Part 1 2009 is a strange time to be in an indie band. A shot at serious success for left-field bands is becoming an increasingly viable aspiration, more so than in the early 90’s when Nirvana proved to the industry that there was a market for dangerous music. While grunge’s initial surge was more successful...
I haven’t felt like this for years. Do you remember the first time you heard The Postal Service? Well, maybe that wasn’t all that important to you at the time. Or maybe Give Up isn’t even important to you right now. For me, it brought out the kid in me when I heard it. Naive...
And there’s a chance we’ll fail. A good chance, actually. All those whiskey promises we mutter on the back porch too early, yet, to call it a day. Too late to make it anywhere except inside for one last beer we’ll end up leaving half attended by the bed to remind us who we were...
I practically feel like Thurston, Kim, Lee, and Steve are old friends of mine by now, which means I tend to overlook or easily forgive their weirder tendencies and bad ideas. Which isn’t to say The Eternal is a bad record, because there are some totally awesome moments and even a handful of killer songs....
Hollywood was treated to some of West Texas’s finest musicians when Explosions in the Sky played at the Hollywood Palladium on June 27th 2009. Seeing as Explosions hadn’t headlined a tour in nearly a year, and this was the first show of their 10th Anniversary Tour, there was a lot of anticipation building up to...
It’s often said that the sign of a mental person is the fact that they believe themselves to be completely normal. They carry on living their lives in their own unique way, it’s everyone else that has the problem. Snake Magnet, the debut album from Oceansize offshoot Kong, is that type of mental individual. While...
Bands like Vampire Weekend really bother me because their name sounds pretty badass, but their music is actually kinda flowery and hollow. I actually picture pixies playing harps, bouncing on daisies when I listen to Vampire Weekend. Pretty much the exact opposite of badass; or maybe that’s what vampires do on the weekend, who fucking...
It’s inspiring to hear the quality of music that can be produced using “dated” technology. I terms of technological advanced, in an age where we have biblically powerful computers and mind blowingly complex programs and software at our disposal, you really wouldn’t think about delving into the past. But then 8bit chiptune music became the...
Come ye, Interpol fans, gather round. Julian Plenti is the side project of Paul Banks, lead singer of moody post punk/indie band, Interpol. While at first the logic behind Julian Plenti is…. may seem questionable, scratch the surface and Skyscraper (That’s what i’m calling it from now on, the actual title’s a complete head melt)...
Memo to Hip Hop/Rap: The late 1990’s DID happen. Rap-rock was a thing; a very unfortunate, shameful thing. Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and Linkin Park ruined and undid whatever it was that Run DMC-Aerosmith and the Beastie Boys ever did to prove this would be a wonderful marriage of genres and it just cannot happen...
I used to be a respectable masochist. I would cut myself with razors stolen from my mother’s disused Lady Bics. I would put cigarettes out on my forearm. I would date drug-loving half-lesbians and vomit alongside them at unisex stalls imagining all the other guys they fucked at summer stock while I was home, alone,...
I like a bit of mystery in music. What can I tell you about jj? Well, “they’re” Swedish. That’s evident enough from the sound of “their” music. Are they even a they? The label behind releasing their first single, jj no° 1, and now the brand new full-length jj no° 2, claim jj is more...
4.5/5 : Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before ...4.2/5 : Wavves- King Of The Beach4.2/5 : Scissor Sisters - Night Work4.1/5 : Das Racist - Shut Up, Dude4.1/5 : The Roots - How I Got Over4.1/5 : Crystal Castles - (II)4.0/5 : Nas and Damian Marley - Distant Relativ ...3.9/5 : Crocodiles - Summer of Hate3.9/5 : Devo – Something for Everybody3.6/5 : High on Fire – Snakes for the Divine 
4.8/5 : Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before ...4.0/5 : Devo – Something for Everybody4.0/5 : Abominable Iron Sloth - The Id Will Ove ...4.0/5 : Nas and Damian Marley - Distant Relativ ...3.5/5 : Wavves- King Of The Beach3.5/5 : Ceremony - Rohnert Park LP3.3/5 : Crystal Castles - (II)3.3/5 : Das Racist - Shut Up, Dude3.0/5 : Scissor Sisters - Night Work3.0/5 : High on Fire – Snakes for the Divine 
