Recent Articles
Lollapalooza 2010 Day One: The Strokes, Black Keys and Cymbals Eat Guitars
The corporate music jewel of Chicago’s Grant Park launched large this Friday, August 6th, flooded by 20,000 more hearts to push capacity from last year’s 75,000 to 95,000 (minus fence jumpers), making the decision to head to The Strokes or Lady Gaga that much more of a clusterfuck.
Arcade Fire and Spoon at Madison Square Garden, 08.04.10
The ultra-ambitious and utterly magnificent Arcade Fire took it to church and set the rafters alight for the first date of their two-night stand at New York City’s venerable Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Just three albums into their – dare I say, worshipped – career, and the Garden is the only room left in town for this multi-instrumentalist Montreal collective to play.
Black Lips and K-Holes Play Rocks Off Cruise, NYC, 8.02.10
Fan worship is a serious art no matter if it’s a rabid swarm of soccer hooligans or rockers, but when it’s a PBR-fueled crowd experiencing the garage kickin’ Black Lips on a rollicking, Rocks Off boat cruise, watch out.
Autolux: Never Force a Fire
You wouldn’t think a conversation with one-third of the artistic, provocative and elusive Autolux would drift to an idea partly gleaned from a television series, but in this case, it makes sense. While talking about the band’s latest album, guitarist/vocalist Greg Edwards recalls something said by Mad Men’s Don Draper…
Arcade Fire – ‘The Suburbs’
Win Butler has a heart like a wheel, and with Arcade Fire’s third studio effort, has taken his and the celebrated Montreal septet’s wanderlust to the street where you live. Like the Houston neighborhood of Butler’s childhood that inspired it, The Suburbs is a quietly devastating and infinitely gracious mid-tempo rhapsody in beige.
Best Coast – ‘Crazy For You’
Relentlessly delicious, the debut effort from California’s Best Coast is the ultimate elixir for what ails your warm-weather soul. Breezy, gritty and alive with endless sunkissed charm, Crazy For You is a perfectly distilled lo-fi nugget of heartsick boredom and Los Angeles in the late afternoon.
Tanya Horo at Arlene’s Grocery, 07.25.2010
It was quite a pleasure to catch Tanya Horo’s intimate solo performance at Arlene’s Grocery on Sunday evening. Perhaps better known as the lead singer of indie band Sherlock’s Daughter, the talented multi-instrumentalist has been working on a solo record…
HEALTH and Midnight Juggernauts at Santos Party House, 07.22.2010
Intense is the most fitting description for HEALTH, the groovy electro-noise band from Los Angeles. The incredible aural assault started the moment they took to the stage Thursday night at Santos Party House, generating a hailstorm of guitars, synths and samples spiked with wicked effects and danceable beats.
The Antlers and Dinosaur Feathers at River Rocks, NYC, 7.22.10
What breezy views we had over the Hudson River! How could you not want to spend a warm Thursday night on a charming wooden pier, surrounded by water? The incessant clouds hovering above made no impact on the weather, only adding to the nocturnal beauty of the New Jersey skyline.
Freak Owls – ‘Taxidermy’
Freak Owls is sweet-voiced Brooklynite Josh Ricchio, who pens songs that sparkle and hum with the quiet mastery of a poet.
