Even at their weakest moments, some bands are possessed of a muse that never falters or lets them down. Just look at Depeche Mode as an example – throughout the group's 28-year career, fans have questioned singer Dave Gahan and guitarist Martin Gore's motivations and movements on an album-by-album basis; trying to decode the changes in minutiae that have been made. This practice has proven to have a very divisive effect on that fan base too – the proof of...
I can’t help but imagine animated cartoons in vivid detail while listening to The Boy Least Likely To. Each song on The Law of the Playground paints bittersweet images for the listener, and evokes a nostalgia that turns back to folksy songs from your younger years. But these stories aren't for kids, and the album isn’t all child’s play. Even though Law does employ cute phrases like “shooby doo” and “tra la la,” and revolves childish subjects like worms, butterflies,...
There's a moment towards the end of “Careless Love,” one of the deeper cuts on Camera Obscura's new record, My Maudlin Career, when song effortlessly transforms from a swaying example of orchestral pop as we generally understand it in 2009 to a soaring, melancholy orchestral piece that sounds like it's been yanked from underneath the credits of A Summer Place. The track just refuses to quit building: the snare hits get more incessant, and the strings get higher and louder...
Superdrag’s 15-year history is riddled with the familiar tropes that can make rock lore so compelling to the listener—and dangerous to the artist: the dizzying hometown buzz; the rapid ascent to national fame; the “difficult second album” and subsequent label fallout; the drugs and drinking and years on the road; the personnel changes; and, of course, the breakup. Anyone familiar with Superdrag’s story knows it was a difficult one at times—and was probably shocked when the Knoxville-via-Nashville...
There are only a handful of bands from my youth that I wouldn't even think twice about seeing live yet again these days. Bands that, although they have been around for well over twenty years, still sound as heavy and brutal as I remember them sounding all those years ago, and who can still deliver the goods live. Destruction are one of those bands. I don't think I have missed them when they have played in San Francisco since 1985...
You hear the words “fake emcee” in rap battles constantly. It’s quite the belittling name to call someone who wants to be one of the best. To call 50 Cent a fake emcee is asking for a death threat. One step below the category of the real emcee is one we all know as the real fake emcees. The aged and very old king of the category is “Weird Al” Yankovic, and he is surpassed by the new album, Incredibad,...
Amidst a crashing economy and headline news that features reports on pirates, swine flu and tea-bagging, Wavves gives a hopeful reminder that everything is going to be a-okay. I’m not suggesting that Nathan Williams, the 22 year-old native from San Diego has the means to solve all our problems, but he sure has the effortless jams that can allow us to escape and get those much needed minutes to just trip the fuck out. Clocking in at around 40 minutes...
People have a love affair with foreign bands. There’s something exotic and mysterious about property that we don’t live in and the people that come from there with musical prowess. We can’t help but like the Irish swagger of U2, the heartfelt outpouring of the Scots of Snow Patrol. Apparently Celine Dion is very big overseas (in some cases there’s no accounting for taste, what can we say). The British Invasion will forever earmark America’s obsession with British rock with...
Most consumers don't think about it, but those on the inside of the music business know that there is a very delicate balance that gets struck for every band following their decision to make music their occupation and/or career rather than just a hobby. After band or songwriter X gets started, they're forced to concede to the financial logistics of being in a band; they have a finite amount of money and so often record cheaply and/or when time allows....