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...
In my first couple of columns here I described the opening of my own musical mind, when I moved from the punk rock of New England to the jam bands of the Mountain West. Looking back I can easily see how narrow my taste had become, and how being forced to listen to music outside of those confines greatly enriched my musical life. Coincidentally, at the same time several of my musical heroes were also expanding their horizons. Not necessarily...
After watching the “Planet Earth” series on the Discovery Channel, I get the same feeling of bewilderment and awe as I do when I watch Sigur Ros’ first-ever live DVD, Heima. Although, instead of hearing Sigourney Weaver describe never-before-seen hunting habits of glowing vampire squid, you hear the sounds of one of today’s most gifted musical groups. And the unblemished imagery of their homeland—Iceland—contests the most breathtaking African migration scenes filmed from high above in HD, no less. It might...
Check out this photoseries of Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks as they performed at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on 12.19.07. More on Stephen Malkmus here: www.stephenmalkmus.com Download "Baltimore" –...