It's been almost twenty years now since Lisa Loeb stole the public's attention for a minute with “Stay” (the pop ballad which buoyed the singer's sophomore album to the top of the charts briefly) and almost exactly as long since the singer became completely overlooked because of more “serious” singers like Sarah McLachlan, Jewel and Juliana Hatfield. Since then, Loeb released a few more “serious” records which ended up garnering negligible interest (Hello Lisa – Loeb's pseudo-tribute to...
Alrightalrightalrightokayalright awready ya funky junky punks, How's trick wit' youse? Oh me? I'm doin' great! I ben movin' an' shakin' like a rat-racin' fiend, an' nabbin' alla da stuff I can nab fer youse! An' it's lookin' good fer youse dis week, ya lucky bastids, cause dis week my bag o' SWAG ain't bulgin' but it's full of addictive stuff thatcher gonna want all of – I know it. Think I'm lyin'? Get dis – I scored some new Billy...
Many industry critics had already been wondering when the alt-rock which took over the air-waves in the Nineties would finally get filed under the 'Classic Rock' heading quietly for a while now. The timing seems to be about right – there have been about two decades lapsed since alt-rock and grunge exploded and helped to usher in a new era of rock values – and looking at the list of headliners confirmed to play the Rock On The Range music...
Hey, remember that guy Andrew WK? Yeah, he's the one who had that album about partying where he looks all bloody on the cover. Yeah, him! Ever heard the music inside that album? No? Me neither. At least that's how things were for me until six months ago. Whether you like Andrew WK's music or not, you have to admit, he's one hell of a guy. Just look him up on YouTube if you don't believe me. And his first...
"A lot of bands say they'll be back next year and they end up in the House of Blues. Not us. We said we'd be back in the Paradise and here we are!" Disconcertingly soon after their last Boston concert date, I find myself in almost the same spot, watching the same band that unexpectedly impressed me so much. Why? partly because The Darkness are so damn likeable (just read that quote), but also simply because: 1. Their shows are...
It might not be the single easiest thing to definitively contend, but Mike Patton has remained one of the best, most consistently interesting and most consistently creative musicians to escape the wave of crotch-grabbing California bands that appeared in the Eighties. Granted, he's had to prove it without a whole lot of help (Faith No More fell apart in 1998) but he has pulled it off; whether playing with The Melvins, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk or any of...
Above all else, what True North proves definitively is that Bad Religion has made three kinds of record in the duration of their three-decades-and-counting career; they've made really bad albums (see Into The Unknown and No Substance), good albums (see The Dissent Of Man, Recipe For Hate and Suffer) and great albums which not only mark time but stand out as being definitive documents both for the band and for punk rock as a whole community. The number of albums...
Remember the first time you heard Was (Not Was)? It was weird, right? Here was this band who could knock out awesome rhythm tracks – great beats, good guitars and a kind of worldly spice – and it had some totally oddball vocal track on top of it which was (probably) screaming out some unusual one-man vignette about calling your father to tell him you were prison bound and excited about it. Listening came with an awkward sensation; that killer...
Maybe it's because the roots-and-folk musical landscape has just become so over-populated with new and excellent songwriters (like The Lumineers, Grey Kingdom, Daniel Romano and so on), but it's really difficult to get excited about Jimbo Mathus' new album with The Tri-State Coalition. White Buffalo is very much a casualty of timing; had it been released five years ago, the album might have seemed exciting for listeners looking for a sparer, more songwriter-ly antidote to the over-produced and Pro-Tools-ed hordes...
Hey Junky,How's it goin'? Stuff's been slow in my neck o' the woods; one o' my suppliers OD'd on accident, so a buncha my buddies an' me've been flyin' the flags at half mast, if ya know what I mean. I can't stay down fer too long though, 'cause I gotta get back at SWAGgin' fer youse miserable reprobates – an' what I got this week is worth it! Let's start wit' da whale; I gotta new tune from my...