What's not to love about a good power pop band and what's not to love about Jukebox the Ghost , a power pop trio from Washington D.C. who up and moved to Philly on a whim just prior to the recording of their recently-released second LP, "Everything Under the Sun" (Yep Roc). The band sounds like Ben Folds Five if fronted by Rufus Wainwright, only less fey, with no bass player and with more Beatles-y harmonies. "A lot of bands here, like Dr. Dog, have a heavy Beatles vibe going," said Ben Thornewill, about the musical climate of [...]
Church burnings, suicide, Satanism, murder - such are the trappings of the Nordic death metal scene of the early '90s, and the subject of Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell's " Until the Light Takes Us ," which is just out on DVD. Unfortunately, despite such a morbidly fascinating topic, the film fails to shed much light on the genre, the crimes it spawned or it's impact on the rest of the world. Like it's epicenter in Oslo, Norway, the film is dark, cold and emotionally withdrawn, though perhaps that's exactly the treatment a film about the genre deserves. It left [...]
It was perfect Bumbershoot weather for the second day of the three-day music and arts festival. The overcast morning gave way to a nicer afternoon, but the sun stayed mostly behind the clouds which meant it never got too hot and there was no roasting in the sun while taking in the shows. We started our day by taking in a set from Los Angeles rock radio faves Crash Kings , who drew a large crowd to one of the festival's many outdoor stages. The band is made up of two brothers and a drummer. This is [...]
Bumbershoot is always awesome. But it totally makes your feet hurt. It also makes your head hurt with its dizzying amount of bands, exhibits, comedians, authors, daredevils, vendors and on and on. We bounced like a pinball between the tens of thousands of attendees on day one and what seemed like the tens of thousands of bands, which culminated with a main stage performance from Bob Dylan. We started our day with a trip to the KEXP Music Lounge, where acts from each day play a smaller, more intimate show for patrons in the know as well [...]
Bah, who needs color. All the best movies are in black and white anyway, right? You think KISS would've painted their faces with any other colors? (wait, what - Ace used silver?) And of course there's the mother of all desserts, the black and white cookie . Needless to say, there are plenty of reasons why black and white work so well together - in fine art, hard rock, pastries and elsewhere. Color is the default, but a skillful artist can turn a single color into something vivid, vibrant and full of life. Like this baker's dozen of artists, [...]
Ever since they rose from the dark streets of New York's Bowery via Queens, the Ramones have been worshiped by punks and pop fans alike. And rightly so. The faux brothers - make that bruddahs - invented a completely new sound, blending outsider angst with bubblegum pop, for a hybrid style that's still popular today. Though it took a decade for bands to begin aping the Ramones directly, the style the quartet invented went on to become a full-fledged punk rock sub-genre: Ramones-core. Here's a look at some of its best proponents: Chixdiggit! [...]
The second solo outing from Sundowner , the side project from Chris McCaughan of Chicago punk outfit The Lawrence Arms, suffers from SPS - Side Project Syndrome™ - which is to say the material just isn't as compelling, nor the sound of the band as well defined as material from his primary group. Sundowner's first outing, 2007's "Four One Five Two," didn't sound a whole lot different, but the songs were stronger and the arrangements were more dense, which gave the record some cohesion. But "Waves" comes crashing down. The album's sparser arrangements don't hold things together, and many [...]
With the exception of PBS faves like " Austin City Limits " and " Artist's Den ," there's virtually no outlet on primetime broadcast television for live music anymore. There's no "American Bandstand," no "ABC In Concert" - hell, there isn't even "TLR" to check out all those kooky tween bands the kids love. If you look hard enough on deep cable however, you can find some gems ("Dinner with the Band" comes to mind). But you'd be hard-pressed to find any venue on TV that shows healthy doses of live punk rock. Which basically leaves the late night talk [...]
Flashback: 1993. Sally Jesse Raphael is duking it out on daytime TV alongside Jerry Springer, Montel Williams, Maury Povich and a handful of also-rans. The more outrageous the topic, the more viewers you were likely to attract. And though few of the hosts from daytime's heyday have survived (cheers Maury!), outrageous is still the name of the game nearly 20 years later. Here's a look at some of the awesomest daytime talk show screenshots we could round up, some vintage, some modern - all awesome! Bracket - "Talk Show" [...]
The guitar and rock & roll go hand in hand - or least hand on fretboard. Even before Link Wray poked holes in the speakers of his amp to create distortion, guitars have been the foundation on which rock & rock was built. B.B King named his guitar Lucille, a name more familiar to his legion of admirers than the names of either of his wives - or even his bandmates. As well, most hardcore rock fans could tell you a few different guitar models. The Fender Strat and Gibson Les Paul are household names in the rock world. How [...]
