The problem so many rock bands suffer from has always been that, no matter what sort of music they want to make, they feel compelled to approach it with a sort of tunnel vision; they have to come into it in their own time, put their own stamp on it and make it their...
Isn't it funny how trends are able to reoccur in pop music? In the 1980s, synth-pop ruled the airwaves as bands like Depeche Mode, Flock Of Seagulls, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Devo (among hundreds of others) made the most of their Casio-tones and produced primo...
There are moments – and listening to Matt Vanuti's Hangisphere is one of them – when one has to pay attention to what's going on because there's a central, cornerstone element that is very alien. There is an unusual sound that amounts to a...
The gifts a band might possess can take many forms. For some, they have the impressive ability to simplify and micro-size their muse in such a way that tiny music – tiny structures, modest sentiments and small sounding instruments – can seem like the most...
Something had to change. When The Snips' original singer Mike Podio left the band last year (the details on why are public domain, but irrelevant) and trumpet player Ricky “Slick Dick” Pridmore stepped up to front the band, fans were surprised –...
It's funny how, as time has worn on, changes in the music industry and technology have completely changed how music is consumed. For a while, as albums from the punk and alt-rock explosions came of age and grew in mythos, many of those releases that were considered...
I remember the first time I heard punk rock. I was in high school and my best friend kept raving about this one song by NoFX. Soon afterwards, I somehow tracked the song down on the internet. I say 'somehow,' because the internet at that point was still called...
The explosion of Nirvana onto the pop music scene had a profound impact on the values inherent to the genre and the effects of that success are still being felt over a decade later. Prior to the emergence of grunge and Nirvana's ascension to the top of the...
It would be difficult to argue that the single most overused metaphor in rock n' roll over the last fifty years hasn't been the one which contends that “love is a drug.” There aren't many bands that haven't dabbled with the idea to varying...
At a certain point, history begins to be the defining characteristic for a record label. Think about it – if the label in question has a track record of focusing on a particular sort of band or music and it has even been revered for some of the artists and...