sometimes there's something beautiful about a piece of music so deliciously dark. it may seem like a somewhat odd thing to say in that so many of us have been born and bred to believe darkness equals bad. but the truth of the matter is that there can be beauty in all things not just that which society deems acceptable. enter War Tapes : these guys harness the dark arts much the way bands like Depeche Mode or The Cure would do. finding those sullen tones, morose vibes, and using gloomy imagery to create a [...]
Holiday Shores are one of the most enjoyable new acts I've come across this fall. Not only is their album Columbus'd The Whim one you can't help but grin and groove to while its playing but they're also a lot of fun live. They come from the beaches of Florida and their laid back attitude is undeniable in their music and in their general outlook... TWIAPC: You're sound is very much tied to your Florida/beach roots but did you always [...]
Eric Ryback hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 1969 when he was only 17 years old. The next summer he was the first person to hike the Pacific Crest Trail , 2500 miles from Canada to Mexico. He did it in 132 days carrying an 80 pound pack. Two years later he became the first person to complete backpacking's "triple crown" by hiking 3,000 miles along the Continental Divide, approximating a route that now makes up the Continental Divide Trail . He wrote a [...]
I`m generally guilty of skipping through the expansive rise of aggregated dance remixes circulating the Internet. You could compare it to a devil on the shoulder situation, the evil side of my conscious mind demands I listen intently while giving the less forgiving side of my personality little time to place it`s fingers in my ears. Originality has been restored. Successfully avoiding the many Kings Of Leon and Yeah Yeah Yeahs remixes in the BPM minefields has given us the courage to post some more appealing, upfront and danceable tunes. [...]
Is War Tapes the latest descendant in the musical lineage that includes Joy Division, Bauhaus, and Interpol? Maybe, but they have more to offer than just tortured angst.
I'm starting to feel really old -- I spent last weekend in DC and walked by the old 9:30 Club (picture below). That whole side of F Street has been remodeled and it looks like none of the properties have been rented (go figure...). Somehow, I don't think you would have had the music or the scene that sprung up out of the 9:30 Club in a neighborhood that now has a McCormick & Schmick and Gordon Biersch. The same sentiment hold for CBGB. [...]
I missed War Tapes when their debut album first hit, but I'm making up for lost time by slotting "The Night Unfolds" into heavy iPod rotation. This is like putting on your best James Bond panache, your favorite snowboard, and staying one step ahead of a massive avalanche. Seriously - this song sounds like it's going to swallow me alive. MP3: War Tapes - The Night Unfolds The Night Unfolds is off The Continental Divide , released May 26th. Buy it here [...]
The Continental Divide is highly polished, paint-by-numbers guitar rock that takes no chances musically and is slathered in a sheen of production endorsed by the most up-to-date market research. Lyrically the album looks to the past as much as the music, reveling in themes of regret, loss and starting over. Reminds us of: The Killers but without the keyboards | Interpol | Sugar before we heard Hüsker Dü War Tapes: ( Official / MySpace ) war tapes the [...]
![War Tapes: The <span style="color: #384E60; background-color:#84CCF2">Continental</span> <span style="color: #384E60; background-color:#84CCF2">Divide</span> [Album Review]](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/1935448_lg.jpg)
Yes, War Tapes sound a bit like The Killers. Yes, they seem to be an 80's influenced bunch of glam rockers. But, look past your pretentious preconceptions for one moment. Then just listen. These guys rock. And they rock steady. The Continental Divide is an album of pure POWER, as well as grace. If you stop to look for their originality, it will be bloody obvious. There is no reason that "Dreaming Of You" should be the breakout hit for War Tapes. [...]
The new Son Volt effort, American Central Dust , has me thinking about driving across Nebraska in the summer time (and I don't mean the short way, I mean east-to-west or west-to-east). Here's the deal. I have driven across Nebraska in the summer, both directions, a few times. There is no way to get around the fact that it is a long drive and as you make your way, you can't help but be amazed at the sameness as you pass mile after mile. There are wonderments along the way, like the [...]
