At the moment, I'm reading Tom Holland's "Millennium", which concerns itself with the history of Europe from the Dark Ages through the millennium (at 1000AD, not the one nine years ago). One of the fascinating little nuggets of information that he's so good at peppering his books with was about the Viking invasion and settlement of northern England. Apparently, despite our perception that the Vikings were a smelly, rampaging horde of barbarians, they bathed once a week, wore eyeliner and took a lot of care over their hair. This, of course, made them rather popular with the [...]
Supported by: Laurent Garnier, Surgeon, Regis, Dave Clarke, Oscar Mulero , Phase, Pacou, Grovskopa, Ade Fenton and more Artist : Makaton Album : Leave Them All Behind Genre : Techno Source : Web Label : Token URL : http://www.junodownload.com Date : 18-11-2009 Encoder : WEB Quality : 320kbps 44100 kHz Joint Stereo Tracks [...]

MarchFourth Marching Band Rise Up (Self- Released) [BRASS 'N' BALLS] Some great live bands just can't seem to capture their in-person energy on disc. "You have to see 'em live," we tell friends, apologetically, when the CD doesn't bring it. I was afraid that would happen with MarchFourth, whose joyous performances owe so much to the visual—and visceral—impact of so many big-horn toters and percussionists having so much fun, marching into the audience and throwing down. That ambience is notoriously hard to capture on a recording, as [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News When A Camp 's Nina Persson sang, "Now we're gonna party like it's 1699" at her band's show on Tuesday night, she was only half kidding. With plume-adorned microphone stands, an elegant grand piano, sunset-colored lamps and dark blue mood lighting, New York's Le Poisson Rouge was decorated more like an old-fashioned cabaret than a Manhattan music club. Persson, best known as the singer for Swedish band the Cardigans , fit right in with a lacy black-and-gray dress, feathered headband, and [...]
The daily mix: 1) Guided By Voices: "Gonna Never Have to Die" 2) The Flamin' Groovies: "I'll Cry Alone" 3) Dick Dale: "King of the Surf Guitar" 4) Delaney and Bonnie: "Livin' on the Open Road" 5) J. Geils Band: "First I Look at the Purse" 6) Mary Weiss: "You're Never Gonna See Me Cry" 7) Paul Thorn: "All About the People" 8) Little Feat: "Spanish Moon" 9) Neil Young: "Cinnamon Girl" 10) Roxy Music: "Just Another High"
Of Montreal multi-instrumentalist James Huggins III just released a solo album as James Husband. A Parallax I (Polyvinyl) features 12 original tracks and includes a bonus six-song EP of covers, including songs by the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Neil Young and Gary Numan. Check out "A Grave In The Gravel," on which Huggins takes a [...]
Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental fille de shmeckel-bopping Fah Lo Suee and I will be heading to the Canadian border, where we plan to bar the suddenly unemployed Lou Dobbs from entering illegally. Sorry, Lou -- you will not pass!!! It'll be sort of like 300 , only not as screamingly gay and with health insurance. Sooo, as a result, posting by moi will be sporadic for a couple of days. But in the meantime, here's a fun [...]

Times New Viking Born Again Revisited Matador Records [2009] Fire Note Says: Another stellar record added to a stellar catalog! Album Review: There are some bands that the casual listener could listen to one time and be so repulsed that they would instantly run back to their adult alternative at top end 40 speed. Clearly it is not because the bands are bad but because they are so unique [...]
Scott Spiral , best known for his membership in Pavement , returns to the land of recorded material with The Real Feel , under the name Spiral Stairs . There are many artists who write about what they know, and incorporate such knowledge into their work. The Real Feel is all about pain, disappointment, and lost love. Spiral's divorce contributed to the bleak material, and the album is indeed a bitter one. However, the variety of musical arrangements should prevent its listeners from jumping off a nearby [...]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 In a week that brought us releases from artists like Bon Jovi , Dashboard Confessional and Switchfoot, I'm basically taking some time off from music to enjoy the only thing that came out this week that matters: the new Call of Duty. If you think you're too cool for this game, you're just trying way too hard to be cool, and failing miserably. Infinity Ward took the fantastic game engine from [...]

