It's interesting to think what kind of music Brad Hargett and JB Townsend would be making had they stayed in Florida. The two met there, moved to Brooklyn in 2002 and formed Crystal Stilts soon after. The band just released its first full-length Alight of Night last month-although it sounds like these guys spent some time at The Factory . It's chilly, dark and spacious but allows just enough sunlight to break through. Hargett sings with little change in inflection while Townsend strums jubilant chords and drummer [...]
I used to live in Chico, Calif. Yes, that Chico, Calif. The Chico, Calif., where parents send their kids for cheap education and where the kids spend their parents' money on cheap drink specials. It's an interesting place. A fair share of notable bands have come out of Chico. Portland's own Kelly Bauman fronted noise-pop outfit Deathstar in the '90s. There's Barbara Manning and 28th Day . Vomit Launch (which featured Tape Op 's Larry Crane on drums and Exiled Records ' [...]
Well, this is it. The big day-you know what to do. I'm going to come out and say it here, right now, on election day, that I, Mark Lore, am endorsing Barack Obama . And if I may, I'd like to suggest the songs that Obama might want to consider for his upcoming inaugural party ... and no, it does not include Sheryl Crow 's "A Change Will Do You Good." "But what if John McCain wins?" you ask. To which I respond, simply: "The Thing That Should Not Be." [...]
I grew up on a steady diet of early MTV -staring in awe at the TV screen as bands like The Cars , Bow Wow Wow and The Vapors awkwardly mugged for the camera and played sexed-up new wave tunes whose lyrics flew over my untainted little head. But I was old enough to understand a catchy tune. I remember drumming along to those bands on the right arm of the couch with a pair of markers and ... wait a second, I think I just figured out why I play drums left-handed. [...]
Joe the Plummer meet "Wilco the Song." Jeff Silky ... err ... Tweedy braved Stephen Colbert 's relentless grilling on Oct. 30, and Wilco debuted a new tune. It's a shame the song was a one-time deal for the show ... it's pretty gosh-darned good. And in the spirit of voting the band is offering a free download of its performance of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" with the Fleet Foxes . As Colbert put it, sounds like socialist behavior.
Blitzen Trapper might have the best logo I've seen in years. However, if you were to judge a band by its album cover you might think the Portland, Ore., sextet was a throwback to when rockers dressed like women and women liked that sort of thing. But there's nary a gimmick here. Blitzen Trapper harkens back to American roots music of the late-'60s early-'70s in the vein of Neil Young and The Band -it's the kind of music I've been listening to for years without actually having listened to Blitzen Trapper. How [...]
I was a little testy the other day. Politics does that to me, which is why I don't discuss it at length ... and why I'm changing the subject back to rock 'n' roll and youth ... When I was 5 or 6 I received a 45 of Gene Simmons ' "Radioactive" (B-side, "See You In Your Dreams") from his 1978 solo record. I played it as often as I could on my parents' hi-fi-you know, one of those stereos with a record player and an 8-track inside of what looked like a piece of furniture-until it [...]
I know exactly what's troubling Republicans and "real" Americans this election. It's the gateway vote . Allow me to break it down: Casting a "gateway vote" will lead us down the same shame spiral associated with so-called "gateway drugs"-alcohol leads to smoking pot which, of course, leads to the heavy use of heroin and crack cocaine. That said, voting "No" on Prop. 8 will obviously lead to gays entering holy matrimony and having the same rights as hetero couples ... the next thing you know men will be butt-fucking each other [...]
A friend of mine called Deerhunter 's 2007 record Cryptograms " the greatest album of the year -and perhaps of our almost-retired decade." Yeah, he gets pretty excited about music. It is a good album all right-pushing all the right pleasure buttons-but I must say I am more excited about Microcastle ( Kranky ), which officially drops this week. Microcastle is a more focused collection of songs-poppier and less chaotic-that hits more of my pleasure buttons. What exactly [...]
Every time I walk by the gray van, I pause and look on the dashboard-sometimes not so subtly-for any possible clue as to who this band is. A piece of mail. A note. Anything. They're probably watching me from their apartment, wondering what the hell I'm up to. They're just lucky most of the van's windows are tinted. I've been trying to get to the bottom of this for weeks using good old-fashioned, old-school investigating. Each breakthrough is met with a setback. On a recent routine pass I noticed something on the dash. It was a CD of [...]
