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...
Seriously, who smokes weed after/during a NOFX show these days? I am walking out of the House Of Blues on a Thursday night in October thinking just that. I know NOFX have graced us with some of the best punk/reggae the Nineties had to offer (“Kill All The White Man,” anyone?), but that's no reason to make the masses departing from a show smell like a frat party who just tapped the Bud Light keg (the difference really is drinkability,...
Sometimes, without even having a clear plan in mind necessarily, a band manages to fall ass-backwards into a charmed rock n' roll rhythm which instantly connects with listeners. It's never one particular aspect of the band's songs which ends up being responsible for the instant adoration that listeners feel, it's just a complete package of good melodies, good guitar hooks and a great beat which ensures that some listeners will “get it” from the first spin, and never let the...
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ani DiFranco has announced the upcoming release of her eagerly awaited new album. Which Side Are You On? arrives via the Grammy-winning artist's own Righteous Babe Records on January 17, 2012. Which Side Are You On? marks DiFranco's first studio album in more than three years. The collection features eleven new songs alongside a radically reworked rendition of the classic title song, famously popularized by the one and only Pete Seeger nearly five decades ago, but no less relevant...