What a piece of work is Billy Idol. In the late Seventies, there was no arguing that the punk band he fronted, Generation X, was at the bottom of the British punk pile that managed to make it across the ocean. Idol was the embodiment of what Iggy Pop called the “Dum Dum Boy”; he wasn’t the greatest or most charismatic singer, DX’s songs were perfectly average at best and the combination of those elements really only amounted to a...

Sometimes when a producer begins to get legs under him and gets known as an “it” producer, anyone paying attention knows that the paths of the individual in question and a particular musician will cross. It’s a foregone conclusion; they’re destined to work together because they’re cut from the same musical cloth and their established previous patterns would mesh well together. For example, when Danger Mouse crowned his string of successes (Gorillaz’ Demon Days, The Good, The Bad and The...

In 2006, Bound Stems proved to the world that they are more than capable of writing great songs, which they did quite well on their debut LP Appreciation Night. But the soon-to-be-released follow up, The Family Afloat, exists at a different level entirely. Their debut demonstrated how well they infused pop with complex rhythms and arrangements and that you should expect the unexpected. This sensibility still remains, however, but more as an ingredient rather than the entire dish. In two...

There are few things more logistically difficult to sort out than the way that Broken Social Scene works. There’s no reason for that really, other than the fact that there are so many songwriters in the band—so many heads—that it makes bands like The Mekons or Husker Du (which each had three songwriters that produced enough material to be considered ‘chief songwriters’ in other bands) look simple to qualify, and there is a rotating cast of personnel through the door....

Oh shit! It’s a triple! Hey kids, Today’s viewing is for a little band called Thunderheist. The only reason you could say that this band is little is from them not being on Wikipedia or iTunes, yet their music and lyrical abilities put their stuff at the top of my list. How on earth I stumbled upon these people I dare not share. But our beloved music bands happened to have stumbled upon them, as today’s video choice, “Jerk it,”...

Doesn’t anyone else marvel at how rare it has become to find a band brave enough to be creative without obsessively keeping an eye on their bottom line at the same time? It has become so rare, in fact, that sometimes when a band first starts, it’s difficult to believe in it. Tokyo Police Club was such a band when its debut EP came out; offering textural and tenuous guitar licks far more aged and accomplished than singer David Monks’...

No matter what type of music you like, it seems like someone’s got something to say. Whether it be about social injustice, political injustice, loss of freedom or a condition that the artist in question deems important, there’s a punk, a rocker, an emcee, a folkie and more lining up to talk about it. There is a “Message” annex of every genre of pop music and all of them utilize genre-specific variables as a vehicle to help drive them; be...

Southern California has this way of dulling the senses, especially during early July. A toxic mixture of apathy, gloom and Sublime cause most of us to forget that So-Cal music isn’t necessarily meant to be enjoyed with a Corona and a blunt. This is especially true in San Diego, where Calico Horse (formerly The Clock Work Arm) has released this summer's most hauntingly beautiful record. Before I mention that a certain someone from a certain San Diego band is producing...

Maybe it’s because the island’s surface area is so small – making a high population density and so very easy to hear and be influenced by the same things – or maybe it’s because any given band’s music has to travel such a great distance to reach foreign ears and so similarly bent groups tend to run together in waves, but it often seems like the UK exports a tremendous number of sound-alike bands. Think about it; a decent cross...

It's hard to believe that 2008 is already half over. The longest day of the year (or the shortest, if you are reading this in the southern hemisphere) has come and gone, and it's pretty much guaranteed that Christmas decorations will start showing up in store windows any day now. That being said, 2008 has already been a great year for music, and it's time for our annual half year review. The biggest question seemed to be whether or not...