On a cool night in L.A.’s trendy Silver Lake neighborhood, The Helio Sequence is eating dinner at a cheap Thai restaurant. It’s an unglamorous but not unusual night for the band, which recently set out on a tour to promote its new album, Keep Your Eyes Ahead. The band’s fourth album—and second since inking a deal with indie mega-label Sub Pop—reveals a more confident sound and mature songwriting, but front man Brandon Summers and his best friend, drummer Benjamin Weikel,...
Walking out of Slim's with my ears ringing after the show, I immediately started to think about how I was going to start this review. I usually like to prelude my reviews of metal and punk shows with some ego stroking, and by writing (and rambling) on and on about how hardcore or "old school" I think I am because I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my friends and I watched as the whole thrash-metal scene...
Thrill of It All: A Visual History 1972-1982 is a two-DVD history of Roxy Music, a band which went from being one of the most adventurous in rock music to one of the tamest. A wealth of performance videos—including concert footage, television appearances and promotional videos— clearly present their progression from the glammest of glam rock bands to the most romantic of the New Romantics. When Roxy Music debuted in 1972, they were the epitome of art rock, at once...
This installment of "Overanalysis" is all about getting low. In fact, as I write this, I am huddled down deep in a concrete bunker, avoiding child support payments. The song this week is called “Low,” and it’s by some guy I’ve never heard of named Flo Rida. I’m going to assume that he was so overcome by his own cleverness that, after breaking the state’s name into two pseudowords, he completely neglected to determine why or how one might go...
Warp Records recently delayed shipment of 1,000 special edition albums of Auctechre’s ninth album (Quaristice) because the intricate photo etching process on their steel cases took longer than expected. The finished product looks beautiful even as a picture. Quaristice’s cover was created by The Designers Republic, who also designed Warp Records’ website and the infamous “X-Ray” cover for Supergrass’ self-titled album. All this artistic and product elitism visually encapsulates Auctechre’s indefinable...
The kids aren’t alright. A sold-out techno-house shake-up is nothing to take lightly, especially one housed in such a fine place as the Henry Fonda theatre. You can imagine my frustration when, after finding the last damn parking lot willing to let me park in the overgrown field behind their property in exchange for fifteen dollars, I discovered that a large portion of the crowd was barely old enough to drive. Hey, I’m not naïve. I know that was exactly...
Metal messiahs The Sword are offering fans a sneak peek at their upcoming album Gods of the Earth by releasing a free mp3 of "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians," the first single off the Kemado-minted album which hits stores on April 1st. Prepare to have your face blown off. Can't get enough of The Sword? Then check out Ground Control's recent interview with J.D. Cronise right here. Download "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" Tour dates below: UK “Gods...
The winners of the 2008 PLUG INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS were unveiled last night (Thursday, March 6) during the sold-out awards ceremony and concert held at Terminal 5 in New York City. Sponsored by DELL, Ourstage.com, SESAC, Metromix, Lionsgate, iStockphoto, Fairtilizer, Royalty Share, The Bowery Presents and SuperAlright, the Patton Oswalt-hosted event included performances by PLUG Award winners Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (PLUG Impact Award) and St. Vincent (Best Female Artist), along with sets by nominees Dizzee Rascal, Jose...
My, how time flies. It was seven years ago, almost to the day, that I attended my first Noise Pop show—an amazing evening at the Great American Music Hall featuring a little-known band called Jimmy Eat World. My college roommate and I drove to S.F. for the evening, got our car locked overnight in a parking garage in the Tenderloin that closed at midnight, and spent the night on the streets of the city’s sketchiest neighborhood avoiding catcalls from Polk...
As paradoxical as it sounds, Hey Venus sounds precisely like what those unfamiliar with Super Furry Animals would expect an album by the band to sound like, but they never have until now and the band has honestly never sounded so good. For the first time, singer Gruff Rhys and company have stopped resisting their inclination to indulge in every single solitary super sound of the seventies and discovered that they’re able to make those sounds vital again in so...