Author and Pulitzer Prize winner Pearl S. Buck once said that (to paraphrase) the creative mind is an abnormally sensitive machine. To the possessor of such a machine, “a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a...
"I know some of you thought 'What the fuck is this?' when we started this band!" Aesop Rock is right – because the Uncluded is definitely one of the more bizarre musical collaborations to come along of late – but as Jon Spencer once said,...
Stagnation breeds decay. It's a ground rule of any social contract; regardless of whether you call it a band, a business or a marriage, things begin to break down when they languish too long. Trying to play up your old tricks and pass them off as something fresh is...
Some moments of epiphany are absolutely priceless. I don't mean “priceless” in an ironic or contrary way, I mean they're the sort of moments that you just can't buy because you just don't see them coming – and that's pretty...
The new Queens of the Stone Age record saunters into the party like a carny with an erection, with a tailor-made soundtrack in tow. As mastermind Josh Homme puts it himself over the Doobie Brothers funk of "Smooth Sailing,” "Got my own theme music/...
Some returns are highly anticipated, but then there was the wave of excitement which came with the announcement that a reformed Black Sabbath was entering the studio to record their first album of new material in thirty-five years. When the announcement came that Ozzy...
Now eight years after the first time Dallas Green stepped back from Alexisonfire for a minute and quietly began his solo career with City and Colour, it can safely be said that while the singer is capable of being terribly over-wrought and self-indulgent in his music...
Kurt Vile is an odd looking fellow. Sorry, I just felt the need to get that off my chest. Having close ties to Philadelphia, it's great to catch Kurt Vile live. His latest album is a quiet storm of guitar layers and one of my favorite albums out this...
It's been very fulfilling following Kurt Vile's career ever since I heard Childish Prodigy. Since then, Vile has done two contradicting things with his music and done them remarkably well, and that is to both quiet down his sound and still keep expanding it....
In the decades since rock n' roll established itself as an enduring musical form, a few bands have come along and really marked time by serving up bombastic guitar licks, swaggering and soaring vocals and the personalities (as well as the performances) of players...