Man, if you were looking to bang your head and stomp your feet like a possessed Shaman channeling the spirit world in order to alter your reality for a couple of hours, then ending up at the Mastodon and Queens of the Stone Age concert was your portal to such mania. These two bands on the same bill was a gift and they delivered the goods. Mastodon was so ferocious and loud they shook the hell out of the brand...
Every once in a while—if you're lucky—there will be that moment where you realize that the band has gone completely off the setlist. For the most part, this doesn't really happen. As much as you want to believe that you really are part of the rockingest crowd they've seen all tour, chances are it's just another night for (insert band name here). They've played all these songs for at least a month in practice, and that awesome, one-of-a-kind solo? Yeah,...
Out from the ashes of doom comes BBE’s “Lost and Found” series Rockabilly and Jump Blues from Keb Darge and Cut Chemist. That’s right, read it one more time. Keb Darge, the up front and center funk-meister and turntablist/producer extraordinaire Cut Chemist bring you something completely amazing and unexpected; Rockabilly and Jump Blues. I guess you could say I have selective reading. I saw “Cut Chemist” and “Lost and Found.” My response? So In. I will play this back to...
Anaheim rock-trio The Willowz released their third album, Chautauqua, earlier this year and the group is now gearing up for a tour this winter alongside dance-rockers Electric 6. The tour is mostly comprised of dates across the southern United States but does include stops in Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland. The Willowz formed back in 2002, releasing their first LP, The Willowz, in 2004. They quickly became hipster heartthrobs with their unique merging of White-Stripsian garage rock with OC punk....
Asked to typify the city of San Francisco as an animal, I'd call her a chameleon. Asked again to typify the crowd that showed up on a moody Sunday night to listen to Oakland masters of stoner metal (High On Fire) and Japanese masters of apocalyptic post-rock (Mono), I'd say the 70% all-male crowd was a mixture of metal worshiping beasts and borderline trendsters—a peculiar amalgam. These two bands are great enough in the mastery of their sounds that they...
Anyone else find the light-speed distribution of mass media a bit frightening? Does anybody else find the incredible availability of conspicuous critiques and music-related bibble-babbles relentlessly shoved down of all our throats via radio, via television, via the quicksand-vacuum that is the internet, unfathomable? Especially when it comes to a medium as subjective as music, I’m in a constant state of awe in the face of music journalism availability and how quick reviews pop up like rabbit offspring. It’s hard...
If releasing five versions initially wasn't enough, and despite mixed reviews, Billy Corgan's soap-opera circus, Smashing Pumpkins, will be re-releasing their sixth LP, Zeitgeist, on October 30, 2007. This new version will feature one unreleased song, “Ma belle,” as well as feature the b-sides “Stellar” and “Death From Above.” In addition to the full-length album, the release will come with a full-length DVD titled Inside the Zeitgeist. The re-release of the only three-month-old Zeitgeist will be...
Post-hardcore Brooklyn four-piece The Forms are announced a national tour this Fall in support of their self-titled sophomore record, which just came October 23 on the band's own label, Threespheres/The Rebel Group. The tour kicks off today, October 30th with a record release party at New York's Cake Shop, and wraps up November 20 at Portland’s Tonic Lounge. Those from the Golden State are particularly in luck as the tour also includes five California stops. You can check out The...
Right from the very outset of their November 24, 1981 performance in Montreal (later hailed as the last concert, along with the encore performance the next night, to showcase Queen ‘raw’), Queen stepped onstage with something to prove, which shows in their inclusion of the loud-fast version of “We Will Rock You” that opened the set. It’s just that simple; every choreographed mic stand toss, every piano flourish and every molten instrumental break are for the express purpose of giving...
From all I can tell, Paul Oakenfold just up and decided one day that he wanted to be a DJ, and shortly thereafter, planned to be the most popular DJ in the world. Whether or not he trumps all of the other disc jockeys in existence is up for debate, but with the release of his Greatest Hits and Remixes album this month, he makes a hefty statement regarding the breath of his influence. Although I never thought about it...