In these genre-bending days of crossovers, where it seems nobody wants to hear if there's not at least a smidgeon of electronica or a smattering of dub-step in your music, it's refreshing to hear a band doing a straightforward pop-rock album. On their debut, Arnold Sideways , Dublin quartet The Chapman Society stick primarily to the meat and two veg blueprint of drums, bass, guitar and vocals, with a string section augmenting the sound when they slow it down for the obligatory ballads ('Heartbreak', 'Day After Day'). The twin vocals of Russell Keogh and Sean [...]
Writing for The Ripple Effect has given all of us here some insight on a bunch of labels that are cruising along just under the radar. We're found a ton of Indie labels over the last two plus years and we're constantly being surprised by the passion and quality of the material being released under the various banners. Some labels are approaching their releases from a place of reverence towards the music and musicians that they've loved for a time by releasing re-issues or unreleased material, while others concentrate on putting out music that they may enjoy, but [...]
I was kind of kicking myself the other day for not having gone out to the Cha Cha Lounge to see Thunder Buffalo this past Sunday night. Their self-titled album has been rocking my world of late, but apparently not enough to get me out on a school night. Lucky for me that they have a few gigs scheduled in the next two months. The band are based here in Seattle by way of Austin and are a combination, of parts Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Gallon Drunk and Thee Oh [...]
Radio Dept. return with a new song from what we can only hope will be the impending release of their much delayed new album. After four years, and several EPs, they seem ready to present a full fledged batch of new cuts, cleverly entitled Clinging to a Scheme . Heaven's on Fire is our first glimpse into this collection, a bright, upbeat shade of the band not typically seen. Where previous releases have been plodding and even verging into noisy feedback laden affairs, Heaven's on Fire shimmers with a shuffling [...]
Photography by Elle Well... The weather outside is frightful, but the fire's soooo delightful. I wish there was no place to go today, but alas & alas, here we are and here we must be, no snuggling in a bed all day for us today. As the French say, "kest le vye, kest le vye", that's life man. One thing about the snow, it's keeping me indoors on the various stationary bikes. Not cool. BUT, made the most of it and did my first product review [...]
' Good As Gold ' is the kaleidoscopic second album from six-piece Swedish shape-shifters Petter & The Pix . It will land in the UK on 3 May, 2010 via Gung-Ho! Recordings, following the release of single "Never Never" on 26 April. 'Good As Gold' is a sonically and emotionally layered album, only revealing itself after repeated listens. It was recorded in live takes over just two days, and then assembled over a painstaking twelve month period. As a songwriter, Petter repeatedly roams round various genres, scoping [...]
Frank Yang If I'm being totally honest, I wasn't that excited for last night's Magnetic Fields show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. After all, their last few records didn't especially bowl me over and I was feeling somewhat pessimistic about what to expect from a performer who's very much on record as being disdainful of the entire phenomenon of live performance. I had seen them before at their last visit to Toronto in July 2004 and while my memories of that show are fond, I couldn't say it was an especially [...]
LP Giveaway details at the end of the review. Yeasayer Odd Blood Secretly Canadian out February 9th 89 /100 [ Rating Scale ] Yeasayer's sophomore release, Odd [...]
Radio Dept. return with a new song from what we can only hope will be the impending release of their much delayed new album. After four years, and several EPs, they seem ready to present a full fledged batch of new cuts, cleverly entitled Clinging to a Scheme . Heaven's on Fire is our first glimpse into this collection, a bright, upbeat shade of the band not typically seen. Where previous releases have been plodding and even verging into noisy feedback laden affairs, Heaven's on Fire shimmers with a shuffling [...]
File this under "never thought this would happen": Megadeth's Dave Mustaine announced the return of bassist Dave Ellefson to the band, just in time for the 20th anniversary Rust in Peace tour (with Testament and Exodus). Let's not forget, it was just 5 years ago that Ellefson sued Mustaine for $18.5 million ( the lawsuit was dismissed ). Ellefson replaces James LoMenzo who has been in Megadeth since early 2006. I certainly hope this has nothing to do with the interview I did with LoMenzo last year when I asked if, under the right circumstances, [...]
