Category: Rock
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When Panic! At The Disco first arrived with their immensely impressive debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, many of their song titles were even longer than the title of this album. My favorite tunes from that record were “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage” and “Lying Is The Most…
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Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes is not one to make the same album twice. Roughly a decade ago he shifted from doing indie rock/trippy twee to electro-centric albums that often felt like twisted — but always fascinating — experiments. The first three albums from this second period of his career were especially experimental; Satanic Panic…
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The award for the most highly-anticipated debut album this year probably goes to Lorde for her album Pure Heroine. But second place easily goes to HAIM, the group made up of sisters Este (born March 14, 1986), Danielle (born February 16, 1989) and Alana Haim (born December 15, 1991), along with drummer Dash Hutton. As…
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“Can you imagine a love that is so proud / It never has to question why or how?” asks Placebo vocalist Brian Molko over glittery guitars during “Loud Like Love,” the upbeat opening and title track from the band’s new and seventh album. “We are loud like love / We are loud like love,” he…
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American Sharks’ debut album was just released on the 17th of this month and the band is about to embark on an extensive tour with The Sword, which is fitting for a couple of reasons. First of all, American Sharks’ music is a delicious blend of stoner rock, sludge metal and punk that’s like The…
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Given that this release is on Prosthetic Records, I was naturally expecting some loud and blazing — if not downright brutal — metal when I first listened to it. Surprisingly, much of the instrumental album by this guitar prodigy isn’t metal at all. Songs like “Viroliano Tries Metal” and “Triangle Tune” are definitely in that…
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I caught Butch Walker live at The Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the 11th of this month. It was my fourth time seeing him and he was, in a word, brilliant. Which came as no surprise. He’s been impressing me with his knack for super emotive songwriting ever since he was in a little-known hair…
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Four years ago Glasgow art rockers Franz Ferdinand released their third album, which was called Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, and it did not fare very well in most countries. Not with critics and not with fans. It was produced by the renowned Brian Higgins of Xenomania, who’s worked with everyone from Pet Shop Boys to Kylie…
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There was a time when I thought Bloc Party could do no wrong. Their first two albums — Silent Alarm (2005) and A Weekend In The City (2007) — were brilliant in my opinion. And, considering the critical acclaim and awards they received, it would seem the world agreed. The B-sides from those albums were…
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Kitten’s charming frontwoman Chloe Chaidez grew up in a musical household. Her father was a drummer from LA’s early punk scene and he introduced her to artists like David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Mott The Hoople during their long drives to her gymnastics classes when she was just a kid. They spent an hour and…
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We Are Twin is a duo consisting of Germany-raised, Sri Lankan producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicolas Balachandran and New York-born and bred singer/songwriter Gabi Christine. They first met at a 2009 songwriting session, during which they wrote fifteen songs together. And so We Are Twin was born. The duo’s self-titled debut E.P. opens with a…
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A lot of heavy metal bands from when I was growing up have re-recorded their hits during the past decade. My understanding is that most of them do it because their former record labels no longer produce copies of their albums, so new fans can’t obtain their songs unless they shell out some serious money…
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It seems like just yesterday Travis were riding high on the success of their 1999 album The Man Who, which yielded the massive hit single “Why Does It Always Rain On Me” and sold 2.7 million copies in the U.K. alone, earning them a BRIT Best Album Award. They did relatively well here in the…
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White Lies’ impressive 2009 debut To Lose My Life rose straight to number 1 on the UK albums chart and performed well on plenty of other charts as well, although it only reached number 146 on the Billboard 200 here in the States. While it received its fair share of negative reviews, by and large…
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Hey! Hello! is one of many side projects by the prolific front man of The Wildhearts, Ginger. These days he goes by Ginger Wildheart, apparently to ensure that fans of The Wildhearts will realize it’s him when they come across his releases and not just some other dude named Ginger. (Or should I say bloke?…
