Blog: Viva La Mainstream!

I tweeted this earlier in the week, but for those who don't follow me (or those resisiting the Twitterverse), I'll say it again here. I am no fan of The Dead Weather's debut album Horehound . I thought it was a dull, half-committed peek of what those four people could provide. I thought it suffered from the same problems that some accused Them Crooked Vultures of having; it felt like a rehearsal album. An album from folks with the pedigree of The Dead Weather should rock my face off. Quite simply, Horehound didn't. But less than 12 [...]

I saw this video making rounds on Twitter earlier today, and when I first saw people talking about Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga, along with Sting, Elton John, Blondie and Shirley Bassey on the same stage covering "Don't Stop Believin'", I didn't buy it. I decided to play the typical internet card; "Pics or it didn't happen". Then I got pics. Millions of them, playing at a rate of 30 or so each second. Smart folks call that "video". Anyway, I have no context for this video. I don't know when, where or why it happened. But below [...]

Even though the weather widget on my desktop says it's 52 degrees outside and there's no sunlight to be found, it is in fact closing in on summertime. With that comes a whole new batch of music to get excited about. OK, so this has already been out for a week, but I'll bring it up anyway: Where have The Hold Steady been all my life? I heard their last album a few months ago, and that sold me enough to pick up Heaven is Whenever not too long ago, and I can't stop [...]

Today, at around 1:30 PM, I handed in the last final paper for the semester, effectively ending my time as a college student. I think that's all the context you need for this song. Alice Cooper - School's Out [iTunes]

Let me preface this review with two things: I am reviewing the Broadway Cast Album of American Idiot , not the show itself. I have not seen the show (though I've heard some bootlegs), and can only speak to the cast recording released last month. As such, Your Mileage May Vary on what follows. Don't buy this album on CD. The copy I got had no artist, song title or album metatags, and I spent an hour and a half trying to put them in by hand. I don't know if [...]

If you read the archives of this blog, you'll learn that I'm a senior in college somewhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania (I think I might've revealed the name of my school at one point, but if not it remains a mystery to you all). What with it being early May, this means that right now I've been swamped by final exams, preparation for graduation and a little thing called senior thesis. This is all a roundabout way of telling you that I know I've been negligent in my duties as a blogger, and that starting today I'm going to play catch-up [...]

I'm pretty sure that if you took a poll of people in America who are taking time out their day to make sure that the world's tequila and Corona distributors are kept in business, less than half of them would be able to tell you why Cinco de Mayo is worthy of celebration. I'm not a history teacher, so I'm not going to educate you. I'm just here to wish you happy (and safe) alcohol consumption today, and to provide a track or two to help set the mood. Mariachi el Bronx - Slave Labor [iTunes] [...]

So you've probably seen a multitude of Star Wars related jokes today, mostly centered around a goofy pun related to today's date. If you haven't yet... John Williams - Star Wars Theme [iTunes] I'd like to think that George Lucas is sitting somewhere banging his head into a wall over this little bit of geek-fueled idiocy, but then I remember that this is George Lucas we're talking about, and I realize it was probably a bunch of Lucasfilm employees who [...]

Please join me in being among the millions of internet denizens today mourning the loss of a television legend. Last night after about 21 years of being an institution of the small screen, as well as one of the funniest (albeit inconsistent) animated series on the air, The Simpsons came on the air only to meet an unceremonious train wreck of a demise in its opening credits. My growing hatred for Ke$ha aside, The Simpsons shouldn't have to stoop that [...]

So I've gotten myself hooked on Treme, the new show on HBO from the same guy who created The Wire. If you watch it for no other reason, watch it for the music. The first 10 minutes of the first episode are one big love letter to New Orleans jazz, and the theme song (below) is one of the finest I've heard in forever. So here it is, your moment of Zen: John Boutte - Treme Song [ iTunes ]

He's baaa-aaaack. This morning Eminem took to Shade 45, his XM radio station to debut the first single from Recovery , out June 22nd. "Not Afraid" certainly makes good on Eminem's promise to distance himself from the self-defeatism of Relapse , and as a result the track is easily one of the best tracks from Slim Shady since The Eminem Show . The beat has been taking heat on the blogs so far for being fairly uninspired, but there's no denying that the soaring, touch-the-sky chorus is [...]

