Affixing a tidy genre label to most music these days isn’t a daunting task. In fact, it’s almost like bands want to fit into a certain genre, for marketing ease, lest their eager fans be left in the dark. Toronto’s Holy Fuck have become adept at actively avoiding easy classification…
As always, with such a creative leap forward, Adz is not without its controversy. But an album like Adz is what keeps both critics and the public on their toes, forcing them to shift their mindset to adjust to Stevens’ new work.What the rest of the critics are saying:…
We all have those select few songs we can’t stand. Songs that, when they come on your car stereo, make you seriously consider jerking the car into a ditch just to make the pain stop. Songs that a wily FBI profiler could blast at us to stop a hostage situation.Not…
Let’s not beat around the bush — there hasn’t been a new shows list in a few weeks. This doesn’t really matter, however, since the shows will get announced one way or the other and you know what? Now’s the time to announce them.It’s easy to see that list is…
CaribouClubhouse Music VenueOctober 9, 2010Canadian electronic act Caribou is essentially only one person, Dan Snaith. At least in the studio. When Snaith, who I was lucky enough to interview for this week’s print edition hits the road, however, he is joined by bandmates.The question is what they do. How do…
TItle: The J & D Experience EPBasics: More YAFI hip hop? I could get used to this. This EP was passed along to me by resident PHX hip-hop expert Mike Meyer, so I knew I was in for something decent — if not actually good. Well, you know what? Miranda…
For Dan Snaith, the mastermind behind Canadian electronic outfit Caribou, 2010 has been a busy year, starting with the release of his critically acclaimed album Swim in April and a subsequent spring tour. Never one to slow down, Snaith has embarked on yet another tour to promote Swim. His massive…
It is rather easy to see Swans are not dead with My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. The album opens up with a nine-minute opus “No Words/No Thoughts,” that creates an atmosphere that feels like Gira and co. never really took those 14 years off…
There is perhaps no band as celebrated as they are reviled these days than Tennessee rockers Kings Of Leon. Always the lightning rod of controversy, Kings Of Leon broke new ground with their commercially viable 2008 release Only By The Night. That album brought the band a Grammy for the…
Move aside, angry pigeons — piss is the new birdshit. In a story that seems too good to be true, MGMT drummer Will Berman was hit in the chest by a glass full of urine during a gig at the Manchester Apollo Sunday night. The band was in the middle…
Theirs is a complex aural equation, one that bursts through with genuine moments of genius mixed with just quite too dense to comprehend instrumentation. Whatever your take may be, Halcyon Digest is the band’s crowning achievement — which is, by the way, saying something for a band like Deerhunter –…
Perhaps noticing that the album hit the internet or perhaps having already planning to do so, NPR has given Adz their First Listen treatment, offering to stream the album in its entirety — I personally suggest giving the 8-minute “Age of Adz” a listen first.Those fans of Stevens who pre-ordered the…
What will Wayne Coyne & co. do for an encore? Make another trippy, NSFW video — this time with vagina rays! That’s right, the newest video from The Flaming Lips, for their song “See The Leaves,” follows a cheery, blindfolded and completely naked young lady as she parades around town…
Title: From the AshesBasics: Let’s see — I’ve been doing YAFI for a while now, eight months to be exact. From the Ashes, the latest album from former Brew Crew member Knox, is the first hip hop album I have received. Thank god I got Knox’s album first, too, because…
Joining the ever-impressive The Heavy with their own upcoming shows are Usher, The Thermals, The Aggrolites, Matthew Dear and Elton John.The rest of this weeks not-so heavy just announced shows:…
In trying to determine our silly little rap names, we willfully neglected the fact that there is, indeed, an art and a science to the act — so much so that the duo behind Pop Chart Lab created a vivid, colorful Taxonomy of Rap Names for our viewing pleasure. …
So why not combine forces, dust off some older, more obscure R&B classics and introduce them to newer generations, as well as some older generations that weren’t privy to the songs when they were first released? Such is the case for Wake Up!, twelve songs that combine Legend’s remarkable vocals…
Artist: MoovalyaTitle: First Degree, a five song EPBasics: Hey now, some goofy pop punk! That’s more like it! Billing themselves as a “melodic punk band from Phoenix, AZ,” Moovalya plays pretty run-of-the-mill rock music with an edge that was last seen wandering the streets of Anaheim in the year 2000.A…
Most, if not all, people know that Led Zeppelin is an obtusely derivative band. They took popular American blues and folk music and made it their own, without really bothering to give credit where credit was due. The members of Led Zeppelin were, however, simply operating under the standards of…
As I perused Sirius/XM 90’s on 9 the other day, I was greeted with an intriguing song from a particular Canadian, alternative rock/pop one-hit wonder.This song included an intro featuring a conversation between two fellows that, while intriguing, was pretty pointless. But it got me thinking — what are some…
I digress — today marks the third album from Quebecois dance/funk duo Chromeo, Business Casual. The hotly anticipated third offering finds the gang working with a new producer, Philippe Zdar — one half of Cassius and the producer behind Phoenix’s commercially (literally) bankable Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. What do the guys do…
Joining GWAR for this week’s just announced shows are Free Energy, Nas, Fuel, Chali 2na and Cobra Skulls.The rest of this week’s just announced, non-fluid spewing shows:…
