The Mars Volta's ever-rotating cast of players settled down for long enough this spring to put together a new album which will hit streets in the zero-eight, January 29th to be exact. Produced by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, The Bedlam in Goliath is a concept album based around a story that was attached to a gift that Rodriguez-Lopez got for co-founder Cedric Bixler-Zavala while traveling. Confused? Well, as usual, the tracklist will do nothing to alleviate that: 1. Aberinkula2. Metatron3. Ilyena4. Wax...

The Start Line’s latest release, Direction, is in stores now and has been receiving rave reviews.  Furthermore, the band’s video for the first single “Island” has been added to MTV, and began regular rotation October 22.  But these punk-popeteers aren’t happy enough with all that, and have recently announced that they will be embarking on a rather extensive US tour through the end of 2007.  The band will be playing with a number of bands including, Paramore, Set Your Goals,...

After releasing a couple of fairly well-received solo records, Peter Walker has now assembled a band of likeminded players, called it Eulogies and released a self-titled album that, like it as not, sounds like little more than the third instalment in Walker’s catalogue; there isn’t a whole lot of difference between Eulogies and Landed and Young Gravity, just the name of the project performing the material. That isn’t a bad thing necessarily—as with his first two releases, Eulogies makes the...

See, it's sort of cool to see one of the new bands from the UK shuck the loosey-goosey dynamics that virtually every band since The Happy Mondays have used as a cover for not being being able to play very well and just play short, tight pop songs. The Fratellis’ set from Brixton Academy showcases the band’s ability to do just that and not bother to pat themselves on the back along the way. Over the 17-song set, the band...

In some cases, a band’s sound is not just the sum of its influences. Sometimes there are more outside stimuli at work when a band comes together and begins writing music and, if one needs an example to illustrate that fact, one need look no further than Bella—a band whose sound will lead listeners to different conclusions than the band initially expected. For the uninitiated, the title of Bella’s Mint Records debut, No One Will Know...

I'm not going to undermine the significance of a band as massively influential and talented as The Libertines, but a 'Best Of' album? I mean c'mon, the band only had two albums of material in the first place… Luckily, I can't maintain this cynicism; The Libertines are just too goddamn catchy. The original hype surrounding these rockers back in 2001 was as apt as can be, and thankfully, the people that put together this compilation know the band's work well,...

Hot off the heels of Easy Tiger, Ryan Adams' second legitimate, albeit questionable stab at mainstream reverence, comes the further perplexing follow-up EP Follow the Lights. If it weren't for the fact that the guy can basically write a sanctified country ballad in his sleep, wake up, not comb his hair, and then drop an absolute gem of spastic rock, no one would even bat an eye at his new sound, direction, girlfriend, etc. But the dichotomy of his genius—superlative...

It’s a little chilling when you realize that there aren’t many alt-rock bands that crossed the MTV Unplugged stage that aren’t missing a member or are completely defunct now (Nirvana and Soul Asylum come to mind), but revisiting Alice In Chains’ set eleven years after the show happened is particularly gut-wrenching for those familiar with Layne Staley’s story. Unplugged was the first show that AIC had done in three years at that time and, while the performance was fantastic, it’s...

A few months ago, a friend asked me what new music he should check out and when I mentioned Tokyo Police Club to him, he said, “No seriously, what should I be listening to?” One amazing baseline later and TPC has my friend and the indie music world buzzing about their sound. Of course, these boys from Newmarket, Ontario, went ahead and sprinkled in some other talent-laden chords throughout last year’s debut, A Lesson In Crime. Now, the Canadian outfit...

On December 4, Capitol/Priority will reissue N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton on CD, vinyl and digital download. In addition to the gangsta’ rap classic, the reissue will also come with five bonus tracks including a number of new versions from the likes of Snoop Dogg, WC and Mack 10. So for anyone that has yet to experience the awesomeness of Straight Outta Compton here’s a new chance to enjoy this west coast original. The reissue track listing includes:1 Straight Outta Compton2...