If American listeners have any broad familiarity with Charli XCX, it’s most likely thanks to her work on Swedish dance pop duo Icona Pop’s “I Love It” – XCX co-wrote and lent her vocals to the rousing dance anthem. With the release of True Romance the British singer is working, for the most part, on her own (Brooke Candy appears on the track “Cloud Aura”), and in greyer shades than the black and white of “I Love It.” Born in...
Heyheyhey junky, Awright, I know I usually take a bitta time ta talk some trash right off da top o' my SWAG Reports, but dis week I'm gonna skippit cuz I got somethin' ta talk about. "Whatever might you have to discuss with us Donnie," ya ask? New Black Flag! At's right, ya heard me, ya punk, new moogerfoogin' Black Flag! I guess Greg Ginn put tagetha a buncha guys ta call Black Flag (Greg Moore's playin' drums, Dave Klin's...
It took a couple of formative years and releases to really get settled and established, but Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine has found its rhythm and released a new, instantly classic album in White People and the Damage Done. Those readers who have heard about this album but haven't actually heard any of the music yet may be skeptical, but one listen will prove that this is Biafra's best release in a quarter-century. There will be no...
While there's no denying that Heroes (Willie Nelson's first album back on Sony Music) and Let's Face The Music and Dance are very entertaining records, one has to wonder how long it will be before Willie Nelson – arguably one of the greatest, most celebrated and prolific songwriters in American music history – picks up a pen and starts writing again. The first criticism which could be made of Let's Face The Music and Dance, in fact, is that there...
If the measure of a songwriter's talent and influence can be found in the list of performers who agree to appear on a tribute album to him, then it's possible that John Denver might be the dark horse winner for being the most influential songwriter of his generation. The proof of possibility can be found on The Music Is You; not at all scavenging for talent (contributors include Evan Dando, My Morning Jacket, Dave Matthews, Lucinda Williams and J Mascis...
On Mosquito, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs seemed determined to tap into our deepest fears. Just a glance down the song titles reads like a list of phobias: “Sacrilege,” “Subway,” “Mosquito,” “Slave,” “Buried Alive,” “Despair.” You are already uneasy before you even hit play. "Sacrilege," a punk rock song with a gospel chorus, kicks things off right away by putting the fear of god into you, without ever letting you know just what (in the band's collective mind)...
I'm not much of a hip hop-head. Maybe I haven't given it enough of a shot, but most of it just doesn't connect with me. I'm not going to try to debate or explain that here, I just bring it up to point out that, while the name Dan the Automator does ring a bell, it doesn't mean a lot to me. In my mind, he's just another producer. On the other hand, I've been following Emily Wells since I...
The concept of “dance-punk" has always been a bit difficult for some punks to grasp/swallow. Some readers may scoff and say that's because those punks simply can't dance (this is possible), but think about it: one of the key elements of punk has always been its urgency. The urgency of punk has always been so potent that it has tended to override any movement as organized as the average dance step, hasn't it? That's why pogo-ing and moshing exist; neither...
Anyone familiar with the history of musicians who try to make the transition from a punk label (like Epitaph or Fat Wreck Chords, for example) to a major conglomerate will understand why both Frank Turner's fans and the singer's critics are looking so awfully hard at Tape Deck Heart – his fifth album, but first for Interscope – and why they're watching every move that gets made around the record. Historically, the albums that punk acts release after they sign...
As much as punk rock has polished up its image in recent years and no matter how many punk rockers aspire to be “artists” now in the twenty-first century, punk rock music still lives, breathes and thrives best in clubs in front of a live audience. Some punks have big names and reputations now? Big deal – if they can't make their music work for them outside of a safe and sterile recording studio, and if it doesn't sound as...