Turn your speakers up and hide the kids, things are about to get wild. That's right, Van Halen is back for the first time in fourteen years with an album of all new music. A Different Kind of Truth is the band's first since 1998's Van Halen III , which had exactly zero awesome songs on it. Perhaps the most important thing to note about this new album is the return of David Lee Roth, the most successful front man for the band in its infamous carousel of singers. The album is a [...]
My Vinyl Solution is simple: I'm listening to my records. As my collection has grown, I've realized that I've been spending too much time amassing lps, to the point that I have no idea of what I even own. Hence, this column . Asia, Astra So the first thing you may notice if you read my last column post , is that regardless of what kind of writer I am, I clearly don't have a grasp of the alphabet. Or [...]
Blending soaring guitar riffs with bouncy synths that meet in harmony for a sing-a-long chorus, The Big Pink may be staking a claim as the next arena rock gods. Read more »
Keith Klenowski Just to be clear: filling Massey Hall for two nights in a row is no mean feat. Not many bands can do it once, let alone twice, but when The National did just that last June in support of their breakout album High Violet , it felt like an arrival - the best and most natural setting for a band that had graduated from the bar circuit and were taking their rightful place in the city's most hallowed room, hopefully for years to come. [...]
We are only listening to The Parson Red Heads for their beautiful harmonies, folksy sentimental lyrics, and the hot ginger drummer girl.
The Parson Red Heads have been hinting at a new full-length effort for a while now, and it seems it's finally on the horizon. Yearling is the title of the record out August 16th, as the band embarks upon a partnership with the long-running local label Arena Rock on the heels of returning to Oregon last year after a handful of years in Los Angeles. The press release has all the deets: "The 11-track album was produced by sometimesband-mate Raymond Richards at Red Rockets Glare [...]
Oregon/California group the Parson Red Heads have signed to local label Arena Rock , home of recent releases from bands like Richmond Fontaine and Old Light. And there's a record on the way: the Parson Red Head's Arena Rock debut, Yearling , comes out on August 16. That's not all: We've got a special preview of the record right here, with an exclusive MP3 of the album's opening track, "Burning Up the Sky," a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed folk hymn that, upon first listen, makes me of Whiskeytown dressed up in their Sunday best. [...]
Bad City are bringing the arena rock sound back in a big way. Their Atlantic Records debut Welcome To The Wasteland is in stores now and it's filled with big guitars and big hooks. Sounding like they would have come from The Sunset Strip in LA in the late 80's, these guys are from Chicago [...]
Local boys return home to a sold out Madison Square Garden, and they do not disappoint. Madison Square Garden - Gardens - Home - United States - Business and Economy
UK based Australian drum'n'nbass super band Pendulum is about to drop their latest album Immersion . From what I've heard so far, they're not straying too far away from their previous effort. Their first single Watercolours is an epic drum'n'bass anthem in true Pendulum style (if you're a die hard junglist then you probably know what to expect, otherwise if I must describe then its a mix of stadium rock sound with driving lead synth that emulates electric guitar added with melancholic melodies). Their next single is Immunize ft. Prodigy's Liam Howlett. The [...]
Photo by Anna Hallberg Harriet Ohlsson spent the years from 2004 to 2009 making jazzy lounge-interpretations of Heavy Metal classics in the Swedish band Hellsongs . In 2010, she's on her own in her solo-project OH, HARRY , and I'm getting that wonderful wow-feeling again. Her debut-album "Arena Rock" will be released in March/April this year, and it's indeed a solo-project. She has written all the songs herself, except her very special cover of The O'Jays "Now that [...]
Swell news today about upcoming new 2010 music from two of my all-time fave singer-songwriters - Robert Pollard and Paul Weller. MAGNET writes about Pollard's upcoming onslaught of new music headed our way: "Robert Pollard has yet another amazingly prolific year planned. While his '90s indie-rock peers are busy cashing in on the reunion circuit, Pollard continues to record and release new music at an astonishing clip. First up is the "Silk Rotor" seven-inch with two exclusive b-sides (January 26), and then the fun [...]
"I've actually been making a lot of Yankee analogies in my interviews lately because I get asked, 'Do you feel pressure? How do you feel when someone says this? Or do you feel like you have to top yourself?' " the Yonkers native told MTV News. "I say I do feel like I have to top myself. But I feel like I'm Rivera. I'm a closer." On the one hand, this statement dovetails nicely with Popjustice's claim that GaGa is the greatest pop star of this decade , although I'm not sure I'm going to totally co-sign [...]
After delaying his pre-World Series performance of "Empire State Of Mind" for reasons that were either weather-related or scheduling-conflict-borne , Jay-Z took the song to the field at Yankee Stadium before last night's Game 2. (He continued his run as a good-luck charm for the home team; the Yankees topped the Phillies, 3-1 .) Our F2K correspondent Christopher R. Weingarten was not all too pleased about this, saying on his Twitter , "If New York is so great, it really shouldn't fall for something as cloying as 'Empire State Of Mind'." Which garnered [...]
Thanks to the threat of pre-game precipitation in the New York area, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' pre-World Series performance of "Empire State Of Mind" has been moved from tonight's before-Game 1 festivities to tomorrow's Game 2 intro. What, Jay, you can't handle a little precipitation? Do you realize that your sensitivity to the elements is forcing America to sit through more Joe Buck than usual? And making your Yankees look a little, ahem, weak? (Let's not even mention your revelations about jamming Fergie at the gym .) What would Jeter do, man??? [ Rap Radar ]
Maybe the auto industry bailout should have just involved Ford and GM making a full line of I.C.P. cars where the hoods look like juggalo face paint and the cars are only allowed to play scary rap-rock. A new article in the Detroit Free Press looks at how the Michigan-based duo have remained oddly recession-proof in an economy that has left portions of the state in dire straits. These days the boys are still pulling in up to $10 million a year, and have a new feature film due in January that we suppose people will go see. While the [...]
Thanks, Major League Baseball musical-talent bookers, for balancing your first aesthetically semi-decent decision in years with some liberal fanning of those "Why do Fox and MLB and Bud Selig and the world hate Philly??" conspiracy flames that continue to persist among fans of your league's current World Champs: Jay-Z, who's been seen as something of a good-luck charm for the recently crowned American League Champion New York Yankees, will perform his blatantly pro-NYC hit "Empire State Of Mind" at Wednesday's Game One of this year's New Jersey Turnpike Series. "Thank the good Lord [...]
Ok, let's just get this out in the open: I am, unapologetically, one serious Allen Epley fanboy. A quick inventory of my iTunes library results in 105 tracks from Mr. Epley and his various accomplices. I have original releases, re-releases, imports, EPs, compilations, demos, bootlegs, t-shirts, stickers, ticket stubs, a DVD and a pick. I frequent a message board dedicated (at least, at this point, in name) to Shiner. I've road tripped thousands of miles over the past decade to see Shiner and The Life and Times at least a dozen times. Included in those trips [...]
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The Best Whitney Houston Covers: A Tribute
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