Over the last ten years, the notion that being glib is the height of biting sarcasm and criticism has spread like a virus, been refined and finally honed to a flawless edge before being sent out to hack down the previous crop of next big things suddenly and brutally....
It doesn't happen very often in the business of being in a rock n' roll band but, every now and then, it's reassuring to know that things happen on the time line that was originally projected. Such is the case with Endgame's release; earlier this year,...
The Mars Volta are one of those bands that you either get or you don’t. For the ones that do, their barrage of aural explosions come at you like a meteor shower, but somehow your brain allows you to make sense of it all like after looking at a stereogram for a...
tba Downloads: "Headcrusher" – "1,320" –...
Since first appearing on record store shelves five years ago, Elliott BROOD has infiltrated the minds and hearts of listeners twice already, both times in a similar, but dramatically affecting, way: with a bit of the deep south in them and the shadows of the gothic...
The are moments (this might be one of them) when one has to ask, “At what point does high concept become an enactment of self-indulgent drivel?” Sure – multi-passage songs are not unheard of in the context of concept albums – everyone from Pink...
There are lots of ways to try and argue around it, but it's difficult to honestly deny that Cuff The Duke was one of the least likely inductees into the wave of Canadian rock that crashed against the US border about eighteen months ago, thus forcing the American...
When Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs first got in bed with each other and dove under the covers three years ago to re-examine the work of acts like The Mamas And The Papas, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground and Neil Young, the effect was a touch of magic. With sugary...
Andrew Jackson Jihad/Cobra SkullsUnder the Influence Vol. 6(Vinyl Collective, 2009)1. “Two-Headed Boy”2. “Subterranean Homesick Blues”Availability: Vinyl Collective will gladly sell you a copy. (www.vinylcollective.com ) Vinyl Collective has...
After it has been in place and thriving for a while, it's very easy to forget when a given institution wasn't there and punk rock is no exception. By now, it's a safe assertion that punk's presence has become virtually universal – there are a...