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...

This is part three of a three-part series on the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. Part one can be found here and part two can be found here. It was now about 4:30 PM, and the heat had started taking its toll on the crowd. Everywhere I looked I saw kids seeking shade, whether it was under the bed of a truck that was serving as a stage, or by leaning on the back of a portable toilet. I, however, was...

The verdict was out if Goldfinger would ever return. Over the last couple of years in particular, the band members’ business outside of the group saw a tremendous amount of expansion: drummer Darrin Pfieffer became a radio personality and president of a record label, John Feldmann became an activist keeping closer to full-time hours and Kelly LeMieux began instructing at the Paul Gilbert School Of Rock in Oregon. It had been three years since the band released a record (six...

This is part two of a three-part series on the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. Part one can be found here and part three is coming soon. Well so far it was shaping up to be a pretty good day. It was only 1:30 in the afternoon and I had already seen three pretty awesome bands, taken a ton of pictures, picked up a couple of CDs and had a couple of beers. And as a nice breeze started to come...

This is part one of a three-part series on the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. Part two can be found here and part three is coming soon. The punk rock purist in me really wanted to hate the Vans Warped Tour. Back in my youth, an all-day punk rock fest in San Francisco meant a show at The Farm, with bands like Discharge, G.B.H, Dayglo Abortions, D.R.I., Attitude Adjustment and countless others. Oftentimes there was no merch table to buy t-shirts...

Has it really been four years since The Faint released Wet From Birth? That sounds crazy, but when I really ponder that fact, it seems about right. What the hell took them so long? Have they been in the Peace Corps, spreading their electro-vibe to third-world countries in need of something a little more modern? Did they get office jobs? Well, whatever they’ve been up to, they managed to find time to record a new album, Fasciinatiion, which is due...

This year’s Taste of Chicago, which kicked off last week with performances from soul greats Stevie Wonder and Chaka Kahn, has opened its doors for the next generation of soul and R&B performers. And the fact that Chicago is in the running for the 2016 summer Olympics, let’s just say that the torch has been handed off to the vivacious Joss Stone. A tad after 6:30 in the evening, Stone’s band—a nine-member ensemble, or ten if you count the lady...

Aimee Mann's @#%&!Smilers is arguably thoughtful, melodic songwriting, but also a puzzling mix of bland metaphors and stoned, lethargic production. At 14 songs, @#%&!Smilers but would have been better off without the tracks not mentioned here but is a worthwhile listen and unobtrusive enough for long drives and cleaning house. “Freeway” is a radio friendly rocking number about upper middle-class Orange County lifestyle. The line "You got a lot of money but you can't afford the freeway" is poignant in...

Crushable ingénue Lykke Li makes prommy, kissy slow jams and hip-hoppity feel-good dance tracks while revealing a few too many pages of her journal. While she thinks the music scene in her resident city of Stockholm could use "more people, and more heat, and more underground culture," the young Swede might help grant her own wishes. Undressed diary lyrics, sing-along choruses and a few gingerly delivered flat notes of the Little Bit EP gives her the unassuming charm of an...