Music
Essays, blog posts, playlists, and more focused broadly on music. For more playlists visit my Spotify profile.
- The Morning Benders “Boarded Doors” EP ()
The Morning Benders are back with the group’s second EP entitled Boarded Doors, which will be released on March 13th. For those that don’t know, the group plays a historical pop-rock sound which some (not I) have dubbed close to that of the Beatles has turned some heads over the past year or so with […]
- Talib Kweli “More or Less” Video ()
One of hip hop’s most anticipated releases of the year comes with the upcoming Talib Kweli album Eardrum. The lyrics have a serious flow and they mix easily with the simple, yet memorable, beat. Also featured in the song is Hi-Tek. [This post was first published by Culture Bully.]
- Casting a Deep Shadow: Willard Grant Conspiracy ()
Willard Grant Conspiracy is a group that has, over the course of course of ten years, released eleven albums of live and studio material – with Let It Roll being its latest. The band’s only permanent member and vocalist Robert Fisher sounds like a roots-Nick Cave with a voice deeply based in coffee and cigarettes. […]
- Bloc Party “A Weekend in the City” Review ()
With the release of A Weekend in the City London’s Bloc Party has tried to council its fans with the attempt of again finding a solid voice, all the while attempting to atain its remarkable critical acclaim. And somewhere in there lies the challenge of explaining the life of a group of twenty somethings (exception: […]
- Peter, Bjorn & John “Objects of My Affection” Video ()
The first thought for those who are only casually familiar with Peter, Bjorn & John (myself included) will be that “Objects of My Affection” is quite subtle and less enticing than the wider known “Young Folk.” But a few listens to the single should provoke more interest as the bass line begins to develop a […]
- Gauchos Interview ()
All Victor Jorge wanted to do is show his fellow Argentineans how good his children were at playing heavy metal. But when the television producers of a video-clip show rejected the submissions he sent in, Jorge didn’t know what else to do. So he put his kids on YouTube. Three-and-a-half million viewings later, Jorge’s kids–better […]
- Three 6 Mafia Feat. Chamillionaire “Dough Boy Fresh” Video ()
The song for the lead single from Three Six Mafia’s upcoming Last 2 Walk album is…well…a little funny, to be honest. How far has the group strayed from its beginnings since its inception? Far enough to where it is now street to shout out “Academy Award Winners” during the intro to your song. I’m sure […]
- Dungen “Gör Det Nu” ()
Hopefully the first seven seconds of Dungen’s lead single from its upcoming album Tito Bitar is fairly indicative of the rest of what we are to hear. A raging drum roll introduction is hammered by some strange psychedelic Stooges riff which is then joined by some steady-handed piano all leading into the group’s audiorgy. Though, […]
- Soundgarden Reunion not in the Works…and Something About Audioslave ()
A friend recently noted, in response to Rage Against the Machine’s reunion show at Coachella, something along the lines of “as long as it means no more Audioslave, I’m all for it.” Well, dreams can come true. Last week Chris Cornell announced the release date for his upcoming solo record, and mentioned a little something […]
- Fu Manchu “We Must Obey” Review ()
Much of the reason groups along the lines of Thin Lizzy have any relevance to me today is because of Fu Manchu. Coursing through the past twenty years with a number of lineup changes, the current members of the sun-streaked metal outfit have never ceased bleeding stoner rock and We Must Obey follows the same […]
- “The Good, The Bad & The Queen” Review ()
Continually looking to its musical patriarch for advice and acceptance through the better part of the 90’s North America continually scoured incoming news from England as to what was to be considered musically abrasive, shiny, dormant or even the next big thing. For instance, Canada’s music video mainstay, Much Music, had a love affair with […]
- Transparent Sound: Fujiya & Miyagi ()
Pitchfork recently included Fujiya & Miyagi as apart of its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2006, ranking the band somewhere within the realm of awesome-though-not-concisely-spectacular with a placement at #39 on the list. The group’s unimposing presence plays to the retro-pop crowd without even once attempting to lure mainstream listeners in by bringing […]
- Audionom “Retrospektiv” Review ()
As Retrospektiv stands it is the lone rearviewmirror to a band that most, including myself, unfortunately knew little to nothing about, it fortunately also serves as an indicator of what may come for Audionom. The group itself has physically changed throughout the years with a large number of comings and goings but has evolved around […]
- Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist and the Band’s Attempt to Reclaim its Former Hipness ()
Finally catching up to the rumors that the band would reunite comes word that there would not only be a few festival dates but a new album, entitled Zeitgeist, set for release in July. But with only half of the original line-up in tact the band has received a number of criticisms as of late. […]
- The Postmarks “The Postmarks” Review ()
Throughout the course of The Postmarks’ self titled debut the question of whether the group’s French-pop overtones are smoothly beautiful or agonizingly painful becomes an overt one. The vocals of singer Tim Yehezkely are so stunningly sweet that even the album’s most downtrodden of songs, such as “Leaves,” come off as something similar to pack […]
