No band in recent memory has been able to so perfectly encapsulate raw, urgent aggression like La Armada does on their self-titled album. That might sound like a bold statement, but listening proves that it's the only one which suits; La Armada's self-titled record (their third – but first since moving to Chicago from Dominican Republic) doesn't exactly make other new hardcore bands pale by comparison so much as just totally overshadowing them like a chilling pall. Part of that...

If ever there has been a band to shake me down to the very core of my being – to swoop down upon my unsuspecting head and snatch away any sense of knowing what the fuck is going on and why the fuck it’s happening – that band would be The Locust. Never have I seen such utter chaos as I did the dozen or more times I was able to bear witness to their live set; there, I saw...

The first real non-mainstream hip hop I ever heard was Aesop Rock, and I have my friend Jake to thank for that. I've always held the belief that, if you want the best of a genre, you go to the underground to get it. When I first heard Aesop Rock, I understood just how boring and watered down mainstream rap had gotten, and why I wasn't gravitating towards it. I should make it clear also, that hip hop isn't my...

What River City Tanlines has proven on their sophomore LP (their first album in six years) is that not every new thing has to be completely unique from everything in rock history; sometimes innovation can take a backseat to just making a sound that is big, bodacious and ballsy. Coast To Coast is a marvel which exists in that line of thinking as, from the first blast of “I Don't Get It,”singer/guitarist Alicja Trout, bassist Terrence Bishop and drummer John...

Although the summer of 2012 is past its mid-point, one of the biggest tours of the dog days is just getting out of the gate and is already proving to be one of the hottest tickets around. Legendary bands KISS and Mötley Crüe have teamed up for THE TOUR of 2012 and, when it's all said and done, the bands will have hit over forty cities nationwide.

 With combined album sales of almost 200 million, KISS and Mötley Crüe are...

The perfect facade inherent within modern folk music is that it feigns intimacy very well but, in truth, is very carefully measured, calculated and produced.some readers might recoil at such candid, crass cynicism, but think about it – as knee-bucklingly intimate as Bright Eyes can sound, has Connor Oberst ever really been as alone in a room as he seemed to be when the tapes rolled and captured “Simple In The Moonlight?” Probably not. Was it Neil Young's idea to...

Since as early as 1958 (four years into his recording career), there has been a succession of records which have compiled Elvis Presley's songs. A multitude of angles have been taken to produce these records; there have been compilations of Elvis' hits, gold records, spiritual songs, love songs, Christmas songs, rock songs, country songs, blues songs, songs which appeared on soundtracks, "Elvis Sings His Hits," "Elvis Sings The Hits Of Other People," "Other People Sing Songs That Elvis Made Famous...

Before we really get into this review of Fergus & Geronimo's sophomore album, it's worth pointing out that some of the criticism contained herein has seldom (if ever) had any place in a record review before. It wouldn't appear here either, under normal circumstances, but it needs saying here and now so here goes: goddamn the members of Fergus & Geronimo are a homely bunch. I make that declaration knowing full well that I am a member of the music...

As good as the releases and catalogue reissues bearing the Jimi Hendrix name have been over the last couple of years (Sony has been much more careful with the work than EMI ever was), it was almost inevitable that something was going to come along which would tarnish that record. That release is Live At Berkeley – a document which is very representative of its time in all the wrong ways. The problem with it? Simply said, while the sound...

It might sound difficult to believe, but Shonen Knife's newest album, Pop Tune, reiterates the idea that a band really doesn't need to change very much in order to keep listeners interested as years pass. This is, after all, Shonen Knife's eighteenth studio album since the band formed in 1981 – and the only real change to the band's formula in all that time has been the players which comprise their rhythm section. Does that mean their sound is played...