The catch which most every scenester-ific band is ham-strung by at some point (usually early on) is that they'll start trying to work outside of every box they see in the name of “doing something different.” Eventually such a practice goes too far and the band who does it will discover that they've alienated every audience they may have been able to court. In the end, they may be happy with the music they've made but, because it's so deeply...
With the number of (ever-so-slight) stylistic variations on the music scene now masquerading as full-fledged musical sub-genres (never have phrases like, “It's power slop, but with an edge” seemed so appropriate as when one looks over the newest breed of white bread “rock stars”), it's reassuring and gratifying to hear a band working with little more ambition than to just rock the pants off of those who hear them. With that in mind, say hello to Too Much Of Jon....
Those of a certain age may remember events a little differently but, forty years after they started, it has become difficult to recall what Heart should have been known or remembered for – outside of maybe a few songs like “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda,” “Love Alive” and “Heartless.” How'd something like that get forgotten? Unfortunately for them, Heart broke through in Canada before they made it in the U.S. (in spite of being American) and they were regularly brushed aside...
It’s been nearly four years since the London-based Bloc Party released an album together and, despite swirling rumors of falling outs (compounded by the release lead singer Kele Okereke’s solo album The Boxer in 2010), there was never an official Bloc Party breakup. While the band’s prolonged hiatus saw the ascension of groups who may share some of their aesthetic sensibilities – The Temper Trap, Passion Pit, Twin Shadow all appear on that list – it certainly didn’t change their...
Can history really repeat itself even if the events are well aware they're unfolding the same way the second time? One almost has to wonder if the members of Judas Priest wondered the same thing when they began working on the deluxe edition, CD/DVD reissue of Screaming For Vengeance. Priest has, after all, seen a watershed renewal of interest in their work when they reissued British Steel in 2010; that release got the band back on the road to support...
Heya goons, How's it goin'ere junky? Time is gettin' short fer some o' youse, those chippy habits ya picked up ova da summa are gonna hafta go fer da school year comin' up, othawise yer gonna be dozin' off in class come Septemba. Ya gotta getcherself straight junky! Awright, I done my community service fer the day, now le's getchu flyin' on yer otha habit: le's getcha hooked on what I foun'dis week. Dis week, I nabbed a little bitta everything...
No band in recent memory has been able to so perfectly encapsulate raw, urgent aggression like La Armada does on their self-titled album. That might sound like a bold statement, but listening proves that it's the only one which suits; La Armada's self-titled record (their third – but first since moving to Chicago from Dominican Republic) doesn't exactly make other new hardcore bands pale by comparison so much as just totally overshadowing them like a chilling pall. Part of that...
If ever there has been a band to shake me down to the very core of my being – to swoop down upon my unsuspecting head and snatch away any sense of knowing what the fuck is going on and why the fuck it’s happening – that band would be The Locust. Never have I seen such utter chaos as I did the dozen or more times I was able to bear witness to their live set; there, I saw...
The first real non-mainstream hip hop I ever heard was Aesop Rock, and I have my friend Jake to thank for that. I've always held the belief that, if you want the best of a genre, you go to the underground to get it. When I first heard Aesop Rock, I understood just how boring and watered down mainstream rap had gotten, and why I wasn't gravitating towards it. I should make it clear also, that hip hop isn't my...
What River City Tanlines has proven on their sophomore LP (their first album in six years) is that not every new thing has to be completely unique from everything in rock history; sometimes innovation can take a backseat to just making a sound that is big, bodacious and ballsy. Coast To Coast is a marvel which exists in that line of thinking as, from the first blast of “I Don't Get It,”singer/guitarist Alicja Trout, bassist Terrence Bishop and drummer John...