- Goodbye Distillers, Hello Spinnerette ()
Even before The Distillers’ last album, Coral Fang, the band had been subject to a whirlwind of drama greatly surrounding the lead singer Brody Dalle. To make a long story short she divorced Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong in favor of Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and the two have since had a daughter. […]
- Mastodon and Converge at First Avenue (Minneapolis, MN) ()
2006 was an amazing year for the night’s three bands: Priestess broke out of its Québécois-hard rock niche and found a welcoming fan base internationally; longtime hardcore mainstays Converge took their sound and expanded its audience based on the heels of their acclaimed album No Heroes, an album which found praise from the likes of […]
- Neo-Industrialism/Found Sound Part 2: David Fischoff ()
David Fischoff poses as a Chicago-based librarian by day, but with his latest album The Crawl, which has been a product of some five years of work, David has created an entire record’s worth of music from thousands of samples. Why it’s found music: As David described in an interview with Chicago Public Radio the […]
- Neo-Industrialism/Found Sound Part 1: Lasse Gjertsen ()
Lasse Jertsen is a twenty two year old film maker from Larvik, Norway who, among his other talents, has found a way of splicing his own sampled notes into songs. What’s amazing about the final product isn’t simply the fact that he can do so, but accompanying the tracks are video recordings, which are also […]
- Menomena “Friend and Foe” Review ()
Whispering sweet nothings into the heart of indie darlings’ ears everywhere is Menomena, who have returned recently with a new album which follows the band’s string of unique success with 2005’s Under an Hour and 2003’s I Am the Fun Blame Monster! As a whole the album is a cluster, fueled by the band’s in-house […]
- Teddybears vs. the World & the Historical “Punkrocker” ()
Since the release of 2003’s Skull Ring it has seemingly become cool again to be Iggy Pop. The band’s backing him on the album, Green Day The Trolls and Sum 41, had heaps of cred with with kids on the street and since then Mr. Pop has recorded with the likes of Peaches and most […]
- Animal Collective “People EP” Review ()
Animal Collective are at such a stage in their career which its members can take liberties with its fans, this is no better reflected than with the band’s People EP. Its three studio tracks deliver a fully functional prog rock interpretation clouded with futuristic overtones all seemingly set in a time when it is a […]
- Deerhoof “Friend Opportunity” Review ()
It used to be that Deerhoof made little to no sense to the average listener and lived within the outskirts of musicianship. But with a sly shift towards the sound developed for Friend Opportunity, the recently dubbed trio (resulting from Chris Cohen’s departure) has now embraced a sound that was once never imagined when listening […]
- Mindless Self Indulgence: Tearin’ Up the Christian iTunes Charts! ()
It’s typical for most press releases be cast aside but this is most certainly a case all unto itself and deserves an opportunity to be heard (read), “Philadelphia, PA.—NYC electropunk outfit Mindless Self Indulgence has been asked by iTunes to change the genre that they are filed under. Presently MSI is filed under ‘religious’ because […]
- Van Halen to Tour, “Best of: Volume 1″ Not Presumptuous? ()
It has been roughly a decade since my interest in Van Halen plateaued; Van Halen mind you, not Van Hagar. I was young, I was innocent and I was just learning the ropes of rock and roll. Having had recently picked up No One Here Gets Out Alive, the acclaimed Jim Morrison biography, I thought […]
- Pay Up, Here Come the Metermaids ()
Inevitable comparisons to Minneapolis’ Atmosphere aside, New York’s Metermaids blaze a strict duality, finding balance between their grounded roots, gritty rhymes and lovable accessibility. MC Swell and DJ Spacecaboose offer up their own “bad advice” on the duo’s 2006 eponymous EP which lures its listener in through the soft and rhythmic “Let it Rain,” the […]
- Kelly Osbourne: Papa Don’t Help ()
Drowned in Sound begins the day with an interesting note of news surrounding a family of oft-tainted musical royalty, The Osbournes. What was eye-catching about the blurb was not simply the fact that Ms. Kelly Osbourne announced recently that the lack of commercial success surrounding her solo career can be attributed to her father (or […]
- A Decade of Degeneration: An A.F.I. Retrospective ()
The band’s decade-long history is actually closer to sixteen years, but it was with the 1997 release, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, and in particular the album’s single “Third Season,” which A Fire Inside’s sound began straying from that of typical punk. It may be suggested that it was with this album that […]
- Best Albums of 2006 ()
At the time of this writing Largehearted Boy had already compiled some 1346 year end lists ranking all things music. Alone this statistic offers enough evidence to suggest that producing yet another list would serve little purpose but that of self-gratifying fulfillment. However true this may be, doing so may also allow time to reflect […]
- Culture Bully’s Best of 2006 Guest Posts ()
To close the year out, Culture Bully solicited contributions from artists sharing their year-end lists, reflecting on their favorite things of 2006. Best of 2006: Daniel Toccalino of Leopold & His Fiction At one point or another I devoted an immense amount of attention, in some form or another, to each of these songs. I […]