Rock stars seem to love singing about big issues whenever possible, especially death, but rarely do they do it with any true appreciation of their subject. The usual tendency is to romanticize it – from "Last Kiss" (you are no doubt familiar with Pearl Jam version, but it was originally recorded in 1962 by Wayne Cochran) to "Don't Fear the Reaper" to "Enter Sandman" and so on – but every now and then an album comes along which expresses, deeply...
Some people will probably say otherwise but, really, there's nothing more intoxicating than the dark soul of a woman who has been sorely tried – especially when it's placed on top of a 1-4-5 blues progression. Voices like that are rare; anyone can sing pretty and enjoy a minute in the pop spotlight but, when the story in a woman's heart is one of hard luck and the soul in her throat is still able to overcome it, she'll already...
The problem that so many rock bands have been suffering from lately is that they've forgotten how to have fun. At one time, rock was a silly little music genre which was lighthearted at its core, and interested in having fun above all – not making grand artistic statements. In listening to their third album, Essential Tremors, J. Roddy Walston and The Business seem to be asking when having fun started coming second to a ridiculous sense of artistic fulfillment...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day-issued “Sue (Or In A Season of Crime) single by David Bowie. The arc that David Bowie‘s career has appeared to take over the last forty-seven years has been a truly unique one, when you think about it. It could be hypothesized that being a Bowie fan is very, very similar in nature to being a heroin addict: the first hit you took was good – so good that...
Anyone who has been paying attention over the last five years or so knows and (if pressed) will begrudgingly admit that rock n' roll has needed a transfusion of new blood for a little while. Not that all the recent rock releases have been been totally stale or flat, a lot of them have just seemed pretty tame; the big names who have broken through know where they've been, where they're going and that they've got fans following them but,...
Maybe I'm not the most progressive hip hop lover in the world, but the emcees who really spit their syllables hard and don't just try to cram as many as they can into a stanza (a.k.a. Emcees from the school of Chuck D – not Eminem) are the ones who really hit me. Speed rhyming just feels like welterweight boxing to me – it's all stick, move and dance – but the heavyweights just stand up and methodically command the...
Since sidling onto the music scene at the end of 2010, The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) has steadily garnered praise and critical acclaim for his mixtapes. After attracting the attention of fellow Canadian, rapper Drake, The Weeknd spent 2011 releasing House Of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes Of Silence; three mixtapes that would ultimately be compiled into the 2012 album Trilogy. Now getting his first proper full-length studio release with Kiss Land, the Ontario native’s “debut” doesn't feel much like a...
Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd has a lot of big ideas. Recently, he has entertained the idea of creating a zip-line range at a location where “you can go tearing from location to location in the tree tops, but you can only get to it by boat or if you already know where it is” and developing a concert experience whereat a band (which the bassist has dubbed Forming Policy) will experiment with different sonic frequencies and motifs for the purposes...
It could very easily be said that 2012 was the year musicians raised their voices and proved that some sounds need technology to be heard. Folk Music reasserted its grip on imaginations as a kind of countrer-cultural movement in a most incredible way, and the public really appreciated it; bands like Mumford & Sons, My Morning Jacket, The Lone Bellow, The Avett Brothers and dozens of others crashed the gates of pop music glory and stole music away from computers...
Bill Adams vs. Ben ShepherdBS: Hell, Bill? BA: That's me, how're you doing Ben?BS: Not bad, yourself? BA: Pretty well, thanks. Where are you right now?BS: Bainbridge Island, outside of Seattle. BA: So you haven't left home yet then.BS: No, we leave on Sunday. BA: Okay, so it's just a little more waiting when it comes to really examining this record then. It was three years in the making, or something.BS: Which album – Deep Owl? BA: Yeah.BS: Yeah, that...