Blog: Altrok's Rantcast

A couple of weeks ago I journeyed to the UK for business. As with all my long plane trips, I made sure I had plenty to read. While waiting in the terminal, I decided to check out the newsstand to see if there were any interesting magazines. Normally Stiffy Biceptz doesn’t read too many magazines, so it’s a treat to buy myself a few for a trip. Looking over the music magazines my gaze settled on a semi-provocative cover shot of Kelly Clarkson. Now I like Kelly Clarkson. She has a great voice, and I think she’s fun. So I [...]

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from: Samsa Lake Trout Sparks Jihad Jerry & The Evildoers Sounds, The Killing Fields, The Plus we've got newly-added music: Adored, The - Tell Me, Tell Me Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon Bell Hollow - Getting On In Years Belle And Sebastian - White Collar Boy Chalets, The - No Style Data Panik - Cubis (I [...]

Bill Cowsill I) got to hang out afterwards and they happily signed autographs. The Cowsills slowly but surely contiued to make music as the millennium ended. Susan and Peter also formed the New Orleans all-star band The Continental Drifters with Vicki Peterson of The Bangles. Recently, in the wake of hurricane Katrina--which was home base for Barry Cowsill as well as his sister Susan and Peter

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from: The King Of France The Delilahs Belle And Sebastian The Long Blondes The Helio Sequence Voxtrot Our newly-added music: Dead Disco - City Place Film School - Breet The Gaskets - The Easy Life The Gossip - Keeping You Alive The Human Value - Somebody The Kooks - You Don't Love Me Men, Women [...]

Grinders (the stuff we play heavily): - Magic8 - Prix, The - Long Blondes, The - Pigeon Detectives, The - Arctic Monkeys - Foreign Born New/Recent Releases: - Ashcroft, Richard - Why Not Nothing - Keys To The World - Belle And Sebastian - Funny Little Frog - The Life Pursuit - Chapin Sisters, The - Toxic - The Chapin Sisters [EP] - Constantines, The - Soon Enough - Tournament Of Hearts - Duke Spirit, The - Cuts Across The Land - Cuts [...]

Looks like there's a few notable things happening in New Jersey in the dead of winter...maybe not so surprising considering how non-dead this winter has been. Upstage Magazine is a tireless supporter of Asbury Park's rock scene, and as one of its primary voices, nobody wins when it's silent. That's what happened when a small fire disabled part of their operation, so a fine collection of artists has been assembled to give them a hand - notable among them, Altrok faves Val Emmich and Meagan Brothers. [...]

101 FAVORITE SONGS IVY- Corners Of Your Mind PERNICE BROTHERS- Snow MARJORIE FAIR- Empty Room DOVES- Black & White Town EDITORS- Munich POSIES- Conversations FRANCOIZ BREUT- Km 83 TSAR- Wanna Get Dead MARK MULCAHY- I Have Patience ED HARCOURT- Born In The '70s STEREOPHONICS- Dakota THE 88- All 'Cause Of You HOT HOT HEAT- Middle Of Nowhere NADA SURF- In The Mirror ED HARCOURT- Still [...]

RASPBERRIES @ BB King's, NYC 7.24.05 This was one of those freaky, rare, once in a lifetime shows that was pure magic in a bottle. The Saturday gig (7.23) was quite the opposite. Close friends said they weren't up to snuff, the mix sucked and the nerves were apparent. It was their first NYC show in over 30 years and they had a rep to live up to. Luckily they had a second shot at redemption, and they soared like the live power pop dream machine you wished was always THIS ON. There really isn't anything [...]

[Pat Pierson is a guy whose opinion I respect, and whose prose we've featured at Altrok for a while. Now it's just easier to do it. And so, heeere's Pat... -Ed.] In many ways I'm sick of this waxing reflective of the state of our music (2005's) because it's only my opinion and it gets a bit redundant. And it doesn't do the artists as much justice as it would if you could hear their songs while reading about them. That said, once I got started, it was like riding a [...]

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from: Little Man Tate Guillemots Bromheads Jacket The Gossip SOUND team Sons And Daughters Plus we've got newly-added music: Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down Birdmonster - All The Holes In The Wall The Damnwells - Untitled The Delilahs - This Is It Foreign Born - Into Your Dreams Franz Ferdinand - Darts Of Pleasure [Live] The [...]

It has long been the editorial opinion of Altrok that the main thing separating the lean times from the times of plenty, in terms of interesting rock, is a visible, uncompromised outlet. That's "visible" as in "easy to stumble over and find weirdly compelling", and "uncompromised" as in "percieved as being driven more by artistic merit than commercial greed." (Note that I said percieved . Remember, kids, faking it is often as good as meaning it, at least for a while.) That got me thinking about Rockpool, but that means the remainder of [...]

And so, Altrok finally steps into the 21st century, formatting-wise, with an actual, honest-to-goodness, powered-by-Blogger weblog. Welcome to the Rantcast - the line forms to the left.