As we get deeper into the new millennium and an increasing number of Gen X musicians discover the joys of parenthood, conspicuously the number of really good kids records to come out has increased at a roughly equal ratio. This year alone, albums geared to children that won’t drive their parents insane have appeared from bands including They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies and those have almost deliberately gone out of their way to be really smart for parental...

Other than being remarkable talents whose careers have been celebrated by legions of fans the world over, what do U2, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Raffi, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Scott Weiland, Robbie Robertson, Luscious Jackson, Ron Sexsmith, Dashboard Confessional and Emmylou Harris have in common? In short, the single most noticeable common thread among the careers of that list of musicians is that, at one point or another, Daniel Lanois has offered his talents for production to at least one...

Everybody that’s partial to rock n’ roll has a memory of the first time that the music crept up and made a devotee out of them. Years ago, you might have been a passing fan or daytime dabbler and enjoyed the music, but didn’t really know all that much about it and, if asked, probably couldn’t pick out one particular favorite song. Then a record came along, punched you in the gut and made you a slave to the rock;...

After bursting onto the scene in 2005 with the danceable indie rock of Silent Alarm, Bloc Party ventured into new territory with a dark and introspective sophomore release, A Weekend In The City, and scored their biggest hit with the single “I Still Remember.” On Intimacy, the UK quartet preserves their original sound while fusing it with the darker writing from their second album. The result is a collection of strong, upbeat, listenable melodies that run the emotional gamut. Led...

I have to admit that, years ago when I first heard about the notion of a DJ packing a room full of ecstatic dancers and such an individual being called a genius, I was sceptical. I mean, they’re just pushing pre-recorded music right? How difficult could it be to string together a bunch of songs, make a playlist and make it sound good? Oh, how woefully under-educated I was. What DJs do isn’t so simple as just slapping a series...

Some things are guaranteed to make your blood pressure go up. According to every piece of literature available, too much salt is guaranteed to register a pulmonary increase, but what’s lesser-known is that the right combination of hard-soft dynamics, girl-and-boy harmonies and huge overdriven guitars in just the right spots—not unlike the combination The Subways play with reckless abandon on All Or Nothing—will get blood pumping too fast too. From the very first arpeggiated guitar build of “Girls & Boys,”...

Unlike so many other bands that have released side project albums over the last few years (beginning with Fieldy’s god-awful hip hop record, Rock n’ Roll Gangster, in 2002, recently releases have surfaced by Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals) that really only amount to variations on the original, established theme of the larger band in question and are a cheap excuse for one member to put his/her name up front to be...

Somehow, in listening to Kings Of Leon’s new album, two images start to surface. First, the swirling synths and majestically watery, electronic production of the record conjure a portrait of a mad Captain Ahab spinning the wheel of his ship at random intervals so that the course charted doubles back regularly on itself to the point of seeming totally rudderless. The second is of a band trying desperately to stretch out stylistically and not minding in the slightest if they...

Around 1990, before Nirvana came along and totally reset the mainstream taste so that a song wasn’t cool if it didn’t have one edgy sentiment in it or another, rock radio was a generally sunnier, happier place. The going was lighter as tales of partying (typified by Motley Crue), girls and baked goods (Warrant), overcoming odds on spiritual belief (Bon Jovi), more girls and more partying (Beastie Boys) and vacuous but good-hearted, malicious fun (Slaughter, Van Halen, Quiet Riot, KISS,...

Through the duration of their career, the band’s detractors have had great fun and been pretty merciless in their condemnation of AC/DC. They’ve been called anachronistic and misogynistic, lecherous and lascivious, lurid and lewd, cartoonish and mawkish (in the later going of the band’s career) and more; the list of libelous labels is already endless and continues to grow with each successive release. From day one, the band has unfalteringly objectified women (there are songs about sex, but the language...