Sometimes as soon as you read about a record label and the acts associated with it, you're going to get a clue regarding what to expect from any and all output said label will release in the future. Label Fantastic! is the perfect example of such a phenomenon;...
The day that Nathan Rateliff's In Memory Of Loss showed up on my doorstep, it was with several other packages of albums. It looked innocuous enough, so I didn't pay if much attention; I had other things to do, so it sat for a brief period in my stacks,...
As much as many people outside of the music business don't really understand how it works, there are moments when events can even come as a surprise to those on the inside too. Part of that may have to do with geography; every fan knows when a record is due to come...
In every young band's career, the honeymoon period between label and group after the first contract signing is always an important one. After the signature dries on the dotted line, there is tremendous excitement; the band is getting their dream shot and will do...
It's a very exciting time in the Country French camp. Of late, the band has been working hard wrapping up the sessions for and putting all of the associated bows and ribbons on a new release, entitled Awake You Sleepers!, the band's first full-length album for...
It certainly took the rest of the world long enough to catch on to what many punk rockers already knew: Gogol Bordello is one of the best new (if one can call going strong for eleven years 'new') bands on the circuit right now. Punk rockers (lots of 'em...
There's no way to look at Hole or Courtney Love in the present tense without looking at the history, if only because it is now so indelibly etched into pop culture. Of course, there has been the ongoing conjecture and quibbling over the state of Nirvana (or lack...
Whether it's an interest in music, visual art, writing, philosophy, science, mathematics or any other endeavor that may require a young mind to think outside the proverbial box, there will come a point when, after being frustrated by failure after failure, he or...
Fucked Up is one of those bands that boggle the mind. I'll never know why they're so under-appreciated, because they’re taking hardcore music to the next level and almost entirely redefining what punk rock sounds like. I’ll also never know why...
Some records just sound like they're going to be huge from the first few measures of the first song on them. Whether it's because there's obviously a breathtaking amount of ambition thrown into the (the Eels' Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is...