As has been proven time and again, a single album can never be the only thing which decides a band's worth. Anyone can have a misstep or even do a flat-out creative face plant as the tape rolls, but then get back up, produce something incredible and force critics to eat their words the next time around. A perfect example of a band finding redemption after a pitiful fall lies in Star Fucking Hipsters' new album, From The Dumpster To...
Hey ya beautiful junkies youse,So how ya doin' youse itchy little bastids? I ain't asked in a while, so are ya beginnin' ta git that itchin' feelin'? I c'n smell it oon ya, 'at's fo' shoor, ya hooked some-bitch ya. Good thing ya gotcher ole buddy Donnie 'ere ta take care o' ya wit' anotha big bag o' SWAG. I got a little bit o' everything dis week, an' yer gonna love it! Awright, big things first. I nabbed'ja a...
It’s got to be the Norse blood in me (seriously, I’m a native Californian but, having traced my family genealogy, I have cousins who currently live in Norway) that immediately stirs me up when I hear that a band names their premier self-released EP Viking Funeral. Brooklyn-based Hull are just such a band who've set such a fire in me. Sady, I had never even heard about Hull until three days ago and I’ve been listening to their other two...
Maybe a year or two ago, local rock stations started playing a song called “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked,” a catchy little tune with some bottleneck guitar and slick lyrics that would easily get stuck in my head. Eventually I caught the name of the band – Cage the Elephant – and I discovered that I knew several other songs through regular radio play upon further investigation (“Shake Me Down,” “In One Ear”), without ever realizing who they were....
When Los Campesinos first appeared on the pop radar with the Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP four years ago, indie rock fans of all stripes got excited. Here was a band who was having fun, but Campesinos weren't just some sort of contrived corporate machination; their music was rooted in underground values, but had pristine pop hooks – and both got flaunted proudly with equal measure. Things got even better as a succession of releases (Hold On Now, Youngster and...
It’s hard for me to knock New Found Glory. First of all, I didn’t know they were still around. Second of all, I saw them play at Vans Warped Tour almost ten years ago and their lead singer, Jordan Pundik, had thrown out his back the night before. He was in obvious pain, but he was out there giving it his all. He sounded awful, But, that didn’t matter; he still tried and it impressed me. Radiosurgery is the Florida...
When Los Campesinos first appeared on the pop radar with the Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP four years ago, indie rock fans of all stripes got excited. Here was a band who was having fun, but Campesinos weren't just some sort of contrived corporate machination; their music was rooted in underground values, but had pristine pop hooks – and both got flaunted proudly with equal measure. Things got even better as a succession of releases (Hold On Now, Youngster and...
I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure that the dudes from Ivan & Alyosha have the same singing coach as My Morning Jacket’s Jim James or, at least, the dudes try to copy him. With the release of their second EP, Fathers Be Kind, the quartet band from Seattle fuses a flair for pop into vocals and lyrics rooted deeply in folk. In short, they’re a little more fun than they’re PNW brethren, Fleet Foxes. Now that I've dropped all...
I’m pretty sure that the whole “Piano Man” scene sort of hit its peak in the late Seventies and early Eighties (see Elton John, Billy Joel et al) and went to ground hard after punk broke and got pounded even deeper when alternative reared its head but, then, Ben Folds came along out of nowhere and pumped out a lot of catchy songs for a guy who doesn’t have the most rabid of fan bases. I’ve never heard anyone attack...
After having been apart for fifteen years, Guided By Voices' classic lineup – with Robert Pollard on vocals and guitar, guitarist Mitch Mitchell, drummer Kevin Fennell, bassist Greg Demos and multi-instrumentalist Tobin Sprout – announced in June 2010 that they had reconvened and, in addition to touring, were beginning to work on new material. Long-time fans rejoiced at the news; while Pollard has illustrated that he's perfectly prolific on his own without assistance, the classic GBV lineup had a sort...