For our last road trip we took a musical tour of Dixie, this time around we'll ditch the car (who can afford gas these days?), hop on the subway and beat the streets with our feet for a tour of New York City's most popular borough using the subjects of songs as our signposts. Lace up your Chucks as we join Leonard Cohen , Paul Simon, Sir Mix-a-Lot, and others on a musical tour of Manhattan. "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" by The Magnetic Fields [...]
A classic Deserving of a spot on any mix CD Worthy of a download, but not of frequent play Dump it like a hot rock Coming on the heels of their first two albums, which were lauded by critics and embraced by rock musicians, it was inevitable [...]
The economy is in shambles, wars rage on in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we're knee deep in an intense presidential race. Everywhere you look, politics rears its head. In an ongoing exploration of music and politics here on JamsBio, I present to you some of my favorite politically-themed album art. Arranged chronologically, this list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, rather it's a curated look at bands who proudly wear their political inclinations on their sleeves. What are some of your favorite political album covers? Create your top 5 list HERE. [...]
Picture this. A dark club, late on a Saturday night. The thick fog of smoke hangs low over everyone's head. The smell of beer and pot surround you, and the music is loud and intense. The smell and sounds engulf you and slowly you start to sway and bang your head. The music seeps into your every fiber and the rest of the world drops away. This is what it is to be young and to be alive. This was every Saturday I was in high school. This was the first thing that came to my mind as I listened [...]
Any music fan worth his or her salt needs to read Lester Bangs. That's because unlike most "rock" critics, Bangs was first and foremost a fan. And a passionate, "music is my whole life" kind of fan at that. Objectivity was not in his vocabulary and politeness can fuck off because Bangs told it like it was. Crude, rude, and unapologetic, Bangs words were snarling, blaring off the page with the volume and rhythm of the music he so deeply loved. What follows is the first in a series of my favorite excerpts from Bangs prolific career as a writer [...]
WORCESTER, MA - OCTOBER 4, 2008 Although the Palladium was filled with a crowd that consisted of mostly underage teens (all of whom were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tegan and Sara ), I have to say, when opening acts, Girl in a Coma and City and Colour took the stage, the audience was surprisingly accepting and enthusiastic. A lot of times those young crowds tend to get a bit impatient with opening acts while waiting for the headliner to take the stage, but I was both pleased with the positive response. Girl [...]
The title of the closing song on Dig Out Your Soul , Oasis' latest release, is "Soldier On," and that's a pretty apt title for a band that has seen its popularity, especially here in the U.S., take quite a nose-dive from the heights they reached in the late 90's. The Gallagher boys are indeed still fighting the good fight, when they're not fighting each other, as they attempt to sustain their unique combination of Beatlemania, bombast, and bad behaviour. But while it's easy to blame their fall from grace on their often obnoxious antics, the fact is [...]
If '77 was the year British and American punk rockers challenged the status quo, 1978—the year after punk—was a more complicated time. First of all, music producers, record companies and radio stations were frothing at the mouth for something new after the surprise popularity (and infamy) of groups like the Ramones and Sex Pistols. Deals were signed with groups that had very little time to develop their musicianship, but also with artists that didn't quite fit the punk stereotype: wayward proggers, pop songsmiths and R&B new wavers. Not a lot of people could tell the difference. That's why a person [...]
I must offer full disclosure before reviewing Roger L. Trott's book, Getting in Tune . I myself grew up in Northern California, all my guy friends were in bands, and I desperately love the Who. So when I picked up this rock fiction book about a band from a small northern California town with a main character that worships Pete Townshend, I had a sneaking suspicion I'd love it. Set in the late 70's, Getting in Tune tells the story of Daniel Travers, a guitar player whose wrestling with his demons. He's also struggling to [...]
SAN DIEGO, CA - SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 The weird wonderful world of Silver Jews would intersect with the wonderful weird world of the Casbah for the first time on this fateful Tuesday night. It would prove to be a joyous occasion for all the nine to fivers who sacrificed valuable sleeping hours in order to soak in some of the Silver Jews' midnight magic. Of course what fan in their right mind would miss this show in the first place? The Silver Jews have been slogging it out since 1989, but have only been touring as a [...]