After Watching D.C.'s elite stock their summer home pantries and refrigerators all weekend, my senses have been salivating at the thought of my own escape. However, right now it's raining and I don't think that's sand between my toes. This is where my escapist self takes over with an audio fix. Honestly, Tallahassee natives Holiday Shores could have been from Fargo and I would have reacted the same way, but having the Florida sun as inspiration seemed to work perfectly for the situation at hand. Guitars with a distant soaking twang and simple reverberations turning up [...]
canoe music heißt, wenn ich es richtig rekapituliere, nun mehr wohl village ten collective . als solches hat es sich bereits seit längerem verstanden, wir berichteten , denn unter diesem dach treffen sich diverse musiker- und kollektive. und alles, was sich neues getan hat, werden wir hier in aller kürze aufführen. zwei neue videos gibt es: einmal von canoe , zum anderen von adam & darcie und wie es der zufall will, starten beide mit neuem album durch. während canoe bereits im juni mit "the goldminers" [...]
We paid our dues in Kansas and Missouri. The heartland, to some. There is heart out there, but you have to seek it. The American heart still beats, buried underneath a heap of strip malls and dying villages. But it has a weak pulse, an unhealthy distance between each beat. I am no doctor, but I can spot a blatant illness. America is in cardiac arrest. Heart disease. Not the same one that plagues us from our corn syrup fed, lazy lifestyle, but instead, a disease of the soul. A [...]
What if David Gahan from Depeche Mode got together with Robert Smith from The Cure & somehow made a lovechild band? A reach I agree, but if they had, War Tapes would have surely been their spawn. War Tapes are Neil Popkin (singer/rhythm guitarist, from Boston), his sister Becca Popkin (bassist, also from Boston), Matt Bennett (lead guitar, from Hawaii) and William Mohler (drummer, from SoCal). After I received an email from Intern Sara (who like the style of the band has her myspace image clouded in darkness) extolling the [...]
Chris Velan Genre: Reggae Influenced Folk-Pop Montreal, QC Sample Track: Oldest Trick A classically trained guitar player from the age of nine, Chris Velan grew up listening to an eclectic mix of his dad's music: Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, and [...]
"Dreaming of You" is a serenade that could be anachronistically played in that new-wave version of Marie Antoinette. War Tapes tries riffs a la Franz Ferdinand and Moving Units in "The Night Unfolds," while "She Lied" delivers lyrics surely inspired by heartbreak. "Mind is Ugly" is like the off-focus, black-and-white music video—drumming and strumming that don't casually fit anywhere else on the record. Besides their primary post hardcore style, War Tapes pull other influences from other eras—they have the sensibility of the Cure, pipes recalling Ian Curtis, and vibes from Morrissey.
No idea how you can be gloomy in LA, but something's bumming out the kids in War Tapes. On The Continental Divide, the band's first full-length, the group draws strongly from fellow somber rockers like Joy Division, Interpol and Echo and The Bunnymen. The result is a solid effort, if a bit repetitive. The second [...]
Das erste halbe Jahr lief für Freunde von Post-Punk und dunklen Wave-Tönen ziemlich rund. Da waren Solar Powered People und ihr grandios düsteres Album Living Through the Low . Dann die New Yorker Blacklist mit ihrem hymnischen, vor Kraft strotzenden Werk Midnight Of The Century . Und nun der dritte Juwel, sozusagen die düstere Popvariante, Ware Tapes aus Los Angeles, die mit guten Melodien nur so um sich schmeissen. Da möchte man ja fast von einer Hochphase des Post-Punks sprechen, nachdem [...]
War Tapes The Continental Divide Sarathan Records [2009] Fire Drill Review: LA's War Tapes are another band that play a brooding and dark rock much like a Depeche Mode, Interpol or Airborne Toxic Event. The group puts forth a solid effort throughout the record and has an interlaced female vocal with Neil Popkin's deep and somber delivery which gives War Tapes a little different sound. The Continental Divide is not a bad record but [...]
[New videos from L.A. artists ...] LA Weekly cover guy Busdriver will have to dumb it down a few dozen IQ points if he ever wants to be a hip-hop star, but thankfully we have guys like him to skip stones across the mainstream. The veteran underground rapper shows no signs of being more accessible on his latest Anti-/Epitaph release, "Jhelli Beam," but his crazy flow and deft wordplay are worth your careful attention — as is this video for the song "Me Time." Busdriver does a [...]
‘09 Been Kind
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
remixed: the beach boys, lady gaga, duck sauce, ellie goulding, shakira, la roux, madonna, & more!!!
