There aren't many people that would argue Three Days Grace had an easy trip up a very crowded street when they first appeared in 2003. At that time, an angry band whose muse was centered in an angry and resentful place had it made and it didn't hurt that Three Days Grace, unlike its peers, was far more thematically blunt and straightforward (one had to work at it to miss the message in songs like “I Hate Everything About You”),...
The romantic image that most music fans tend to harbor when they think about the process of making a new album is always the same: even the most social of bands will retire to comfortable studio confines after a regimen of touring and songwriting, where they'll flip the switches on their inspiration to create something that is simultaneously a statement of themselves and where it is creatively at that moment. It's an attractive and romantic thought, but it almost never...
The process of deconstruction – of values, of style, of established forms, of any number of aesthetics – can be a very salacious thing when done well and with a bit of foresight. Simply ripping shit up arbitrarily before gluing it back together and presenting it with a new coat of paint (see Fluxus art) can at least hold a passing interest because it re-contextualizes the mundane and can be at least momentarily thought provoking, but more lasting impressions can...
I had to look twice to make sure I'd put the right album on for review as the lead-off track from Another Link In The Chain, “Birds Of Prey” kicked into gear. Then I went online to see if there were two bands called The Junction. Incidentally – for the curious and for the record – there have been several bands with the word 'Junction' in their name, but there's only one 'Junction' from Brampton, Ontario and this album was...
'Designer impostor' products are funny things. On one hand, they're rather mawkish and genuinely looked down upon because, as the term implies, they're bargain-basement replicas of established and lauded matter. Sometimes they don't even bear a slight resemblance to the product they're knocking off – but that's the true lottery gamble of them; sometimes what you get is more palatable and easier to respect because of it. Sometimes it's god awful and the patron knows he's been taken for a...
Australia has the particular ability to create things lovely and drastic and just above the edge of destruction. Take the tragic beauty of the Outback, for example, or the impossible tangle of muscle that constitutes kangaroos or Mel Gibson. Among this number—but maybe not as well known as its drunk raving countryman—is Dappled Cities. Hailing from the ‘burbs of Sydney, this Aussie posse presents their third full-length album, Zounds. Sitting somewhere between experimental indie rock and electro-pop, the band crafts...
Sometimes it takes looking at an experience through new eyes to really appreciate it. As a fan of live music in general, I've probably been to–conservative estimate–200 shows in my admittedly short lifetime. But you never forget your first one. Mine? Bryan Adams, in Vancouver, with my mom, at the horribly awkward age of 11. There are so many things wrong with that sentence that I don't even want to talk about it, but I did have a great time–I...
Nearing the end of their 2009 Pandemonium tour in support of their latest release Yes, Pet Shop Boys return to the U.S. promising another avant-garde performance. Original members Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe—with four Grammy awards, dozens chart-topping hits and more than 100 million albums sold—have historically presented dazzling visuals in their live shows. Including massive set changes, costumed dancers, video displays and an array of soulful backup singers, this tour promises to have all of the elements of their...
When he tried to sum up singer Richard Thompson's place in the grand scheme of the alt-rock pantheon in 1994, Spin/San Francisco Bay Guardian contributor Dirk Richardson wrote: “Even when his impeccably crafted tunes are covered by such established stars as Bonnie Raitt, R.E.M., or David Byrne – as they were on 1994's, Beat The Retreat – Richard Thompson eludes mainstream accessibility. Thompson never shared '60's peers' optimistic faith in social progress. That's why X, Bob Mould and Dinosaur Jr....
I love shows with such a diverse line-up of bands that it not only crosses multiple genres of metal, but still bring out so many different types of fans, from the Stoner Metal Weedeater fans to the slightly geekish Melvins fans (I only say that because I am on of them), to the tattooed neck, jock and frat boy Down fans. Yes, this show had something for everyone. I should mention that Portland, Oregon's Danava opened this show, but due...