This past weekend my college had their yearly outdoor concert, which they unimaginatively name "Woodstock" (we're in Southeastern Pennsylvania). Among the five bands playing the concert, only two are worth talking about for very different reasons. The warmup act was a local band called Jealousy Curve . I'm going to talk more about these guys in a few weeks when their new album comes out, but what you need to know for the purposes of this read is they were on right before the headliner, and played a set of solid, balls-out rock tunes in the style [...]

I know, I know. It's been two years since the former Guns N' Roses mates kicked the Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland out of their clubhouse. I know Velvet Revolver shows little to no signs of life, and no one in the band or elsewhere is losing much sleep over it. Weiland rejoined STP and is releasing an album in May. Duff McKagan replaced Eric Avery in Jane's Addiction last month. Matt Sorum got back to work with Camp Freddy. And earlier this month Slash released a solo album with fair to middling results. So really, few people are [...]

=The past 36 hours or so have been Christmas, a birthday and the Super Bowl all wrapped into one for digital pirates. In the last two days, the internet has seen leaks of new albums from The Gaslight Anthem, The Hold Steady, Hole, The Black Keys, The National, Minus the Bear, and plenty of others. Between the Deftones leak last month and this cluster bomb of premature releases today, it looks more and more like traditional release dates are becoming, like, so 2000, you guys. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang [iTunes] [...]

Eminem's comeback album Relapse was billed as the first of two albums marking his return to rap. There was even a skit on last year's disc stating that very fact. But almost a year after Relapse came out, word from Eminem's twitter (this just in: Eminem has a twitter account) that Relapse 2 had been aborted. Instead, a new album entitled Recovery is set to be released on June 22nd. So sayeth Slim Shady about the change in plans: I had originally planned for Relapse [...]

=Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams is an unlikely figure to appear on the umpteenth single from an up-and-coming hip-hop star. But lo, the newest single from B.o.B. (alias Bobby Ray) entitled "Airplanes" features a sultry, crooning chorus from Ms. Williams. The single is the newest release from the forthcoming B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray , out on the 27th. Reportedly a remix of Airplanes appearing on the album also features none other than Eminem. B.o.B - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams) [ iTunes ] =Despite [...]

The indie music world is in a heightened state of nerdgasm right now, as on the same day, just hours apart, two of the most anticipated indie rock releases of the whole year materialized on this very internet. First, the first new album from Broken Social Scene since 2005's self-titled effort hit the web this afternoon, four weeks ahead of its slated May 4 release date. Forgiveness Rock Record marks the return of Broken Social Scene after its multitude of members went off to perform in various side projects. Check [...]

Now, I know what you're thinking. "What kind of tomfoolery is this, bringing back Adventures in Top 40? We thought that was another one of your long-forgotten weekly installments that you abandoned." Not exactly. I took a break from the Top 40 because it just got too stale. Week after week I was trying to come up with something new to say about "Tik Tok" for the 800th time. So I shelved it for awhile, and am returning to it now. So here's an hour's look at AOL's Fresh 40 station. Taylor Swift – Today Was A Fairytale [...]

I've been writing the pilot episode of a TV series as my senior thesis for the last few months. The premise is two guys who drop out of college and open up a used record store. Obviously, music plays a pretty big role in the lives of the characters and the series itself. This is all a roundabout way of introducing a couple of the songs that I've included in the screenplay so far. Enjoy! Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street [ iTunes ] Fleetwood Mac [...]

For the last several months there's been plenty of speculation and excitement surrounding Evelyn Evelyn, the conjoined duo "discovered" by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley. The twins' debut album came out last week and, as expected, it's very strange, a little bit creepy, and profoundly creative. Yes, it's Palmer & Webley singing, but make no mistake: this is a whole new persona. Evelyn Evelyn's debut is a sonic autobiography wrought with humor, heartbreak and endless creativity, equal parts macabre fairytale, rock opera, and cabaret show. Evelyn Evelyn isn't an album in the sense that it's [...]