Alright there ya filthy animals,So how's things in your life? Feelin' pretty good feelin' pretty fine? Howzat itch on ya? Me? I'm ridin' a caffeine jag of Dave Grohl proportions – I mean I'm FLYIN' baby! And do ya know why? I been pillagin' and pilferin' my weaselly black guts out to find a new bag o' fresh, mountain-grown SWAG to lay on ya. Nobody works harder for ya than I do baby! So what'd I find for ya? All...
How is a “music scene” born or the name of a “geographic sound” coined? Really think about that; in some charmed moment, a few bands which are basically unrelated but happen to live in a reasonably close geographic proximity to each other all happen to put out records that, by coincidence, have a few common sonic traits and, again by coincidence, all happen to strike a chord within the record-buying public. Presto! In the eyes of the rest of the...
While the genre already boasted a large and very enthusiastic fan base at the time, there weren't many fans who wouldn't begrudgingly admit that punk rock had been played by 1998. By then, the genre was already steeped in around three decades' worth of history (give or take, depending on what a listener calls the “first” punk record) and had already undergone several stylistic overhauls and modifications; The Stooges lit the fuse before Patti Smith, The Ramones and The Clash...
There's a certain irony in the fact that, in recent years, the musical genre least toyed and tampered with, rearranged or otherwise altered and mutated has been pop. Seriously – pop has historically been the most conventionally accessible of any music but, now, the kid gloves immediately go on to ensure that pop tarts reign unchallenged at the top of the media exposure food chain. The upside to that for those who aren't huge on what is generically known as...
The psychology behind a musician's “second time around” band is always a capricious beast. When a player (or singer) who already cut his teeth or made his name in another band that enjoyed some fame strikes out on his own, he's left with a choice of how he wants to approach his music: he can hedge his bets and play off the strengths he established in the public eye before, or he can try and throw some distance between himself...
Where does the line between 'art' and 'farce' get drawn? That might sound like a cynical or priggish question, but it becomes perfectly valid when one considers the idea of side project endeavors made by the members of an established band. The question is further legitimized when the number of side project releases exceeds the number of proper full-length albums that a band has released, and even further still when members previously relegated to the position of “sidemen” follow suit...
It sounds contrary to contend this, but some musical mixtures are more easily imagined than executed and, most often, the simplest and most straightforward combinations are the most troublesome to successfully carry off. A perfect example of an idea that seems simple in theory but proves not to be so simple in practice is the mixture of rock, punk and soul. Sure – lots of bands have tried to make such a mix work, and occasionally they're able to pull...
Hey there alla youse, So I was gone for a week and I think it's showin' on ya a bit – yer lookin' like you've got that itch, junkie. How ya feelin'? Didja miss me? Ya need yer fix? 'At's what I thought – I figured if I went away, you'd start feelin' it. Don' worry, I didn't do it to make a point, I was just on vacation. When I got back from my holidays inna sun, I found...