What exactly is so wrong with cliche that it makes everyone who works in the music business (be they musician, critic, publicist or whatever) cringe when someone acknowledges its presence on a new record? Contrary to popular belief, cliche can be a handy tool in the pop idiom; in the right hands, it can act as a perfect way to access a sound and let an artist manipulate it – they could even make it sound fresh and vital again...
Let it never be said that Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl didn't have a sense of humor. Those who require proof that not everything was so dire in the Nirvana camp in 1993 as it has since been painted will get a perverse little giggle when they see a great, bizarre and bizarrely great promotional video which was recently unearthed. Presumably re-discovered by the powers that be as they sought to get a little hunger stirring for a...
'Ey youse, Yeah “HEY YOUSE” junky, don' act like ya din't see me! I ben lookin' yer youse! What's yer story lately huh? I ain't seen youse nowhere junky, are you straighnin' out on me? You betta not be…. Well, I got some stuff fer youse dis week, and while the package ain't big, it's fulla really, really primo dope. Firs', I nabbeda newest tune I could find by Dinosaur Bones an' put it innere. Dis tune is hands down...
The rollercoaster ride has been running full-tilt for CUSSES for almost a year already – they released their self-titled debut album on October 30, 2012 and have been touring hard through the Southern States ever since – but the rough-riding Georgia-bred rock band has proven that they aren't quite ready to get off yet. On May 28, 2013, CUSSES began a new kickstarter campaign to help them produce their second full-length album (simply entitled LP2) and, while response has already...
It may seem hard to believe, but the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has been steamrolling its way across America with a solid tour of premier Metal bands for six years now. That sort of history is impressive in its own right but, if the Mountain View stop on this year's tour is any indication of the tour's future, I think it's safe to say that Mayhem has permanently cemented itself as one of the summer's most anticipated tours. Although...
It feels like the height of rock critic snobbery to claim that, after over a decade together, Toronto's Maximum RNR have finally slammed together an effort which truly deserves attention on a massive scale, but there's just no other way to qualify how good Rough Side Of The Dial is. Prior to this point, sure – Maximum RNR could record a good seven-inch and make listeners recognize how good a band they were on the strength of that (the band's...
Heyo Junky! Awright, so, betta late than neva, I'm back again wit' anotha great big bag o' SWAG fer yer approval. It's some tasty samples too – ther's a bitta punk, a bitta stoner rock a bitta pop an' hip hop an' everything else too – youse gotcherself a smorgasboard dis week! O' course, sittin' at da head o' da smorg is da big names like Bob Mould an' Murray Lightburn an' Radiohead. I dunno where or why, but I...
"I don't know why we're making people wait around. It makes it seem like we're important or something." So begins the Swingin' Utters show in the Middle East in Cambridge. On an absolutely lovely not-quite-yet-Summer Sunday evening, The Swingin' Utters are taking the stage at 11:15. Exactly on time too, as the crew, some showgoers and I are waiting on stage watching the digital clock to say 11:15. Right before the band takes the stage, lead singer Johnny Bonnel puts...
Everyone should be listening to Fucked Up. That’s a fact. Unfortunately, hardly anyone does. That’s a sad fact. I mean this in the sense that this band should be much much bigger than they actually are. For one thing, they play glam punk, fuzzy and complex, and layered. They release a plethora of vinyl and take it all on tour with them. And, finally, their latest release David Comes to Life is such a fantastic concept album (a punk opera)...
I can’t really say what it is that I found so catchy about Tegan and Sara when I first heard them. It must be that their songs, in essence, are pop (punk) songs about girls. Chalk that up to my affinity for Lookout!/Fat Wreck albums released in the Nineties (hey, their songs are often only two minutes long too). The problem, however, with most Tegan and Sara albums is that they are so infused with cuteness that they can turn...