Obsolete: this is the title that designer and electronic artist Robert Krums has chosen for his latest project under the alias Grauwelt. He chose this title because after completing the album, he realized that the genre it belonged to no longer existed. Krums, who also records hip-hop under the name Earmint, came of age at a time when his native Chicago was churning out exciting industrial and electronic music at…
When it first aired in 2002-2003, it was pretty obvious the sitcom Andy Richter Controls the Universe was never going to make it. It was original, there was no laugh track and it was on Fox, the temporary home to shows like Arrested Development and The Tick (a network gifted with spotting hilarious sitcoms, putting them on the air just long enough to hook people and then giving them the…
SBB, a legend of Polish music, returned in late January 2009 with a brand new studio album entitled “Iron Curtainâ€. The band supported the release with an extensive tour around Poland, with its highlight at Wyspianski Theatre in Katowice, where SBB was a headliner on the first day of the first edition of the ProgRock Festival. The band’s performance was recorded and is to be released as “Behind the Iron…
Blackmaker plays a branch of pop-rock that has parallels in bands like Switchfoot and Nickelback, and while many practitioners of this system are nothing more than apers of the style (Damage and Ditchwater are two of the bands that illustrate that example fairly well), Blackmaker plays the style in terms that are their own. Both “Spiraling” and “Let It Go” start off the disc with a tremendous amount of momentum,…
Toronto-based ambient/shoegaze/drone duo NADJA announced today the forthcoming release of a new album featuring eight tracks, all of them covers. The album, entitled ‘When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV,’ features covers of some of the band’s favorite songs and artists and displays NADJA’s diverse and eclectice background. The album will be released on April 28th via THE END RECORDS but in the meantime fans can get a…
I can’t say that I have been a fan of Twiztid since the beginning, because to be honest I did not know of them until about 2002 or so, when I first heard “Diemuthafuckadieâ€. Since then, however, I’ve kept up with their releases, be it as a duo (“Freek Showâ€, “Man’s Mythâ€, “Independents Dayâ€) or as solo artists (“Phatsoâ€, “Chainsmokerâ€). With a little bit of education under my belt then,…
One of the most even discs of this new year, The Black Maria’s “Lead Us To Reason†is the latest in Victory emo bands revolutionizing the genre. Everything has the gentle sound of the late nineties alternative scene, but the Fear Factory meets Shadows Fall sound of more current days. The overarching synthesizer present in a track like “Organs†works perfectly in playing off of and accentuating the emotive and…
Let’s get right to it: Felicia Finley rocks. The press release states “Felicia Finley is a Broadway actor who wanted to make a record.†The words immediately evoked images of a banal and forgettable side project like the others Broadway actors have been issuing for years. This is not that record… And that’s good! Instead of the whimsical self-indulgence of an actor, “Great Mood for a Tuesday†is an exciting,…
Since arriving in the US in January, Melbourne, Australia’s CLOSURE IN MOSCOW have been hard at work on their debut full-length with producer, Kris Crummett (Dance Gavin Dance, Emarosa, Kaddisfly) in Portland, OR. The result is FIRST TEMPLE, a collection of 12 songs scheduled for a May 5th release on Equal Vision Records.