Tagged: freepodcast

Waveriders! First of all, thank you all so much for popping in with us and checking out reviews on the "best music you're not listening to." Our goal is for our writers to find music that truly excites them, then unleash themselves upon their keyboards to write missives and spread the word. We've been growing like crazy recently, as we've crossed over 3,000,000 hits and our staff keeps on expanding so here's a preview of what each week has in store for you. Of course, sometimes things change because of schedules, but basically, here's the [...]

Admittedly a good chunk of time has elapsed since I made my first music purchase. It was the spring of 1994. I was still years away from obtaining my driver's license, and perhaps more importantly my music fandom was still in its infancy. Don't get me wrong waveriders. I've always loved music, but during that time period I had other things on my plate that sucked up much more of my free time; namely school and computer games. However, the February release of Green Day's Dookie apparently caused a shift in [...]

I work as the Cultural Attaché inside the Theodore Francis Green State Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island. I greet every arriving person/group with a burning desire to make their stay in Rhode Island as pleasant as possible. For the vast majority of travelers all this entails is politely directing them to the nearest taxi line, car rental desk, or comfy hotel. There are others however, those poor souls whose flights were rerouted to T.F. Green from Logan International in Boston thanks to bad weather, who routinely need much more consolation or guidance. Take the three men [...]

(another album the Ripple crew loved so much, it had to be reviewed twice. you can read the earlier review here ) Some musical minds are beyond description. Charles Mingus had one of them. A jazz musician (a pioneer in double bass technique), a composer, a bandleader and a civil rights activist with a truly American story. He recorded from at least 1945 through 1977 which was two years before he died of ALS. He appears on over 100 recordings. His own music tends to fuse gospel, smooth [...]

After a long and arduous journey I parked our van in front of the address the group had provided. I'll admit that the location was a little spooky, even in broad daylight. We were a couple of miles outside of New York City proper, and there were only a few mid-size industrial buildings around to break up the landscape. Additionally, the squat one story building my camera crew and I were parked in front of appeared to be the only one currently inhabited. I honked the van's horn to formally announce our presence. [...]

What have been your musical epiphany moments? Jake: I usually have musical epiphany's randomly. Sometimes I'm at work, in the shower, and most appropriately during a practice or jam too. But I've accepted inspiration is everywhere. Not just black and white. Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place? Jake: To be honest, most of the songs I write are usually based off of a riff first. However, every once in [...]

Waveriders, Penfold here. As you may or may not know I love me some experimental, genre-blending, wild music performed by experimental, genre-blending, wild bands. Love it! But there are times when this type of music just won't do. Here's a perfect example. I'm driving in my car on my way to work. What do I want to listen to? Do I want to listen to that stunning new black/death/thrash/etcetera hybrid band that takes all of my attention to enjoy to its fullest? No. I can't listen with my full attention in [...]

Gotta admit, I approached this one with a fair amount of trepidation. Electro-indy pop ain't really my thing. That's usually the playground of our valiant Koala and just about every bone in my not-wanting-to-be-turned-into- fey-mush body aimed to get this disc down to Australia and into her arms. But it didn't happen. I'd already sent her a ton of music, and since she's still a new scribe with us here at the Ripple, I didn't want to inundate her more music than necessary and frighten her running and screaming away from the Ripple office. [...]

Talk about someone who has blown up. When I first started listening to Tyler, The Creator in early 2010, when he first released his debut album Bastard , he and his cohorts in his collective, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All , had barely made a dent in the music world. Now it seems like they are making an asteroid-sized crater on the musical industry. Whether it is from Kanye West tweeting that Tyler created the best music video in 2011, to Diddy saying that they are the future of music, to [...]

I bet you already know one song from Fountains of Wayne's 2003 album Welcome Interstate Managers . Here's the first verse and part of the chorus: Stacy can I come over after schoo-oo-oo-oo-ool, (After school) We can hang around by the poo-oo-oo-oo-ool, (Hang by the pool) Did your mom get back from her business trip, (Business trip) Is she there, or is she tryin' to give me the sli-i-i-i-ip, (Give me the slip) You know I'm not the little [...]

