Seldom is a band able to venture into undiscovered countries or sound completely unique within the rock idiom anymore. Part of that has to do with the availability and user-friendliness of recording software; digital recording platforms have become so easy to use now that it's possible for any numbskull with a free weekend, a laptop and a creative urge to make his own magnum opus with little or no experience and about as much instrumental ability. Such ease afforded means...

Okay, before everyone takes it upon themselves to jump on Freak Out! and tear a strip out of it for the same reason critics have been lambasting Teenage Bottlerocket since the band released its second album in 2005 (a chorus of “It sounds the same as their other records!” invariably goes up), it might be time to realize that their albums have to be judged by a different set of values. Yes, Freak Out! sounds similar to the other four...

Maybe it's because Elk is coming out of a scene which has numbered hardcore punk (A Day And A Deathwish, In These Walls, Ceremonial Snips, Attack In Black, Alexisonfire and more) and folkish country (Attack In Black again, City and Colour) as its greatest musical exports over the last decade, but there's no doubt that the band's indie/garage rock commands attention and will cause those who hear it to stop what they're doing and just listen. From the moment “Before...

I'll concede that this review is a bit late in coming (the better part of two months behind release, in fact), but there were outside factors which kept me from getting to Marvelous Clouds right away. I was shocked when I heard that Aaron Freeman was quitting Ween and – whether it was done expressly to ensure that the singer would be able to remain sober or not – I felt personally injured at the loss of one of my...

The Pumpkins have always been an acquired taste. They were a Nineties band that weren’t necessarily a Nineties band. Their unique brand of Goth influenced, over-produced stadium rock stood apart from the successes of the rest of the grungy garage bands of the day. Oceania is no different in that regard. If you’re still a Pumpkins fan in your Thirties, then this album is for you; but if Billy Corgan still thinks he is reaching the youth of today with...

One day, back in the summer of 2010, I found myself strolling through the streets of Midtown Sacramento, taking part in a monthly affair known as the Second Saturday Art Walk. Paintings, sculptures, wine… not necessarily a high class affair, but an affair nonetheless. Anyway, as I made my way through the crowded streets, a lamppost cluttered with papers caught my eye. Packed in with ads for numerous bands I’d never heard of, I thought I saw The Smashing Pumpkins...

If one were to only study the mountain of tattered and yellowing newsprint which has buil up around the Seattle rock scene of the Nineties over the last twenty years, it would be very easy to assume that the scene was an enormous sausage factory. Everyone can instantly recall images of Kurt Cobain spinning on his head while playing guitar and Eddie Vedder climbing up into the rafters of some venue during the bridge of “Even Flow” and Chris Cornell...

While he doesn’t want to admit it for fear of jinxing the whole thing and watching it go down the tubes, singer/guitarist Jesse Elliott knows that something is about to happen to his band, These United States. He doesn’t know what, but anyone who speaks with him knows he can feel it coming; something’s going to happen. “Something about this record – God – where do I start,” beams the singer breathlessly. “I mean, with each one we’ve made, every...

While he doesn't want to admit it for fear of jinxing the whole thing and watching it go down the tubes, singer/guitarist Jesse Elliott knows that something is about to happen to his band, These United States. He doesn't know what, but anyone who speaks with him knows he can feel it coming; something's going to happen. “Something about this record – God – where do I start,” beams the singer breathlessly. “I mean, with each one we've made, every...

After an illuminating and enlightening reissue endeavor undertaken in 2010 which saw The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion get heavy again in their re-examinations of albums like Now I Got Worry, Orange, Acme and Extra Width, the band has elected to go in the polar opposite direction for Meat And Bone – their newest effort and first offering of new material in eight years. "We still have that psychic glue that allows us to create music together,” says Spencer boldly of...