Preparation for listening to the new Lightning Bolt record for the first time: ' Call up around a dozen of your closest buddy's and get them to haul ass to your place. ' Splash out your last forty bucks on as much low grade beer as your arms can carry. ' Take the last ten bucks you earned pumping gas all week and use it to bribe your parents to leave the house for the evening. ' Once everyone is round and the lot of you have demolished a good quarter of the beer, all make your way to the basement, where you spent the afternoon clearing a large space in the middle of the floor and erecting your stereo system along with a few extra sets of speakers. ' Chug a few more of the beers. Spark up a joint. Everyone's laughing, getting comfortable. Good times. ' Now is the time to pull out the new copy of Hypermagic Mountain you've had in the back pocket of your jeans for the past few hours. An hour has passed and you're sprawled out on the sofa. Your Black Flag t-shirt is now in two pieces somewhere on the other side … Read more
Tempers of music fans ran high from the day stories were posted on various sites that specific bands were to … Read more
As Death Cab for Cutie becomes the mainstream poster boy for indie rock, groups like Dilated Peoples and Atmosphere have … Read more
So you know how a band will take something that they wrote that does really well with the fans and … Read more
Some might say that hardcore has gone soft. Those that feel this way have a distorted view of the genre. … Read more
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Insert joke about judging a book by its cover, in reference to a band who calls themselves The Next Great American Novelist -- somewhere the ego of Dave Eggers shudders. The trio of indie rockers from Brooklyn is the brainchild of lead singer-songwriter Sean Cahill, and their moniker may indeed be tongue-in-cheek enough to stand up to the irony. Cahill left his college classical guitar program after becoming disillusioned by the academic approach, and later found himself working in life insurance and playing a solo show in Bushwick. He was prepared to hang it all up after that performance, before a chance meeting with producer and future bandmate Jason Cummings revived those efforts. This partnership came after their first album, 2014’s I’ll See You in the Art You Love, a … Read more
Surprise Attack Records and I have never had a good relationship. There isn't any sort of beef between us or anything, it's just I always get stoked for their releases only to be left disappointed when I get something. Surprise Attack Records hypes the hell out of their bands and they make it sound like they are going to hear … Read more
In theory alone, I should love this album. Gay for Johnny Depp is a homosexual band. Great, I love homosexuals in bands. They sing about filthy gay sex. Great, I love filthy gay sex. They play cum rocking screamo hardcore. Great, I love screamo and hardcore. They love Johnny Depp. Great, I think Johnny Depp is an okay actor. Theory … Read more
This trio of sweetness comes from the Northeast and resides in a place called Providence, Rhode Island. Dave Martinka (guitar/vocals) and Jay Mayoh (drums), after playing in bands off an on in high school got together with bassist Hilary Jones, who played guitar in two previous bands. She had been a frequenting customer at a local guitar shop where she … Read more
The attention gained by The Arcade Fire last year has been a blessing and a curse for Canadian indie music. In one respect the scene has been put in the spotlight by the mass media, which have discovered what many insiders have known for years: Canada produces some of the best music in the genre. Unfortunately the amount of hype … Read more
You find yourself strapped on a horse, galloping through a rampaged America. You don't know the year; you don't what the fuck happened. Skyscrapers point at empty skies. Civilization has been looted beyond repair. The outlook is bleak at best. For the purposes of this music review, you somehow find an iPod in your back pocket loaded with Palehorse's Secrets … Read more
I know what you're thinking because I was thinking it as well. How can a band that has only released eight studio albums have yet another greatest hits? Are they taking the piss or what? Singles is New Order's fifth greatest hits package after Substance, The Best of', The Rest of', the Retro box-set and the US release of International. … Read more
I used to hate 'ctrl,' 'alt,' and 'delete.' Used in succession, it only meant one thing - reboot. That's right! Your computer is fucked and there is nothing you can do. Accept defeat and hit those keys. Anything you were working on is lost forever. But now, I'm kind of fond of them. UK post-rock trio Ctrlaltdelete has redefined those … Read more
Opening with a sound not unlike some kind of spaghetti western death knell, Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method, the comeback album of noise mongers Earth, shocks the old time listeners of the band. Anyone who has heard Earth 2 or Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars will tell you that. But, the mastermind behind Earth, Dylan Carlson, is known … Read more
I'll admit, when I first heard of Drowningman back in the day, I had a whole lot of preconceived notions. It was in a magazine, Revolver or Tiger Beat, that featured an interview. After looking at the photo, I was ready to dismiss them as Warped Tour rejects that play the excruciatingly banal bullshit that I'd come to expect from … Read more
HIM is known as the biggest musical joke of our generation and is bashed frequently by message board elitists everywhere. Are they really that bad? It depends. Listening to HIM's new album, Dark Light, is not a good way to introduce oneself to this Nordic phenomenon. I'd recommend going back to the beginning, eight years ago, when Greatest Love Songs … Read more
The moment Shannon Larkin walked out of Amen and into Godhead, or Godsmack, or whatever the fuck awful band with 'God' in their name it was that he walked into, Casey Chaos was turned into that much maligned Dani Filth-esque character. You know the type, right? The ones that float around the music press on a weekly basis, but whom … Read more
No longer is Franz Ferdinand the sole property of Glasgow's skinny tie wearing indie elite. They are now a phenomenon. Actually, scratch that. They are a worldwide fucking phenomenon. This results in two things. Firstly, the anticipation surrounding their sophomore album, You Could Have it So Much Better, is massive. And secondly, I no longer look cool for being able … Read more
Kids aren't born cool. For the droves of kids that are growing up in small towns watching third rate metalcore at their local VFW Hall, it couldn't be harder to come across cool music, let alone music that is pushing boundaries. Fordirelifesake, although not pushing the boundaries of what the CD label described as 'melodic-metallic-hardcore,' seem to be the kind … Read more
Sitting at a bar in a pub a couple of years back is a lovely looking young lady. The hero of this fictional and highly clich'd story, Fred, strides forth. He has his game face on and is looking for love, or something similar. 'Hi,' he says, not showing the fear, 'My name's Fred. Can I buy you a drink?' … Read more
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