It was about twelve years ago when I first heard the Danielson Famile. I was working as an intern at a major label. The German translation of said label is roughly “jungfrau.” I was always milling through the stacks, looking for something that wasn't...
After a brief freak-out session thinking that I was going to miss the one new band that I’ve wanted to see live, Friendly Fires were scheduled to start at 10:30, not 10, as I’d originally thought. Believe me, this would’ve really pissed me off. And...
A couple of years ago, Alecia “Pink” Moore decided that she’d had about all she could take of being a pre-groomed, prefabricated pop tart presented the same way as all the others of that ilk – including Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Christina...
In order to understand what one is listening to when attempting to decode the megalithic assembly that is Jonathan Nelson’s newest effort under the Escape Mechanism moniker, one has to understand what the difference is between a musician and an artist of music....
Whether it’s intentional or not, some bands can’t seem to help but have a polarizing effect on all listeners with whom their music comes into contact. Whether it’s the combination of sounds that the group chooses to intermingle, the way they put those...
Let it never be said that punks aren’t industrious. Since forming in 2002, Winnipeg’s Comeback Kid has managed to break out of nowhere and position themselves among the top bands in the national hierarchy of “Bands That Matter” and, on the...
In the last forty years, many groups of musicians have stepped forward boasting that the strains they’re making will “expand your mind” and/or “alter your consciousness” but, for my money, while 13th Floor Elevators, Pink Floyd, Jefferson...
Some side project bands seem destined to appear. For example, when Kim Deal broke away from The Pixies to get some more of her music heard out from under the watchful eye of Frank Black, it made sense; when James Iha did the same thing a few years ago apart from...
Once every decade or so, a band appears seemingly from nowhere that mixes equal amounts of pop, punk and rock so perfectly – they hit that serene balance so evenly that it doesn’t fit easily under any of the aforementioned tags – that it compels the...
I actually like the Fall. It means a gnarly winter is on its way, but before it shows up there is just this sort of chill and beauty around that makes you stop and think for a bit about, I don’t know, life or something. The other thing about Fall is how much new...