generally disinterested in new music, the narrow-minded and the foolish that all of the great ideas in pop have already been thought up; that all modern rock outlines is a prolonged denouement or journey into mediocrity that all genres of music have experienced historically after the last splash was made. The pity of it is that those people will feel vindicated if the only record they hear this year is Amy MacDonald`s This Is...
Any of those familiar with Filter’s history will find the title of the band’s new album ironic. Discarded by Trent Reznor and told its services would no longer be required as the touring band for Nine Inch Nails over a decade ago, the band found success briefly in the post-grunge Nineties before nu metal wiped the slate clean. After that happened, Filter’s future was placed into question again when singer Richard Patrick left to pursue other musical endeavors. Those projects...
No matter how you slice it – for good or ill, negative or positive – it’s impossible to measure Donna Summer’s impact upon pop music. Once dubbed “the queen of disco,”the single most repeated line in hip hopand modern R&B, “love to love you baby,” is from her greatest hit by the same name. By the same token, she’s been cited by name as representing one of the things that the original wave of New York punks were rebelling against...
While some musicians inspire women to sleep with them, Anthony Gonzalez inspires you to hold him gently and get emo. He might just be the perfect dude. During the Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts tour, I saw M83 play a glorious show at the sold out Knitting Factory. I remember wishing more people would catch on to Anthony Gonzalez’ music, mostly so I could revel in the rebirth of shoegaze for myself. And now, only a few years...
The list of bands that could never hope to have their story told accurately is a short one, but there’s no doubt that The Doors is at the top of it. The characters are just too larger-than-life; Oliver Stone based his movie on drummer John Densmore’s account and it wound up being the same fantastical work of fiction that Densmore’s “tell-all," Riders On The Storm, was; everything keyboardist Ray Manzarek has written about the band has been hopelessly romantic, theatrical...
By now, the cat has been let out of the bag regarding the fact that ‘the new Green Day’ band gracing the scene, Foxboro Hot Tubs, is actually a side project embarked upon by all three members of Green Day (it’s inconceivable where the similarities could have come from) and, with that information in hand, all that remains is to question why the members would throw some distance between themselves and the band they’ve played in for twenty-one years. It...
An ‘elbow’, other than the obvious physiological definition, is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “a sharp bend in a road or river; or a length of pipe with a sharp bend in it.” It is, in effect, a location where a conduit unexpectedly arcs away from its assumed destination – a definition that suits the band Elbow’s new record, The Seldom Seen Kid, to a proverbial ‘T’. Bred and spread from the UK, it’s impossible to miss Elbow’s background as,...
Weezer is back. And it’s the real Weezer this time. Make Believe may have been their biggest commercial success, but in the eyes of many fans and critics alike, it was a colossal failure. While The Red Album could be even more successful than its predecessor, this is the album that Weezer fans have been waiting for since the band returned in 2000. “Troublemaker” is easily my favorite track on the record. Nothing groundbreaking here, clocks in at 2:46 and...
I was pretty damned stoked when the lineup for this year’s Gigantour was announced. I have always been a huge fan of the mighty High on Fire, and I was totally looking forward to finally getting a chance to see them on a BIG stage. I had never witnessed Job for a Cowboy, Children of Bodom or In Flames live before, but I had heard that they all put on pretty awesome live shows. As far as Megadeth, well, since...
El Perro Del Mar creates an echoy, intimate place outside of time on their new CD, From the Valley to the Stars, appropriate for an album inspired by the concept of Heaven. Entirely self-produced and self-recorded by Sarah Assbring in her hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, the album tells a quiet, mostly forlorn tale about love, loss and loneliness through a deconstructed Wall of Sound. Assbring is not alone in expressing herself with these broken music box versions of '60s pop...