Everyone’s favorite psych-and-folk-rock pioneers, Black Mountain, are back on the road for an early 2008 tour in support of their second full-length album, In The Future. The band has toured the world, playing everything from the smallest of rock clubs to the largest of outdoor amphitheaters, yet have succeeded in maintaining live performances with universal appeal. Even though they are championed by the more underground-minded record-collector type of music geek as well as by high-profile musicians such as Wayne Coyne...
Johnathan Rice, the 24 year-old raspy-voiced talent out of Virgina, is still riding high on the wave of positive press he received for his recent release Further North. Despite his seeming perpetual existence within the shadow of Oberst, Rice has been winning fans across the country thanks to his impressive live performances, opening for bands such as Rilo Kiley, The Redwalls, Martha Wainwright and Wilco, and with his charming sensitivity enticing audiences to the musical destinations of his choice. Now...
White Denim’s newest free single, “Paint Silver Gold,” was released today on the hottest label on earth, RCRD LBL. The song sounds like a mix between early Jimi Hendrix and The Who’s “The Real Me,” and I would consider that a good thing. "Paint Silver Gold" is the second single from the group's RCRD LBL EP, which is available for legal and free download only at RCRD LBL.com, and will feature four songs with a new track being released every...
At this point, it has become standard practice in the business of making music to re-issue material years after the original release in a bid to beef up a band's stature in the musical community. Think about it—even after a band has moved on to other things or changed creative directions, fans both new and old like a time line of where their favorite band has been and where they're going, or simply to shoehorn the artist in question back...
If the devil sang love songs, he'd sing with a voice similar to Mikael Akerfeldt's, the lead singer of Swedish death-metal band Opeth. Their songs are laden with a mixture of wrath and ire that flash back to emotional elements of despair and hopelessness, yet also burgeon with yearnings for love, forgiveness and respect. Progressive death metal masters, Opeth, produce some of the most emotional sounding melodic songs of doom out there. I've been listening to Opeth for a few...
Hot off an eventful 2007, Syracuse, NY’s Ra Ra Riot hits the road for twelve dates around the East Coast and Midwest. Their self-titled debut EP got them much-deserved hype and helped them get on tours with bands like Tokyo Police Club, Editors and Art Brut. The band also recently played a sold-out benefit show with TPC and Vampire Weekend to honor their friend and drummer who passed away last summer. All proceeds went to the John Ryan Pike Memorial...
It’s really hard to say, but I’ve never become a fan of a band after they messaged me on MySpace beckoning me to “check them out.” I do, however, give most of them a chance because, well, you never know. This isn’t exactly how it happened with Asthmaboy, but it was close—bulletin vs. spam email. What intrigued me most was the offer to download their album for free, no questions asked. Just, “Here you go. Thanks for stopping by.” Now,...
Whether you referred to the current waning year as the year of the pig or simply as 2007, it was my year of Minipop. I first saw the dreamy indie pop four-piece when they opened for faux-French rockers Nous Non Plus at Cafe du Nord back in May. I bought Minipop's self-titled demo album at the concert and it hasn't left my stereo since. Since that fateful night in May, I've caught San Fransisco's local darlings only one other time,...
"It'll never work in theory, but it works in practice," is how the saying goes and, truly, no record released recently exemplifies that principle better than Raine Maida's solo debut. Other than Maida's own vocals, there's not a solitary thing about The Hunters Lullaby that resembles the body of work that the singer has amassed with Our Lady Peace—stripped of guitar heroism and soaring melodies, the album relies more on raw acoustic guitars, stark arrangements, poignant lyrics and incisive criticisms...
I was convinced, in a complete and irreversible way, that Soulja Boy was the pinnacle of all musical recordings to date. I mean, seriously, who would have expected that someone could top such a useful and poignant (in a very post-911 world kind of way) phrase as “Superman that Ho.” I don’t think you can really argue against Superman being a Ho, it’s almost assuredly fa sho. Where were you then, you Kryptonian hack? Where were you in our hour...