There's a rotting jack-'o'-lantern sitting next to me. I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Bend, Ore . "A Day In the Life" is playing in the background. Paul's vocals are absent; I guess they don't have stereophonic sound in Bend ... I've heard about this phenomenon, but I never believed it. I knew things were changing for the worse when I saw McCain/Palin signs pocking the countryside. Did I mention there's a rotting jack-o'-lantern next to me? You might be wondering why I'm here. Quicky explanation: I rushed a dear [...]
If I can be serious for a minute ... may I? Guns N' Roses has released its first single off Chinese Democracy . New York's Q104.3 just put the album's title track online ... legally! Jeezus, this might actually happen. I think Satan is cursing global warming for what is taking place in Hell this very second.
I love Guns N' Roses . Tracii Guns and the boys recently played three nights at the Dawson County Fair in Nebraska, preparing for their world domination! "The Ballad of Jayne" ? A modern classick! If it wasn't for the Guns, glam rock wouldn't be ... wait, what? L.A. Guns ? Oh. Ahh ... Guns N' Roses ; the ones that covered the Charles Manson song. I love them! I saw that GN'R is releasing a new album on Nov. 23 called Chinese Democracy [...]
The anticipation for Department of Eagles ' new album has been simmering since early 2007 when Stereogum and Gorilla vs Bear were doting over the demo version of "No One Does It Like You." In Ear Park was finally released earlier this month, right after the group's (according to some) so-so performance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien . The Brooklyn two-piece is comprised of Fred Nicolaus and Daniel Rossen , who met at New York University [...]
I recently took the California Basic Education Skills Test , the standardized exam you have to pass in order to substitute teach in the fine states of California and Oregon. I even studied ... the night before, because I heard that a good cram-sesh is the best for CBEST test success. I was concerned about the math portion of the test because, frankly, I haven't thought about a multivariate polynomial or a coefficient since that glorious day I passed basic algebra in junior college almost a decade ago. But as I was boning [...]
Live: The Pink Snowflakes, Candy Apple, The Worthless Children and Leopold and his Fiction, East End, 10.16.08 Garage rock has moved into the living room, or at least the spare bedroom ... and with lots and lots of nice equipment. Portland's Pink Snowflakes (left) probably took longer to set up their arsenal of speakers and strobe lights than it took all three of the other bands on the bill to set up, break down and give after-show hugs. It was ridiculously impressive (impressively ridiculous?). I put on my kaleidoscope eyes for [...]
I'm an unabashed fan of the Old 97's , especially they're older records (everyone in their right mind should own a copy of Wreck Your Life ), and I'm notorious for forcing others to listen, sometimes at gunpoint, until they come around. The band's latest offering Blame It On Gravity received glowing reviews from loads of mags, rags and blogs ... even the tastemakers at Pitchfork called the band's single "Dance With Me" their best in years. And to that I say, Fork yeah. [...]
I think I saw one of them. My girlfriend told me she had once seen two of them from a distance-a man and a woman-skinny, with long, wiry hair, sporting retro garb that one wouldn't consider normal streetwear ... even by Portland standards: "It looks like they're from a completely different universe," she explained. The other night, we were walking back to our apartment right by a small pathway that runs along the back of the apartments ... "There he is ... " I looked down the pathway, and about 50 yards [...]
Martin Thulin is the blond, rail-thin mastermind behind Mexico City's Los Fancy Free . The band plays a hybrid of '60s psychedelic that allows plenty of modern elements to creep in-picture Los Dug Dug's having a threesome with Depeche Mode and David Bowie ... believe me, it's sexy ... even for all you squares who don't like three-ways. Thulin doesn't look like the frontman for a rock band from Mexico. He was actually born in a Scandinavian Mennonite community in Northern Mexico and at a young age moved to Sweden with [...]
There's a mysterious van-gray with tinted windows-that comes and goes from my apartment complex ... I've been told it's sometimes gone for days at a time. Of course, my first thought was that it was a serial killer, like Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs ! Maybe not. OK, perhaps it's a group of circus performers! Naw. Flight attendants?! Hmm ... The thing is, I've never seen anybody enter or leave the vehicle-it'll be parked and 20 minutes later, when I peer from behind the blinds, it's gone. [...]
The Days of Lore
Album Review: alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Big Boi & Theophilus London (feat. TRE LUCE) - 'She Said OK'