Hello Wave Riders!! On the ole' Ripple Effect I am known for reviewing my fair share of Metal and Hardcore albums. Non stop Brutality is just one side of the many facets of my musical make up. Today I want to share a kinder more heart felt side. Today I bring you City and Colour's new album, Little Hell . Canadian born Dallas Green is the master mind behind City and Colour . The name City and Colour comes from his own name: Dallas a city, and Green, a colour (color for [...]

WINTER : long-lost B-sides of Hellhammer doing technically-inept Cream covers in half time, "Spoonful," or "Blue Condition," maybe-- Gather 'round cenobites, my hierophants, my lovers of the living rumbling sonicity, seekers of the divine resonance, spelunkers of the lower frequencies... I have songs to be heard as ley lines, as tea leaves-- these words the hand that scatters them in your cup-- Here begins your travelogue, with I, your guide, your seer, Beatrice H. Virgil-- lovely to meet you. So begins the listening, stylus digs in vinyl, forehead on the [...]

All artists must hone their craft before they experience large scale acceptance and success. Bob Dylan played in coffee houses for whoever happened to come in for a cup of joe. The Beatles played dank cellars and pubs before they ever wooed a wider audience. Elvis Presley sang in counrty western bars and truck stops prior to being the "King." In the immortal words of Richard Starkey - "You got [...]

This is... gonzo journalism! This is... method reviewing! Come on, Strasberg and Stanislavski, let's rev up my affective (race?) memory and feel the pillage! (I'm German-American, so surely there's pillaging memory in there somewhere....) I, in the spirit of the pillaging Viking hordes (pretty sure that name's copywritten), have written this entire review of Sweden's Amon Amarth and their newest, Surtur Rising , while drinking mead. Mead-- the honey-wine every Viking and his mother drank. [...]

The first thing you will notice about the EP released by this LA based band is the fourteen song length. Now, I am no expert but fourteen songs should probably be called an album rather an EP, especially if they are of this quality. All of the songs are really good and the sound is built to suit the content. Due to their changing style and story telling it manages to keep you interested throughout the entire fourteen songs. As I have mentioned, Meekos&Me is a LA based band. They are comprised of guitarist, songwriter and [...]

"Hey man, we got the kegs. Four of em. You ready?" Ready? The words trickle through my brain. I'm 18 years old, finishing high school. Hanging with my friends Jeff, Paul, Ron, John, and Chris. Dave is there. So's Bob. Gary's somewhere. The beer is cold. An abandoned barn has been pre-scouted as the spot du jour. My "man-machine" the 1974 Fiat is gassed and ready, intimidating the world with it's huge rubber bumpers. The word has been spread around the school. It's time for [...]

The thing that works with pop rock is the mix of catchy pop and heavy rock sounds. This EP by Cattle Drum brings that together, but in an unexpected way. Usually in pop/rock albums, the music is rock and the vocals provide the sing along pop but not with this EP. The music almost reaches the point of pop, the vocals definitely rock. It is possible to even go as far as saying the only thing that makes it pop is the guitar riffs that make you want to play along. [...]

The music of foul things best left undisturbed. Passion is the soundtrack of the interior of Regan MacNeil's skull. Passion is an audio snuff film. Passion is Tarantino's Horror Movie: an obvious mash-up of other genres (black, industrial, electronic, dance, thrash, noise, ambient) and musical effects, that manages to still be unique and exciting... "Talent borrows, genius steals." Passion is black metal survival horror. Passion is industrial black metal (though the less-accurate blackened industrial sounds much cooler). A philosopher once said the music of an age [...]

Modern Day Moonshine - "Refuge" A friend of mine has an original drawing by Bruce Burton of "The Family Tree Of American Rock." Here are a couple of photos of a poster made from the original drawing posted by Violator @ MuzicForums.com : The tree is made up entirely of the names [...]

Full disclosure: I have never had much success enjoyably listening to bands or albums just because they have a great name. I don't think very many people do. However, that is how I stumbled across this hidden gem of an album in 2010. Strand of Oaks , the recording moniker used by Timothy Showalter, is, at its core, a singer-songwriter project. Rarely is anything ever heard beyond Showalter's melancholy voice and his guitar. Many of the songs you don't even hear his voice, choosing to forego that route for simple instrumental tracks. [...]