Cokie the Clown isn't as punk as you thought. He didn't force the SXSW patrons to drink his Patrón and piss as previously reported. A second camera reveals he did a switcheroo before hitting the stage. | Link Sorry dudes, looks like it's eBay if you're hoping to score a copy of Ryan Adams' vinyl-only sci-fi metal concept record. It sold out in a day. | Link \m/ Since we're talking Danzig, why not [...]
Punk rock guitar players don't get much acclaim for their playing. And frankly, most don't deserve it. But punk rock was never about virtuosity anyway, which makes Stephen Egerton , long-time guitarist of The Descendents and All, such an anomaly. He's a pop-punk guitarist with great chops, ably holding down his band's guitar duties all by his lonesome. His latest project is " The Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton ," a solo project which finds the bald-headed guitarist collaborating with a number of different singers - one per the album's 17 tracks - some you probably know and others [...]
Dick tattoos, ya gotta love 'em! Any macho muchacho can tattoo their man meat, but it takes a special kind of individual to tattoo a dick on themselves. Wanna have some fun at your local pool this summer? Strip down to your Speedo to reveal that flying cock on your thigh and revel in the reactions. Want to impress your future in-laws? Show them that throbbing beef thermometer you have permanently inked across your back. And remember, it's not the size of your penis tattoo that matters, it's who did the work. You're so veiny, I bet you [...]
Alexa Meade 's art might make your head hurt. But that's kind of the point. You'll cock your head, squint your eyes and move just a little closer to figure out exactly what's real and what isn't in her paintings. What she does is paint people. Or rather, paints on people. In a painstaking process using her own recipe of nontoxic paints, Meade does the reverse of bringing a painting to life, opting instead to bring life into her art, either photographing her subjects once they're painted or installing them in a piece where viewers can examine them [...]
Look, every post can't be a total winner. Like this one for example, which is little more than a collection of 15 links, photos and videos. But at least it features David Lee Roth, Ice-T and a Pontiac Fiero. On the other hand, it also features Insane Clown Posse, Bill Maher and Guy Fieri - so you decide. DLR + The Beastie Boys + Sean Penn + 80s = 4 kinds of awesome Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag and SST Records is having a hardcore garage sale [...]
It's a big job to write a history book. Perhaps that's why Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor, authors of " Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk From Dead Kennedys to Green Day ," decided to make theirs an oral history rather than writing their own. Sure you still have to do tons of research and conduct lots of interviews, but it's got to be loads easier to edit other people's thoughts than draft your own, right? Not that there's anything wrong with the format. It certainly worked well [...]
Danielle Colby-Cushman is a hipster renaissance woman. Not only does she star on the History Channel's freshman hit " American Pickers ," where she manages the shop featured on the show, but she a mom, wife, clothing designer, burlesque dancer and former roller derby queen. "Pickers," an hour-long reality series about a pair of friends who troll Midwestern highways in search of valuable antiques, has become a huge hit for the History Channel, racking up nearly 4 million viewers an episode, and making one of cable's biggest shows. It was also picked up for a second season, which we're [...]
Here's a look (and listen) to some records that have been cluttering up our desk and inboxes here at YuppiePunk World HQ. Though none of these titles inspired us to write 3000-word soliloquys, we figured we could at least muster 50 and an MP3. Drive-By Truckers - "The Big To-Do" Over and over again, these hard-rocking Georgians crank out album after album of literary Southern rock like an 18-wheeler with its brakes out. Their tenth LP, and first for Dave Matthews' ATO, offers up thirteen hard luck tales of hard-living. As [...]
Here's the thing about being a roommate on MTV"s "Real World" and also being in a band: It's not going to help you. In fact, it may have the opposite effect. Most fans don't associate rock cred with glossy MTV reality shows. "Nobody likes people who appear to be given the silver platter," Glen Naessens, who appeared with his band Perch on the show's second season, said. "I learned that on tour with Perch when bands would trash us everywhere we played." Bands looking for credibility would be better served by making a creative video and posting it to YouTube. [...]
There are few bands in the history of rock to have hit the 30-year mark. In fact, you could probably count them on both hands. There are even fewer who have kept their mission as tightly-focused over those thirty years as Bad Religion. But the thinking man's punk band, who formed in 1980, has been making music longer than many of their fans have been alive. To celebrate the milestone, the band is doing a series of shows around their home base of Southern California, which they will also record for a live album to be given away free to [...]
YuppiePunk | Adventures in Middlebrow
![Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies [Live - Kimmel 03.17.03]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/M_ckY3YBTP8_130.jpg)
James Blake – Live Album
Circo Voador anuncia shows de The Kooks, Foster The People, Friendly Fires, Gogol Bordello e mais
Best of The Deli Philly Poll - Top Performers: Break It Up
The Kills on Letterman (Video)
