No matter how much noise (read: promotional salesmanship) gets generated behind the making f a new album by a controversial artist, eventually one has to ask is that album justifies the hype which surrounds it. Is it really possible that this newest release is the great white hope and creative salvation for both the artist who made it and the music industry too? Is it the sort of record which could unify the disparate communities and cults of personality littered...
Wow. I just finished listening to Grey Kingdom's newest album, Light, I'll Call Your Name Out “Darkness,” from top to bottom and I couldn't move the whole time. It's worth mentioning that I didn't write a word of this review during that whole first time through the record's run-time; those who know me know that I often write my reviews within the time it takes to play through the album I'm reviewing because I feel like that first impression is...
Sice the first demise of the Velvet Underground – when all the band members went their separate ways – it has just been taken as a given that Lou Reed would always be the most successful solo performer. It seemed logical for Reed to still be up front; his was the voice people heard and he was the primary lyricist, not to mention the fact that he had the most accessible image and musical sensibility. On a comparative scale, John...
On “Driftin’ Back,” the opening number on Psychedelic Pill, Neil Young and Crazy Horse don’t fuck around. They get right down to business. The business of, well, fucking around. For twenty-seven minutes. And that should tell you whether you want this album. If “Heart of Gold” is your favorite Neil Young song, you should probably steer clear, but if you think “Down by the River” just isn’t long enough, then, ladies and gentlemen, you're going to have a brand new...
Once upon a time there was a little album called The Who Live at Leeds. Merely six songs long, that was still enough for it to be rated one of the best live albums ever. If not THE best, depending on the circle with which you ran. Those six songs captured The Who at the absolute peak of their power. It was high energy and insane soloing all the way through. That was back in the days of vinyl. Then...
Ever heard a record and known exactly where it's coming from, but you find that you're still surprised by the result because it ends up delivering something a little different from what you expected? The experience of listening to Rapido's debut album, Pistols At Dawn, is like that; even though the band is fleshing out an alt-country muse pretty clearly through the eight tracks which comprise their debut, the form which becomes apparent sounds exactly nothing like that of any...
Now sixteen years after the last time Soundgarden entered the recording studio to make a new LP, there had to have been a moment when everyone needed to try and actively remember how they used to work together. How could there not have been? When Soundgarden folded up in 1997, singer Chris Cornell was beginning to indulge too much in the excesses that would dog him through most of his solo career, and the rest of the band was really...
No matter what may have happened before the final stroke was delivered – no matter how close to the brink of just ripping each other's lungs out the individual members might have been in the twilight of their career – every band hope to deliver one last great and satisfying coup de grace for fans to remember them by when they decide to pack it in. It's always preferable to go out with a bang over a whimper, and Anthology...
'Ey youse,I know whatcha thinkin', yer thinkin', “Well it's about time Donnie, we're startin' ta get the shakes 'ere! Whatcha got?” What can I say? Whenna boss is away (fi' dollar Billy went south fer a couple o' weeks), I see no reason ta get ta work! He's back though, so I am too; wit' a great big bag o' SWAG ta boot! Some of it is even good an' addictive, junky! The mos' addictive tunes're stuff likethe Noah Hyde...
It's rare to catch a show at the Metro in Chicago and have room to breathe and take it all in. Which made it all the more surprising when openers The Right Now took the stage to no more then 40 people. The Chicago band, led by the boisterous Stefanie Berecz, took a few songs to get warmed up, but it was fun to watch them win the crowd over. By the end of the set, the crowd swelled as...