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Is that Ry Cooder? Have I ever heard Ry Cooder? Is Ry Cooder even still alive? He must be, right? I mean, what the fuck would I be doing out here on the brink of New Jersey (two hours on trains, twice lost and a mile or so up to the venue) imagining dead celebrities...

Rock and roll is a torrid affair and though Vampire Weekend are about as starched as kids come they are inspiring the sort of sweaty, earnest revelry that first opened my heart to punk. The raw joy of just throwing it all away. No posture. No scene. Just a few thousand unlikely strangers in an...

“Oooh! It’s Jack White’s new band. Exciting!” Well, kinda. I mean, he’s not the singer or anything. “Oh, well I love him on guitar. He has such an amaaaazing sound.” Well, hold on. He’s not exactly playing guitar either. I mean, he plays guitar on a couple tracks…I think. “Well what the fuck? This doesn’t...

Who would have thought 2009 was going to be the year to save Dubstep? I mean, everybody who’s anybody will know all about what it is now. It’s influence reaches as far as charting top 40 singles and Hip Hop production. Recently it’s become somewhat of an “in” thing to the fringe sporting, scarf wearing,...

The Happy Hollows are releasing an everlasting gobstopper for their debut LP “Spells” due out in early October. It’s a quick burst of sweet. Then memories of summers from your childhood swirl around. The types of summers where all you wanted was nothing, and the world was so effortless that it seemed as though the...

L.A. Noise Rockers HEALTH are a frantic bunch. With two albums in as many years (not counting last year’s remix album) glued together with almost constant touring, HEALTH can hardly be accused of being slack. What the noise punks were in danger of was being monotonous. Not boring, no- HEALTH’s particular brand of spazzcore noise...

Today is 9/11. Eight years ago today, something very close and personal happened to me, and also to most Americans. However, unlike most Americans, what happened to me on that fateful day 8 years ago had nothing to do with airplanes or the city of New York. It all started about two weeks prior. I...

Here’s the second installment of my awkward stumblings into these things called “music” and “being in a band.” “I FEEL SO GOOD! I CAN HARDLY STAND IT! I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD SING OR WHISTLE OR SOMETHING!” I just walked into a decaying concrete basement filled with guitar amps, a few microphones, and a pack...

As the 3rd album by the Swedish singer/songwriter, Leaving On A Mayday is a highly contemplative and richly melodic journey driven by haunting vocals, emotional lyrics and a variety of instrumental arrangements. Combining the ambience of lounge bass, folky acoustics and wind, string and percussion instruments from a wide range of world music regions, the...

Admittedly this was my first time listening to A.A. Bondy. It’s a pretty good sign though that when listening to Bondy’s sophomore release When The Devil’s Loose that I immediately went and sought out his 2007 debut American Hearts. The two albums have a different feel, and that’s largely due to the addition of a...

After several listens, gchat conversations, and feverishly pedantic conversations worthy of an Aaron Sorkin TV dramedy, I find myself stumped. How do I classify the type of music found on Kid Cudi’s first major release, Man on the Moon: The End of Day ? However you classify hip-hop, it never quite fits an exact definition....

The Happy Hollows like to straddle the line between noise pop and indie rock. Their debut LP Spells (due out October 6th 2009) is an incredible album that stands out in a time where artists seem all too comfortable blending in. Spells is available early online through bandcamp at http://thehappyhollows.bandcamp.com/. Even though Spells can stand...