Every rule seems to have an exception, and Rise Against are one of the few exceptions to my general rule of thumb that today's punk rock bands just don't "get it." Rather than rant and rave while sounding like the bitter old man that I can sometimes be when it comes to music these days, let me just say I have always respected Rise Against, not only for their music, but also because they are one of the few bands...

Hometowns have a unique way of existing, being different things for different people, all in one zip code. For Paul Banwatt, Amy Cole and Nils Edenloff, home is a song. Or thirteen. The trio forms the Rural Alberta Advantage, and they are the creators of whimsical, achingly honest indie rock piped straight from the essence of their native Alberta on Hometowns. This album sings to all things Alberta; “Frank, AB” even nods to a devastating landslide in 1903. These kids...

Has there been an indie rock supergroup? Sure, there have been rock supergroups, like the Traveling Wilburys or Damn Yankees, country supergroups like The Highwaymen, punk supergroups including Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and failed supergroups like Audioslave and Zwan. You might argue that Broken Social Scene is an indie rock supergroup, but seeing how a majority of the members gained widespread fame for their main projects only after the release of You Forgot It In People, I'm gonna...

Sunday’s 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival coverage can be found HERE. Here’s another reminder of why I love Chicago in the summer: Pitchfork Festival. Stationed at Union Park, it is not as big as Lollapalooza but it’s better that way. A weekend of hippies and hipsters joining together for a music festival that brings in new talent, unnoticed bands and groundbreaking veterans. Sometimes it breaks my heart that I can’t see it all. Overlapping band schedules are always a bummer and...

Anyone that has been following Our Lady Peace since the band's debut appeared in 1994 had an couldn't have not had inkling of what was coming because the progression the band has followed has been exactly the same one that so many other beloved bands have charted. For the curious, the path goes about like this: appear and make a splash with the first album, set the world on fire and become a household name at the release of sophomore...

Sometimes when the 'rock n' roll' context and instrumentation of even the most classic songs is removed or augmented, it becomes readily apparent just how poor or flat-out dumb and laughable the music of the genre can be. For example, when the Flaming Lips covered “Borderline” (a Madonna song) and ended up totally changing the face of it with only a little testosterone, the song just wilted. Conversely, Paul Anka's Rock Swings! album – which collected monster hits from the...

What happens to a one-hit wonder band after their three and a half minutes (the average length of the average pop song) are up? In some cases, when their time is up, it's only as simple as that; after grabbing the world's attention for just enough time to play through their song and drawing rabid fanfare for it, the members of the band in question go back to their day jobs. They might make a half-hearted attempt or two to...

After the abrupt flame-out of Audioslave, it's totally understandable why Tom Morello went the way he did with his career. There were more than a couple of similarities between the end of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave and, after having been bitten, it made perfect sense that the guitarist would shyly elect to do it himself and do it in a form that no one would necessarily see coming. So that's what he did – he came up with...

Murry Hammond kicked off the evening by sauntering out on stage proclaiming, "Welcome to a very special evening with the Old 97's, which is English for I open up for our lead singer," drawing laughs from the crowd. He proceeded to regale the crowd with personal songs and stories about his life including his opening ditty about "a teenage hardcore punk kid who used to ride the rails filming graffiti on box cars." He also sliced into a very heartfelt...

After hanging around the Kevin Says Stage for an hour or so, I decided it was probably time to get over to the Main Stage and see what was happening over on the other side of the Pier. After making my way through the sea of kids and stopping off at the...