Didn’t David Berman’s laconic on-the-lam storytelling match so well with Stephen Malkmus’ blazing guitarwork? Their dubious pairing made American Water one of the premiere on-the-road albums of not just the ‘90s but maybe all-time. After that...
It’s summertime, and that means that there are a gajillion summer tours abound that kids and adults can flock to in hopes that they don’t have to sit through bands they hate while they wait patiently for the one they love. And the people behind me at the...
Beck's long-awaited (unless you're immortal, in which case two years is the blink of an eye) followup to The Information has graduated from bastard-child whisper to full-fledged respectable today, as we finally get a name and release date on the Danger Mouse...
(This is Part 2 of our Live 105 2008 BFD Coverage. View Part 1 HERE.) From the moment the very proper-sounding Flogging Molly took the stage, it seemed like only a matter of time before a full-on mosh pit erupted. Looking like a reserved folk group in nice hats and...
Some bands come readymade. That statement sounds like a slight, because critics have used the term as a synonym for ‘prefabricated,’ but in some cases, it can be complimentary. Bands like AC/DC, Green Day, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Social...
On Saturday, June 7, the cool kids from all over the Bay—tan dudes with tattooed chests, punk chicks with pink hair, boys and girls sporting green Flogging Molly tees, and families with tiny tots—all converged on Mountain View’s Shoreline...
There would be no Jolly Rancher chews for Chuck Inglish last Tuesday night at The Independent in San Francisco. Mikey Rocks, the other part of the Chicago based duo, The Cool Kids, simply wouldn’t let him eat the sweets. There were too many rhymes to be laid...
This Is Not The World, the third record from post-punk devotees The Futureheads, finds them not so much moving forward or backward as sitting still and reducing their sound to something more easily digestible. Think of it this way: If 2004's The Futureheads and...
As Minneapolis-based rockers Tapes ‘N Tapes—Josh Grier (guitar, vocals), Jeremy Hanson (drums), Matt Kretzmann (keyboards), and Erik Appelwick (bass guitar)—released their acclaimed sophomore album, Walk It Off, it was inevitable that a U.S. tour...
On a personal note, it needs to be said that I sat on The Ting Tings’ debut for a little over a week, listening to it repeatedly, trying to figure out what I liked about it and how I was going to review it. Then it occurred to me; at the dawn of the Eighties,...