Sometimes, even when you know something's coming, it's still pretty exciting to hear when it's getting close. That was the case when, late last year, singer Chris Cresswell announced that The Flatliners were working on new material for a new album to be released "in Spring of 2013." The announcement instantly generated excitement among the band's fans, but that was really all the information that the singer let slip; no name was given for the new album, no song titles,...
Author and Pulitzer Prize winner Pearl S. Buck once said that (to paraphrase) the creative mind is an abnormally sensitive machine. To the possessor of such a machine, “a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create – so that without the...
"I know some of you thought 'What the fuck is this?' when we started this band!" Aesop Rock is right – because the Uncluded is definitely one of the more bizarre musical collaborations to come along of late – but as Jon Spencer once said, "Rock N Roll is supposed to be weird." Their album Hokey Fright is one odd little album to wrap your head around as well, yet it sounds exactly like its individual parts; not necessarily creating...
Stagnation breeds decay. It's a ground rule of any social contract; regardless of whether you call it a band, a business or a marriage, things begin to break down when they languish too long. Trying to play up your old tricks and pass them off as something fresh is tantamount to loading the pistol for your own undoing because, in the end, the bottom line is that no one can effectively fool themselves for long. .38 Special put it best,...
Some moments of epiphany are absolutely priceless. I don't mean “priceless” in an ironic or contrary way, I mean they're the sort of moments that you just can't buy because you just don't see them coming – and that's pretty awesome. Such a moment exists, perfectly enough, nestled in the unhinged punk tirade that is “Every Man Needs A Cape Breton” – the third song on The Motorleague's sophomore album (first for Sonic Records), Acknowledge, Acknowledge. Prior to that, the...
The new Queens of the Stone Age record saunters into the party like a carny with an erection, with a tailor-made soundtrack in tow. As mastermind Josh Homme puts it himself over the Doobie Brothers funk of "Smooth Sailing,” "Got my own theme music/ plays wherever I are." The rest of the song's lyrics are equally quotable with a stand-out couplet in, "Visions of collisions/ Fuckin' Bon Voyage.” Homme packed your bags to bad riddance the moment he strapped on...
Some returns are highly anticipated, but then there was the wave of excitement which came with the announcement that a reformed Black Sabbath was entering the studio to record their first album of new material in thirty-five years. When the announcement came that Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler would enjoy a second-coming as Black Sabbath the year after the world was supposed to end according to the Mayan calendar, several generations of fan just went nuts. The initial...
Now eight years after the first time Dallas Green stepped back from Alexisonfire for a minute and quietly began his solo career with City and Colour, it can safely be said that while the singer is capable of being terribly over-wrought and self-indulgent in his music (both Sometimes and Bring Me Your Love are about as close to naval-gazing as it's possible to get while holding an acoustic guitar), he has honed his songwriting talent carefully and beautifully over time...
Kurt Vile is an odd looking fellow. Sorry, I just felt the need to get that off my chest. Having close ties to Philadelphia, it's great to catch Kurt Vile live. His latest album is a quiet storm of guitar layers and one of my favorite albums out this year. Having since moved to Boston and maintained my love for all things Vile, it was a given that I was going to be at this show. Vile stuck mostly to new songs on...
It's been very fulfilling following Kurt Vile's career ever since I heard Childish Prodigy. Since then, Vile has done two contradicting things with his music and done them remarkably well, and that is to both quiet down his sound and still keep expanding it. While Childish Prodigy (my favorite of his releases) is a noise rock behemoth, the follow-up EP Square Shells was a perfect appetizer for what was to come, as Vile did away with fuzz and distortion and...