Label: Clickpop Records (CD)/Topshelf Records (LP) Released: May 18, 2010 It's a little bit strange to put on an album by a young post-rock band and think, "This remind me of Yes!" For snobbier fans of the genre, it might be an immediate turn-off to see the comparison to the arena rocking prog dinosaur of days gone by, but fear… Read more »
Released: December 15, 2009 Label: Count Your Lucky Stars After last year's What It Takes to Move Forward, Empire! Empire! certainly seems like they are the very pinnacle of emo creativity and execution, breathing new life into a genre currently choking on its co-opted mainstream success. With the genre's elder statesmen like Sunny Day Real Estate and Promise Ring defunct… Read more »
May 18, 2010 The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD Thee Silver Mount Zion is an amazing band that pushes the possibilities of music to the point that they are hard to define. While post-rock seems to be the most common pigeonhole, even that term's undefined, forward-focused nature seems woefully inadequate. Frankly, before this show, I could appreciate SMZ's albums more that I… Read more »
May 11, 2010 Rams Head Live, Baltimore, MD When John Lydon exited the Sex Pistols, leaving behind his old moniker, few people expected that he would also be leaving behind the brash, visceral rawness of first generation punk to become a prime mover in the burgeoning musical explorations of post-punk. The difference between Never Mind the Bollocks and First Issue… Read more »
May 12, 2010 The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD Though the Buzzcocks have released more recent material, two albums in the last decade even, this tour was for their first two releases from way back in 1978 which were re-issued by Mute Records earlier this year and played in their entirety. That certainly sets up the potential for a show that’s… Read more »
View the statement from Wendy Dio on the official Ronnie James Dio site.
Released: May 18, 2010 Label: Capitol Records Few bands are so closely associated with a single decade as Duran Duran. That association, however, doesn’t always have positive connotations for them. By the time they soared up the US charts in 1982, new wave had become a bit of a cop-out genre, particularly its New Romantic flavor of which Duran Duran… Read more »
Label: self-released (CD and donation-based download) Released: March 16, 2010 Lately, it seems that Brooklyn’s cup runneth over with quality indie rock, so it’s getting harder and harder to separate the truly good (you know, the bands who are pushing their scene, not just tagging along) from the pack. Ludlow Lions doesn’t instantly solve that problem, because it’s hard to… Read more »
Released: May 1, 2010 Label: Parks and Records Back in 2002, I randomly purchased a little blue 7″ from Springman Records. “Mileage,” the title track, renewed what was, at the time, my waning interest in music. It’s mellow, ambling rhythm and layers of guitar built slowly, steadily and crazily into the frenzy of a tribal right of passage. I immediately… Read more »
Released: April 27, 2010 Label: Legacy/Sony The downside of a “deluxe” re-issue of an album is that it forces the hand of completists, pushing the purchase of yet another version of an album they already likely have on more than one format. The upside is that it offers more bang for the buck of first time buyer and often puts… Read more »