More than in any other music genre, there is a treacherously thin line between awe-inspiring and awful in the world of metal. That is the line which Obey The Brave straddles on their debut album, Young Blood; by turns, this record succeeds brilliantly as singer Alex Erian and guitarists John Campbell and Greg Wood collide and make a perfect sound which combines the crunch of metal with the atmospherics inherent to both emo and prog – but there are also...
From the moment “Blood Red Youth” eases its way in to open Art History – California Wives' debut album – some listeners will just have a flood of images come rushing at them all at once: John Hughes movie posters, sequences out of Christian Slater movies, scenes from Cure, Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins music videos circa 1992, Replacements music videos released between 1985 and 1990 and more. Listeners will be surprised at how vividly and vibrantly those images come rushing...
Sometimes attempting to draw a line through music history to connect the different points which ultimately combined to present the portrait of a new record can be difficult, but that is not a problem from which anyone who hears Night Loop – the new album by Harlan – will suffer. The ingredients responsible doe the flavor are easy to pick out: a couple of pounds of Eighties new wave mixed with a cup of Brit-Pop and a table spoon of...
There are just so many things that it's possible to assume about Mother Mother as one digs into their fourth album, The Sticks. Those who became familiar with the band courtesy of their delirious and hyperactive breakthrough album, 2011's Eureka, will immediately assume that Mother Mother has elected to follow the “make a dark record after the breakthrough to frighten off fair-weather fans” route which was so fashionable at the end of last century, but that's really not likely. The...
Those of a certain age may remember events a little differently but, forty years after they started, it has become difficult to recall what Heart should have been known or remembered for – outside of maybe a few songs like “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda,” “Love Alive” and “Heartless.” How did something like that get forgotten? Unfortunately for them, Heart broke through in Canada before they made it in the U.S. (in spite of being American) and they were regularly brushed...
Hey Junky!How youse doin' ya bastids? Me? I'm like a box o' fluffy ducks! I tracked down a buncha chronic, habit-formin' junk since las' time I was'ere, an' I wanna lay it on ya right now. Awright so here it is. Dis week, I nabbed a buncha great stuff thatcha gotta nab. Like I grabbed a buncha tunes from the new Amanda Palmer project! This stuff is great – I'm tellin' you – she ain't neva sounded betta, anna sound...
There are few things which scream “music business” – that is, the business of producing articles centered arounf a band for consumption by a base of established fans – louder than a compilation of music videos by that group. Really, who would such a set attract other than a portion of that group's long-established supporters? There is no possibility of a new potential fan “discovering” a band from a set like this, the only people who are likely to see...
"What is truth?” It's important for a review of The Boy In The Song – The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics to ask that question only because it also needs to ask if a convenient re-telling of established and well-documented facts coupled with some colorful but vague conjecture can pass for truth these days. While this novel can be entertaining, it is entertaining in a 'fluffy storytelling' way – not in a way which even fumbles toward fact-finding or...
Over the last couple of years, plenty of bands have tried to update punk rock in one way or another but the results have always ended up being pretty mixed. Part of that has to do with the fact that some of what's come out has just been too ambitious; conspicuously, many of the new signings to Epitaph Records look and sound more like metalheads and angry mallrats than anything, and they're all trying too hard to “make a mark”...
Homer once said that “The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.” There's no debating that wisdom but, as WhoCares' debut album proves, it is possible for a charitable effort to be recognized and appreciated by everyone too. Spurred by the incredibly well-received charity single that Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi released last year, this monster of a compilation arrives with a mind to capitalize on the surprising favor of the single but manages to...