With the announcement on Monday that Bruce Springsteen will play the Super Bowl halftime show in Tampa, the NFL has officially exhausted its options. Not that Bruce isn't the perfect choice. He'll bust out some of his crowd-pleasers like "Born To Run," "Thunder Road" and "Glory Days" (the latter would require changing the sport of the faded high-school star in the song from baseball to football and changing the lyric to "He could throw that crossing pattern by you") and, although the show will be approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes less than the typical Boss concert, it [...]
Here's a list of what happens when rock takes aim at your favorite town. "London Calling" by The Clash [See post to listen to audio] City Destroyed: London, England Method of Destruction: Environmental-predictions of impending ice age, floods, nuclear error, etc-all triggered by underground punk rock movement. Without question, the seminal song of a city on the verge of extinction. [...]
TV on the Radio has already received a great deal of critical praise for their most recent LP, Dear Science . You can check me off the list of reviewers saluting the Brooklyn group with a set of hyperbolic adjectives meant to convince readers to drop their $9.99 on iTunes for this record. So that you don't get sick with all the positivity here, I'm going to keep my praise slim, however: It's good. Listen to it. The first song, "Halfway Home," with its Ramones-esque bah-bah-bah opening, its epic background buzz, and its get-happy clapping, well, its [...]
It was 1970, and jazz was poised for another stylistic revision. The previous decade had upended the art form, introducing chaos and theatre, African rhythms and popular cadences, rigor and its rejection. By the end of the sixties, a jazz musician was just as likely to have university tenure as a nightclub residency. Jazz had been freed from the obligation to be danceable or popular. It was improvised art music, music to move your sentiments, not your ass. Herbie Hancock and Donald Byrd would eventually reverse the process. Their records [...]
It has been 2 years since the last Dears release and in that time the amorphous Canadian group has gone from duo to band to duo again. As of right now, the Dears consists of its founders, Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak. And it appears that it is going to stay that way for a while. With The Dears, however, you never know. Their newest musical endeavor, Missiles , is not supposed to be out until October 21st, but due to a little thing we like to call the Internet, it is now available at [...]
When I was in high school, one of my all time favorite songs was the Mother Love Bone tune, "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns." One of those absolutely perfect rainy day angst-ridden tunes. To this day it remains at the top of my favorite song list. In fact, recently I've been on an MLB kick, and it's got me thinking back to the whole Seattle music scene in general. Being a teen in the early nineties, on top of being from the Bay Area, where there was always a constant stream of people moving to and from Washington, [...]
For those of you who do not live in San Diego, here is a brief history of the Street Scene music festival. The event started in 1984 as a semi-annual end of summer music celebration. Initially there were only two stages set up on opposite ends of a single block festival area in the Gaslamp district of downtown San Diego. By 1988 the festival had grown to five stages and had become an annual occurrence on the San Diego calendar. 1990 was the first year to host both Friday and Saturday band line-ups, and by 1995 a Sunday "All Ages" [...]
There was a time in my life where Jenny Lewis could do no wrong. I was a late passenger on the Rilo Kiley train, getting on board for their fourth album, More Adventurous . But with that album I found kindred spirits in Lewis's plucky lyrics and the band's insanely catchy hooks, and soon after, plunged headlong into their catalog. I played RK non-stop during the summer of 2005. I was relentless (annoying). In fact, I recently thanked my then-roommate for not throwing me off the balcony after I queued up [...]
It took some bravery to walk into the music store a couple of weeks ago, on the eve of my 40th birthday, and tell the owner I wanted to sign up for drumming lessons. Especially when his immediate response was, "Okay…but can I ask WHY you want to do this now?" ...a friend of mine is starting a White Stripes tribute band and wants me to be Meg... The answer is complicated. It's something I've wanted to do my entire life, but I've always been afraid to. However, [...]
So, I made it. I survived the heat, dust, and crowds at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. And much to my surprise, I actually had a great time. As the self-proclaimed "rock and roll curmudgeon" I didn't have high hopes. There's nothing I can tolerate less than bad sound, intense heat, and massive throngs of people vying for limited real estate near a stage. Okay, I'll come clean. I could only stomach two days at ACL, deciding to bail on Sunday in favor of blueberry pancakes at Magnolia Cafe and shopping on South Congress. Here are some [...]
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