As digital production techniques have proceeded to make it easier and easier to make larger, more luxurious and ambitious ideas come to life on an increasingly modest budget, the idea of simplicity has become missing in pop more and more. That so many artists have embraced the possibilities offered by digital production platforms is perfectly understandable – who wouldn't take the opportunity to make their dream album if they could? – but sometimes a simple sound can be more affecting...
It feels awkward to just blurt it out, but Mo Kenney has achieved a craft on the level with artists including Ani DiFranco, Stevie Nicks, Jolie Holland and Neko Case on her self-titled debut. Such a statement feels awkward because the album in question is her first; those other artists had to work for years to refine their talents and chops, but it's hard not to feel like you're bearing witness to the birth of a new star when you...
Hola junky!Y'see what I did there? I was speakin' Mexican – folks like it when you show a little worldly knowledge right? 'At's what'ey tell me, anyway. But who cares? Here we go again, an' here's me wit' anotha great bag o' SWAG fer youse ta peruse – i's a pretty good bag too. Firs' an' foremos' I scored two new tunes from'at band Crystal Castles that I know yer gonna like. You know dis group doncha? 'Ey're that Canuck...
Both fans and critics can say what they like about KISS, but the basic truth is that the band has never really changed over the last forty years. Be they masked, unmasked, sporting an all-original lineup or a new conglomerate featuring new players, there has always been a consistency in the band's music that is inescapable; iy is big, bombastic rock and it has always worn the cliches of its brand (the riffs, the hooks, the recurring lyrical images) in...
The thing about rhetoric in the music business is that it is as important to the success of a record as the instruments which are played on it – but while the instruments can be taken at face value, the rhetoric needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Why? Well, think about it – does a record really have the power to “change your life”? Can one album really tear down the established construct in which the rest...
Awrightcha mooks,Yeahyeahyeah, deal wit' it – betta late thin never, I showed up wit'cher newest bag o' SWAG. That makes ya smile, don'it? I gotcha some pretty killer gear too – even a coupla full-length releases, so le's get ta bizness. Kay, first, I scored ya some new Dum Dum Girls. This band keeps changin' junkie! They went from soundin' like a chick version o' The Stooges (sorta – I ain't no critic, that's every otha writer's trip 'ere) ta...
It's funny how some records age, given the sort of music they capture and the time period in which they were made. Some albums wear their age very well and easily slide into a “classic” categorization (the catalogues of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin all immediately leap to mind), but others just have difficulty feeling as though they could have been recorded yesterday or twenty-five years ago. Michael Jackson's seventh album, Bad, falls squarely into...
Looking back, there's no question that a lot of hands helped punk and hardcore achieve the stature they enjoy today. True, Patti Smith released the first punk record in 1974 (the “Piss Factory” single) and, yes, The Ramones both set and leveled the foundation on which virtually every band who has even considered calling itself a punk group has played. Granted, Black Flag gets a lot of credit for breaking the ground and settling many of the paths punk would...
As gloriously sloppy as so much of the music in rock history has been known to be, sometimes it just feels good to know that all the explosions of raw, unfiltered passion are tempered by some well-plotted and carefully constructed sound creations. Some bands just want to rock a perfect sound forever – and that is precisely what California Wives was intent on offering with their major label debut, Art History. “This was our first big opportunity to flesh out...
”people, I wanna bring my third opera "hyphenated-man" around the u.s. again cuz there's some towns I missed last time… we promise to play our our brains out!" So begins and ends Mike Watt's announcement that he and his Missingmen are going on tour, grammatical mistake and all. This is good news; the part about them being on tour. I've been doing band interviews on and off since 2008, without any qualifications. I'm happy to announce that now, Four years...