Minutes after making my way past the hipster kids and pushing my way to the front of the stage, I found myself surprised as the lights dimmed and Dexy and Chris Valentine, who go by the name of Magic Wands, walked out onto the stage. Not only did I not know that they...
Why am I such a late-comer to things? Am I stubborn or just out of it? “It” being the so-called “loop,” of course. How so? Well, I’ll refer to my favorite example, which is that I just now got into Crass, and I’m twenty-seven....
Gliss is like the Petri dish lovechild of shoegaze greats, alternative rock fire-starters, maybe even some dancey hipster DJs and most definitely includes a dip in the gene pool of the psychedelic pop rock of the 1960s. In their latest release, Devotion Implosion, some...
Sure, you’re reading work from an amazing socialite from Los Angeles. We’re of the best in the world. We have an actor for a Governor. We have palm trees, expensive houses and one of the best coasts in the world. (Eat it, Dubai.) As far as the music scene,...
There's something to be said for consistency. Since the split of Uncle Tupelo occurred and Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy went their separate ways fifteen years ago, Tweedy's Wilco has released a series of critically lauded records that have found that band...
Maybe I'm simple or maybe I'm not much of a fan, but has anyone else ever noticed how stylistically wayward Dave Matthews' music has been on an album-to-album basis? Granted, there have usually (and 'usually' is the operative word) been a few common...
Someone wise (I think it was Jim Brickman) once said that, if you're going to do anything, do one thing and do it really well. It's such a simple sentiment, but one that so few musicians ever heed; out of some twisted sense of artistic growth or fulfillment, a...
Some of the things that made the Canadian indie-rock outfit, Metric, concert so dazzling were Emily Haines’ dreamy vocals and her dramatic tambourine usage, a long jam session complete with a few guitar solos from Jimmy Shaw, clap/sing-a-longs from the sold-out...
Over the last few years, there has been a tremendous, rejuvenated interest in rockabilly music (again) but, in this case, the term 'revival' would be ironic given that the lion's share of the bands making the music are doing it the same way, using the same...
There are moments – and this is one of them – when the benefit of hindsight can incite an enormous sigh of relief that comes from the knowledge that, realistically, events in history could have played out very differently but, because they didn't, it...