At any concert, a performer hopes for a bit of audience interaction while they play, but the downside to such an exchange is that, under just the wrong circumstances, the show could fall apart completely if the performer relinquishes too much control and allows the crowd to play too great a roll in the performance. That is exactly the variable which makes a show like those Mike Doughty did on his Question Jar Tour in 2009 so potentially harrowing; leaving...
In a creative pace to match the breathless vehemence of their music, punk/hardcore luminaries OFF! have announced that the follow up to their much heralded debut First Four EPs will arrive in the form of a self-titled full length May 8th, 2012 from Vice Records. Barreling through sixteen high-intensity tracks in as many minutes, the album demonstrates the LA quartet had still further to ratchet up their visceral sonic maelstrom, delivering a "dark party" soundtrack of unleashed exasperation and bitterness...
Be a platinum-selling rock band for as long as The Rolling Stones, and there's no doubt that your music will touch a lot of people in a lot of different ways. The Stones can easily claim (with authority) that their music has made a lot of memories for a lot of people; it's been played at weddings, been requested by millions of people at millions of radio stations, been either responsible for or just playing as innumerable people lost their...
If they pick up a copy, the first thing readers will see in the March/April issue of SPIN Magazine is a statement of intent which brims with possibility. Now, things have most definitely changed for the magazine – the print edition is jumping to a bimonthly edition (six issues per year) and abandoning the conventional, eight-and-a-half by eleven, newsstand page size which was the norm last year in favor of a larger form edition to those which were published in...
Hey youse junkies youse,How's tricks where you are junky? They can't be easy, yer lookin' pretty lean an' hungry. Me though? I'm doin' great — I keep movin' an' shakin' an' nobody ain' catchin' me, bitch! Like dis week, I nabbedja ova twenty-five pieces o' fine SWAG ta soothe yer jonesin'' annit ain't no lean offering! Fer instance, I grabbed da new Sharks single fo'ya; it's called "Arcane Effigies" an' word hazzit thit the BBC jus' added the song...
Southern California’s Thrice announced the dates for their farewell spring tour today. After thirteen years together, singer/guitarist Dustin Kensrue, guitarist Teppei Teranishi, bassist Eddie Breckenridge and drummer Riley Breckenridge will begin their final tour together on May 4 in San Diego, California. The tour spans major cities in North America and is set to wrap with a hometown two-night stand at House of Blues in Anaheim followed by the final show in Los Angeles at Club Nokia. In November 2011...
Following the massively successful Final Frontier World Tour 2010-11, Iron Maiden are back on the road this summer with a series of Arena, Amphitheatre and Festival shows in Canada and the U.S., opening in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 21, and finishing in Houston, Texas, on Aug 18 (dates listed below), to be followed by further dates around the World in 2013. The Maiden England World Tour will closely mirror, in terms of production and content, the original 1988 concert...
I remember the chill-wave thrill that started a couple years ago. You know, when having a simple, straightforward and low-fi record didn’t also signify an unspoken novelty. Punk and garage rock have been doing it for years, and it was cute to see indie rock try and claim it because all of a sudden it became okay for Sub Pop to release an album that sounded like the Ramones. No one except hipsters bought into it. The curious thing about...
POUZZA FEST, one of the year’s most exciting events for lovers of punk rock music, will be held in the heart of Montreal on May 18, 19 and 20. Pouzza Fest is a gathering of more than 170 bands performing at six different venues located within a few blocks of each other, making it easy for the festival-goers to enjoy it all and miss nothing. Following the success of the first Pouzza Fest that featured bands like Lifetime, Bad Astronaut...
Welcome to the Vinyl Vlog! Yes, it may seem like we're a little late on reviewing Mastodon's album The Hunter, but seeing as we haven't done a column specifically dedicated to the virtues of the fairer format in a while and Reprise was kind enough to offer us a copy of this, we just couldn't resist. Also, we were never able to give you our take on The Hunter last year. Better late than never. The way this works (or...