How does one try to explain a sound that is equal parts biting self-examination and sugary pop, but laced with arena-ready rock? Rock candy? Saccharine singer-songwriter? Sweet Depression? It's hard to pick just one but, on The Army You Got, AfterpartY already has...
Thirteen years ago, Bettie Serveert reigned supreme over the subway that runs beneath the underground. How'd they pull it off? By playing hard-to-get with both fans and the music industry at large; they only toured sporadically in any given region, they released...
Ever get the feeling that you're listening to history repeat but the promise and prospect of that is wildly exciting? Listening to Brain Disaster by The Fed Pennies is like that; from the opening wobbly and scruffy but thick salvo of “Buzzing In My...
When hard times strike, survival breeds strange bedfellows – and it has certainly made that of the music and advertising industries lately. 'Music' and 'advertising' have always gone hand-in-hand as their business structures have made their...
How does one gauge the growth a band undergoes between releases? Is it a matter of observing the overall quality of their work or breaking it down and looking at the smaller differences and changes that have occurred and how they factor into each song; a band's...
Remember when you were a kid and, the first time you heard metal, you were really surprised because it sounded exactly nothing like what you expected? Something was a little off; either it didn't have enough of the undead and satanic cliches, or it didn't sound...
When someone suggests the possibility of “Otherkin,” what images come to mind? Theoretically, Otherkin are the human halfbreed descendants of angels, demons, dragons, elves, fairies, kitsune, werewolves and vampires (if I've missed any, I apologize...
If someone were to say the words 'Yukon Blonde' to you without much in the way of background information, what sort of image would come to mind? Something chilly, chaste and beautiful? Presumably, such would be the case with most people – it's the...
Rare is the musician that is able to stand back from his subjects – even if he is being introspective – and critique the matter, stoically. How does one not get close to that work? As soon as one begins to write a song (any song), the urge for the writer is...
Ever hear something and have no idea how to qualify it, but like it anyway? It has happened to me before, and has obviously happened occasionally to record label executives and publicists – if what has been said about LoveLikeFire and their album, Tear Ourselves...