What nineteen means to me. A very, very short essay by Kristopher Shepard I’m nineteen-years of age not old or young like some would say. Just plain ol’ nineteen, stuck between becoming an adult in the eyes of the Constitution and leaving my teen years behind me. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that for a while now, why does nineteen suck the big one so much? It’s…
Kevin May and Mick Lynch, principles of The Guggenheim Grotto, will pack their bags and embark on a U.S. odyssey to support their sophomore release Happy The Man, which was available January 27, 2009 on new model indie label United For Opportunity.
With three back-to-back RIAA Gold-certified records under his belt, five GRAMMY® Awards, and now his fourth solo GRAMMY® nomination as well, GMA’s 2008 Artist of the Year, TobyMac, will release his fourth studio project, “TONIGHT†on February 9th. “TONIGHT†is getting a great head start this fall with TobyMac’s hit single, “City On Our Knees,†the fastest charting and selling track in his career. The single has already sold over…
Antiseen plays a style of punk in the vein of D.O.A. and D.R.I. – that is to say, tremendously influenced by bands like Venom and (especially in the case of Antiseen’s vocalist Jeff) Motorhead. Tracks blast through in the space of two minutes or less – guitars are heavy, thick and not concerned with the nuances of different chords and the drums are plodding, each subsequent thwack of the skins…
The Broken West February 23 San Diego CA Casbah 24 Los Angeles CA Troubadour 25 San Francisco CA The Independent 27 Portland OR Doug Fir 28 Seattle WA Chop Suey
After returning from a cross-Canada tour with Jon-Rae Fletcher, both as his backing band and his opening band, Alphababy packed their bags and moved from Kelowna to Vancouver. Big changes lead to new beginnings, and with that, the band changed their name to Yukon Blonde, signed to Toronto-based Nevado Records (Bahamas, Fox Jaws), put their 300 show history behind them (including performances alongside Ladyhawk, Black Mountain and Women), and set…
British rockers and sometime troublemakers Viking Skull returned to England earlier after a successful post-Christmas showcase tour alongside Clutch. The sold out performances put the band on US soil for their first major shows with seasonably happy audiences taking to the band’s gritty, hard rocking, drinking tunes. Their 30-minute set included material from their recently released third album Doom Gloom Heartache & Whiskey. “What a fantastic opportunity it was to…
o herald the release of their new album One Life Stand, Hot Chip will be bringing their explosive live show back to North America in April. The band will be playing tracks from new album as well as old favorites. The xx will be the band’s special guests on this tour. Hot Chip have become legendary for their unequivocally exuberant live performances, helping them to become one of the world’s…
In the rarest of cases, more really is more: Scott Pinkmountain’s The Full Sun blends improvisation and avant composition with classic song writing and more musicality per square inch than most box sets. Using upwards of 60 musicians, including a full orchestra, an eleven-piece big band and numerous experimental hybrids, Pinkmountain channels music with freedom, precision and raw earthy emotion. In the process of creating this opus, he also draws…
Man, was I ever wrong about this band. Most the time, I get CDs from acts that I am not familiar with. This was the case with Antiquus, and from looking at their cover of “Eleutheriaâ€, I was expecting some sort of namby-pamby progressive space-metal. However, this disc starts out with “O Captain, My Captainâ€, and starts in a way that will get individuals immediately into the music.
Allison Moorer is set to release her Ryko debut, Crows, on February 9th, 2010. Produced by R.S. Field (Buddy Guy, John Mayall) at the House of David Studio in Nashville, TN, the 13-track album is a refined and lyrically honest collection of songs that is a marked stylistic departure from her previous work. Crows is the anticipated follow up to her critically acclaimed 2008 album, Mockingbird, which was a celebration…
G. Love and Special Sauce will return to the road in support of his latest album Superhero Brother following a successful recovery from vocal chord surgery in November.
Hearts will race for the thrilling romance Free Style, riding onto DVD February 9 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. High School Musical heartthrob Corbin Bleu finds both love and adventure in this heartwarming story of friendship, family and the inspiration that it takes to get to first place. Cale Bryant (Bleu) needed someone to believe in him. Ever since he was young, he’s wanted to race motocross professionally; but…
“An Ocean Blue†is the first track on “Midnight Bookâ€, and the solid nature of the track is exactly what is needed to ensnare listeners and ensure that they will stick with the album through all its different tacks, approaches, and general twists and turns. The track itself is important due to its opening position, but even if the song ended the disc it would be interesting. “Bay of Naples 
“Stay Together†is a track that showcases Robbers as an act that is influenced by the rock put forth by acts like At The Drive-In and Muse. The act is musically tight; each member puts in their own contribution, with the sum result being some impressive music. Where the vocals in a band are typically intended to be the conveyors of emotion, what is common on the “Flesh†EP is…
“Gone Away†is a simple, impassioned track that is devious in regards to the amount of different things that are actually taking place during the track. Of course, the vocals shine through brightly, putting together hints of Jakob Dylan with Dave Matthews, but guitars play at the periphery, adding a proper ambiance to the track. Drums add a solid foundation for the track, and by the time a minute or…
Knox Bronson makes music that operates at a level far beyond that of the typical act thrashing about in their garage. This is because, during tracks like “Summer of ‘68â€, Bronson is able to create something that is more like classical compositions than the latest pop hit. Listeners will have to put in Bronson’s latest EP – “The Seasons†– and give it a number of spins before they can…
What Versailles does during the opening of “Broken Dolls†is link together a number of different musical styles, the piano line variously shifting through alternative rock, goth, and even pop as listeners are given a hint as to what the rest of “Broken Dolls†will present. Versailles also makes a play for the minds and hearts of fans of music; there are arrangements and approaches taken that will please fans…
Never mind the year of the rat!!! 2009 is the year of the Godfather of New York Hardcore, Vinnie Stigma. With New York Blood running through his veins, he’s available to tell you stories of a New York you’ve only heard of.
The White Stripes they aren’t. Though rock duo of Michael Van London and Rhiannon Jones may share the same stripped down guitar/drums lineup and gender makeup as The White Stripes, the comparisons pretty much stop there. The garage rock duo from Los Angeles can turn out sludge rock, but they hardly offer an original take on the genre. From the very beginning, with the rote album opener “Da Bomb,” the…