Wow. It was one year ago today that I squeezed out my first post as The Burning Ear and 411 posts later and here we are. It's amazing how fast time flies and how much great music can come out in a year. Birthday's are a time for celebration and gift giving so I've wrangled together a little something for all of you to celebrate with. Over the past 12 months a number of great tracks have found a happy home in my stereo but for whatever reason or another I never covered them on the site. As a 1st [...]
Robinson Crusoe with dog and music (1913) The following is an account of a middle-aged male who lived twenty-eight years all alone on an un-inhabited island. Found next to his skeletal remains was a smashed up music device that was still playing a song in the sand. The mix between the force of sun and the anxiety that comes with desolate isolation tell me it must already be past noon. The waves pull inward, everything does here, and instinct and hunger drag [...]
So I've been sitting on Laurent Bourque 's impressive debut CD for a few months now, trying to come up with the right way to describe it without making it sound like it's a bit on the dull side. You could slide it into the singer/songwriter genre, but that makes it sound boring. You could say it's a rock album, but that conjures up images of bar bands and classic rock, and that's not doing it justice either. And it's certainly hooky enough to be called a pop album, but the sounds are a tad too organic for it [...]
Last nite, I watched the Super Bowl, because I am currently working in a mainstream office environment, and I secretly feel insecure when every1 else is talking abt a mainstream event, yet I don't have a progressive opinion to 'share' that goes over every12 heads. The Super Bowl seems like a more fulfilling viewing event than awards shows like the Oscars or Grammys or the BCS championship because you have 2 forces/teams 'battling' to be the champion, instead of just voter opinions and computer algorithms. Did u have a 'Super Bowl party' with chips, dips, meats, brewskies, [...]
... And we're back. Sorry for the silence on the blog the last few weeks. I was pretty consumed with campaign work for most of the latter half of January (and the beginning of February), and didn't have much in the way of free time to devote to the blog. However, now that the primaries are over, things are essentially back to normal, so hopefully the blog will be too. Anyway, here's what's going on in Chicago this week in terms of shows. Not a huge week, at least in terms of stuff I'm looking [...]
![King Of Prussia: The Time Of Great Forgetting [EP]](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/2319232_lg.jpg)
King Of Prussia The Time Of Great Forgetting [EP] Kindercore Records [2010] Fire Drill Review: A very simple flowing vocal over a somewhat indie western is what you will get on this quick new EP from King Of Prussia. This may surprise some fans as their debut Save The Scene (2008) was more of a psychedelic Brit-pop affair but before you totally think the band has went South, you need to listen [...]
It was hard not to notice the prominence of indie bands featured in this year's Super Bowl commercials. We had heard that NFL licensed Wake Up from Arcade Fire and that all proceeds would go to help Partners in Health in their Haitian relief efforts. But we were surprised to find Arcade Fire's song used as the NFL anthem, with several versions playing throughout the game. Then to hear Grizzly Bear [...]
The Portland Arms Cambridge is a compact venue but with surprisingly good acoustics. My congratulations must go to the sound engineer who brought out the best from both bands. First up were The Foxes! Having been an admirer of this band since 2007, I had never actually seen them live before. The nine song set included a mixture of old and new tracks with great three part harmonies and a guitar sound that is honed to perfection. There really is something special about guitars played properly through decent valve [...]
It's a pity I didn't write more details on some of my recordings. Because this one I'm a bit vague on. Although officially released as a b-side to The Verve 's career defining single 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' , I'm pretty sure this session version of 'So Sister' was performed during the promotion for their previous album 'A Northern Soul' . I'm guessing though because like I say, my scribblings on the cassette go no further than song title and performer name. Detailing dates was clearly not something I had on my mind at [...]
Well, we rocked the Casbah and had a good time with a series of matinee parties and now we've moved THE RUMBLE: SAN DIEGO to North Park and BAR PINK. We've had our eye on this place since our friends at INDIGENOUS turned us onto Dang and company and tonight we kick off 2010 with an incredible RUMBLE: SAN DIEGO line-up. The out-of-towner this month is the band that has absolutely wrecked The Rumble Tour this week, starting [...]
Wolfmother – White Feather (Acid Washed remix)
NEW MAJOR LAZER
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
New Releases V2.9
