I hate repetitive bullshit. As I searched for the best of the best video’s of the world I realized I was being repetitive. Do I really want to do a review of Britney Spear’s new video "Womanizer?" Hell No. What the fuck is wrong with me? I’ve been in L.A. for too long. Not only am I going to bring a new change to the Quad-V, but I’m going to bring you my roots. Like every other person from Los...

In today world of metal, metalcore bands have become a dime-a-dozen. The genre has gotten to the point where most new bands use the same generic formula again and again, and in the end, they all end up sounding the same, and for the most part, unmemorable. The same cannot be the said for Southern California's Winds of Plague. Forming in 2002, Winds of Plague released their first record, A Cold Day In Hell, in 2005. After spending months on...

Have you ever wondered about that co-worker in your office that you know well enough to exchange pleasantries with but little else? One has to wonder what they do when they punch out at the end of the day – sometimes if you happen to bump into them outside of work, your perceptions get irreparably altered because they’re a completely different person. Outside of that professional context – when the office attire comes off, when she takes off her Chanel...

Saying that horrorbilly headcases The Matadors have had a rough run over the last couple of years isn’t saying the half of it. After label signings and subsequent departures, personnel instability, the band’s ongoing range war with an entire city (Hamilton, Ontario) and a caustic rumor mill that has often greatly overstated the details of the band’s untimely demise, it would be perfectly reasonable for anyone – any band – to throw in the towel and call it a day...

There are some things that – before you hear anything from the album, before you even see the track list of what’s on it – just look classic. The design of a set – the tasteful layout, dark monochrome photo on the front of an embossed tin box – are instantly attractive and everyone that sees it, whether they’re fans or not, has to have a look. That’s the feeling you get when you take in Sony’s Johnny Cash –...

The problem for a modern artist who fetishizes a deceased musical subgenre—punk, proto-metal, no wave, bouncy '60s pop, etc. ad infinitum—is that it's basically impossible to grow as an artist. The people who pioneered the sounds you're aping made only a few records in the milieu that fascinates you before moving on to something else. The Sex Pistols self-destructed. Sabbath lost Ozzie and then Ronnie, and then broke up. The Kinks became a country band. The challenge for contemporary artists,...

After the fantastic electro clash-infused, club-cavorting flop that 2007’s Blackout turned out to be, which happened to coincide with her spectacular swan dive from grace in front of a succession of camera lenses, even Britney Spears’ most devout fans were checking their watches to see if her high time was over. Were that the case, all that would’ve remained was to release one last album that could function as the soundtrack to the singer/starlet’s final train wreck ending and call...

There are some bands that, as sticky-sweet as they are, have no obvious edge of cynicism or irony anywhere in their music and so, because of that, casting disparaging criticisms in the direction of any sound they make is akin to kicking a puppy – such actions will invariably backfire and place the character of the criticizer into question.  Such is the case with The Bicycles; premier purveyors of extraordinarily innocent pop that gets played the way it does because...

There is both an up and a downside to being in a band with a distinct look and sound. On one hand, being unique means that your music and image are instantly synonymous with the name which ostensibly means that there is an instantly recognizable brand in play that means even those unfamiliar with your music can figure out what you’re doing and thus make the decision if that kind of show fits in with what they like; that’s a...

While the term gets thrown around so much that its value  has been diminished exponentially, Ani DiFranco has discovered what it truly means to have a “life-altering event.” Typically speaking, a life-altering event tends to be one that, when it happens, makes you stop what you’re doing, look up and take stock of what your life has meant to that point, where you are versus where you thought you’d be, and what value the actions and achievements you’ve made have...