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...
In the decades since rock n' roll established itself as an enduring musical form, a few bands have come along and really marked time by serving up bombastic guitar licks, swaggering and soaring vocals and the personalities (as well as the performances) of players which are so big that they're impossible to forget. The names of some of those artists (like Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Soundgarden and Gomez) have left an indelible mark on music and, in listening to Furiosity, there...
Emmylou Harris has done as much as anyone to make me a country fan, and Old Yellow Moon demonstrates how. Put simply, she and Rodney Crowell deliver the deep heart and soul of country music on this album. Harris has always had a amazing talent for picking musical partners. She has worked with everyone from Bob Dylan to Neil Young, Linda Rondstadt to Willie Nelson, Steve Earle to Mark Knopfler. With each collaborator, she manages to work within their style,...
Haya doin' junky?I know haya SHOULD be doin', ya vein tappin' scum, ya should be itchin' somethin' fierce cuz I ain't ben'ere fer a coupla weeks! So're youse feelin' the need ta getcha hands on some new SWAG? That's what I thought. Lucky fer youse, I ben savin' up an' gotcha a great BIG bag o' SWAG dis week. Are ya happy 'bout dat? I thought so. Awright, le's start wit' a big name first: I swiped to kick-ass tune...