The Devil Wears Prada brought their screamo madness to the Warped Tour main stage in Columbia, MD on July 14. They were, hands down, the most intense band I saw that day. Check out all of my Warped Tour 2009 pictures here.
Label: Essential Jazz Classics Released: June 2, 2009 The mid to late 50s was a near perfect time for jazz. As post-bop and cool jazz emerged from Charlie Parker’s bebop shake-up, the genre’s top artists were refining the sound. In a few short years, jazz would be set on its ear again by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus… Read more »
Label: SideOneDummy Records Released: August 18, 2009 Having performed for over a decade with the increasingly popular Celtic folk/punk act Flogging Molly, Nathen Maxwell is faced with the double challenge of living up to yet not rehashing his band’s strong body of work. On his solo debut, White Rabbit, Maxwell brings songs that have been simmering inside of him, some… Read more »
Label: UMe Released: June 9, 2009 Before I get into this review, I really have to get something off my chest. I am sick to death of the 666 crap. Iron Maiden writes one song and titles one album related to this and it seems like it remains everyone’s favorite focus. It just strikes me as rather sad that metal’s… Read more »
Label: Count Your Lucky Stars Released: March 3, 2009 Any post-hardcore album worth its grooves (or bits and bytes as the case may be) ought to make one think of Fugazi, right? Well, this EP from Kalamazoo, Michigan’s The Reptillian reminds me of…well…Cake. Yeah, the quirky, jazzy, hipper-than-thou hipsters of the 90s. Now, don’t get me wrong though. The Reptilian… Read more »
Label: MVD Released: May 19, 2009 A reunion can be viewed in one of two ways. On one hand, it could be an attempt to cash in on the current popularity of the band’s genre, something they may not have been able to do in their prime. On the other, it could be a way to expose the band to… Read more »
Label: self-released and free! Released: May 16, 2009 Thank You‘s title may prefigure last year’s You’re Welcome, but the sound is moving forward. THe BAcksliders don’t refine their previous effort, so much as distill what’s clearly in their hearts. Whether it’s the flat out energy of “Have You Ever Been Down” or the hard-edged soulfullness of “Last Call,” the band… Read more »
Check out this rough mix of the title track from the Gypsy Pistoleros’ forthcoming album (due in October on Lime Records). “Welcome to the Hotel de la Muerte” mp3 Myspace
Label: Warner Bros Released: June 23, 2009 Straightforward. Subdued. Accessible. If Octohedron had been recorded by just about any other band, those words would never cross anyone’s mind. However, the Mars Volta has pushed the boundaries of their music and their mania time and again, leaving the expectation that each album will be a further exploration of psychedelic insanity. This… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: March 10, 2009 Folk and punk has found some common ground over the years. From Billy Bragg’s incendiary love and politics to Elliott Smith’s dark beauty, the two genres have occasionally met in strange ways that have never been entirely one genre or the other, yet clearly rooted in both. Brian Bond is a similar artist in… Read more »