Tag: alternative rock

  • interview by Michael McCarthy I’m going to start off by admitting something here: I’d lost track of Collective Soul over the years. Like millions of people, I’d bought their first few albums during their heyday in the ’90s and I enjoyed them quite a bit. However, by the time their fourth album, Dosage, came out…

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  • “This is the apocalypse,” sings Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson as their new single “No Horses” comes to its chilling conclusion.  It starts off sounding like it’s going to be a synth pop song, albeit a dark one, with Shirley singing, “They’ll love you,

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  • Self-described as a “salad rock” band, King Shelter are a grunge-tinged, semi-psychedelic, alternative rock band that have been getting a lot of attention lately, largely thanks to this new single, “Everything Hurts.” It’s a delicious tune that could have appeared on Stone Temple Pilots’ Purple or Tiny Music. Or, perhaps, even Nirvana’s Nevermind. Suffice to…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy I’ve been a fan of the hugely popular Scottish band Biffy Clyro since the release of the trio’s sophomore album, The Vertigo of Bliss, back in 2003. I was flipping through an issue of the British magazine NME at a Borders bookstore – R.I.P. – and read a positive review then…

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  • LOS ANGELES, CA – July 18, 2016 – This morning Garbage announced that they will be extending their Strange Little Birds US Tour, which kicked off earlier this month and will now wrap on September 24th in San Francisco, CA. Tickets for these additional tour dates will be on sale Friday, July 22nd at 10am local…

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  • The Joy Formidable spent a year holed up in their own studio in their native Wales writing and recording Hitch, their third full-length album, which is a tour de force if a little long-winded. You see, the record clocks in at roughly 70 minutes and many of its songs are over six minutes long, the…

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  • by Michael McCarthy all photos by: Bryan Downey except where noted When many people think of indie music, the artists they often think of are artists who are actually on record labels, just small ones outside of the major label scene. Which is entirely cool, of course. Most of my favorite artists are on indie labels…

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  • Soul Asylum will release their brand new, 2016 studio album Change of Fortune on March 18th and it’s one of their best in years, right up there with Grave Dancer’s Union (1992) and Let Your Dim Light Shine (1995). It is not an attempt to rehash those albums, though. On the contrary, today’s Soul Asylum…

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  • Of all the rock bands I’ve come across since starting Love is Pop, Dead Letter Circus is one of the most intellectual. Just pick any song from any of their albums and listen to it and you’ll see what I mean. Frontman Kim Benzie’s lyrics require deep thought to fully comprehend; they’re like riveting poetry…

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  • The band Dead Letter Circus immediately reminds me of is Silverchair — and not just because they’re both from Australia. And I’m not talking about Silverchair’s early work when they were more or less a Nirvana clone. I’m talking about Silverchair’s last three albums (Neon Ballroom, Diorama and Young Modern), all truly brilliant and eclectic…

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  • Another smash from Muse’s forthcoming album Drones. I think I’ve finally reached the point where I feel like Muse are even better than Radiohead. Muse is constantly re-inventing itself, each album having a whole unique feel and themes. And yet the songs are accessible.

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  • This one reminds us of The Beatles and Weezer. A very different sound for Foo Fighters!

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy Recently Century Media Records sent me Otherwise’s new record, Peace At All Costs. As I listened to it, loving every minute of it, I could not figure out just what genre or sub-genre of metal they were. I remember going to bed thinking I’d just call them post nu metal in…

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