If you think a Guided by Voices/Boston collaboration was never possible then you're right, but Surfer Blood 's "Swim (To Reach the End)" is pretty damn close. Anthemic guitar chops, reaching vocals and dense, scratchy guitars outline this track. Unfortunately, there's also some Weezer-infused catchiness in here, which isn't bad as long as you only think of Pinkerton . |||Surfer Blood: "Swim (To Reach the End)" MP3||| Pre-Order Astro Coast, coming january [...]
Roger Daltrey - House of Blues, Boston MA - Sunday, November 8, 2009 'Let's get together, before we get much older.' That line from "Baba O'Riley" really summed up the evening with Roger Daltrey, a rare mid-sized club tour (micro, on the Who scale) to play songs he likes, whether he originally sang on them or not. Cynics might have zeroed in on "My Generation" and the 'Hope I die before I get old line,' but though Roger played a snippet of the song on the end of the cover of Bo Diddley's "I'm [...]

Message To Garcia is a collection of Visqueen songs that represents a rock and roll epitaph to front woman Rachel Flotard's father. After garnering countless fans, reviews, and playing shows with everyone from Guided By Voices, to Cheap Trick, Visqueen appeared to be on the verge of conquering the world. All of that changed when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Their choice to be together for the duration of his illness would change her direction forever. Mr. George E. Flotard was a New York City steamfitter since the mid 1960's. He fought and loved in Hell's [...]

This week Drake gets nostalgic with a couple of releases from hometown heroes Nirvana , and dismisses the Oscar Wilde inspired solo project from Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas . (I guess all that sunshine isn't inspiring him to do his best work.) -ed. Drake's Take: New Releases 11.03.09 We've officially moved into the gift-oriented release schedule, filled with deluxe reissues, box sets and other compilation/soundtracks to help (trick?) the average schmo get a gift for the music lover in their life. There's a couple [...]
We remember an interview we did with Art Brut, in which they attempted to entertain us with their wisdom and faux pharmacological humor. Frankly, we thought it came off a bit forced and that they took themselves a bit too seriously. Enter Britain's Johnny Foreigner and their attempt to charm us with music and their interpretation of the way of the world. I remember going to see Guided By Voices shortly after they signed to Matador and as they prepared to join a Lollapalooza tour. Despite the lofty expectations of the crowd, Robert Pollard showed up, [...]
Lo de Moreno no tiene nombre. Al menos, es mejor evitar uno. Que sea la banda en Chile que retome el lo-fi de Guided By Voices es un mero referente. Más bien es la banda que te hace encontrar al ser de tu vida mientras tocan en vivo y te preguntas cómo esa energía similar a los primeros Dinosaur Jr ( Bug ) pudo estar tan ajena a tu vida durante tanto tiempo sepultada en fiestas electro pop de lolitos gominola escuchando "Kids" de MGMT. Algo trascendente, en realidad, resulta escuchar el tercer disco de [...]

We've officially moved into the gift-oriented release schedule, filled with deluxe reissues, box sets and other compilation/soundtracks to help (trick?) the average schmo get a gift for the music lover in their life. There's a couple gift choices from the archives of Nirvana, soundtracks from Fantastic Mr Fox , Glee , NCIS and Aqua Teen Hunger Force -- which is actually a X-mas album, and my fave of the bunch. Of the few new releases, there's ones from Julian Casablancas, Weezer, Molina & Johnson and Girls in Trouble. Playlist: [...]

We've officially moved into the gift-oriented release schedule, filled with deluxe reissues, box sets and other compilation/soundtracks to help (trick?) the average schmo get a gift for the music lover in their life. There's a couple gift choices from the archives of Nirvana, soundtracks from Fantastic Mr Fox , Glee , NCIS and Aqua Teen Hunger Force -- which is actually a X-mas album, and my fave of the bunch. Of the few new releases, there's ones from Julian Casablancas, Weezer, Molina & Johnson and Girls in Trouble. Playlist: [...]
This week's update of what local music shows in the Boston area are playing: Commercial Radio Bay State Rock on WAAF 97.7/107.3 fm Hosted by Carmelita. Sundays 10 pm - 12 am. Milquetoast & Co. - Appeal Pony - Cake Welch Boys - Head in the Sand Cassavettes - Seek Cover Planetoid - Lord of this Asteroid The Complaints - Weak Tony the Bookie Orchestra - She Don't Wear Black Axemunkee - Dali's Dark Dream Muy Cansado - The Other Night Darkbuster - Hometown Zero Prospect Hill - 4 AM [...]