Album name: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Album Artist name: Various Genre: Soundtrack Released: July 13 2009 Label: Reprise ZME Rating: N/A Website: transformersmovie.com/ I would love to give this CD a horrible review. I’d really, genuinely enjoy ripping apart its poxy devotion to dated post-grunge sludge rock. Or better yet, going on a bloodthirsty, rampaging rant about how the Transformers franchise as a whole has gone from being a treasured reminder of…
My one presiding memory of visiting my granddad when I was knee high to a shepherd’s pie is, of all things, screwing around with the old man’s stair lift. Utterly lost on me and my brother was the importance of the machine for allowing my granddad easy ascent – all we saw was a hilarious toy that distracted us from the boring grown-up talk that was going on around us. I’m fairly certain we broke…
Quick news thingy: courtesy of the ever-regrettable Pitchfork.com, it’s been revealed that My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James will be releasing an EP of George Harrison covers, entitled Tribute To (through ATO). Consisting of two Beatles songs that Harrison wrote, and four songs from Harrison’s All Things Must Pass solo record. And, in true “I do most things just to amuse myself” Jim James style, he’ll be releasing it under the devilishly cunning pseudonym, Yim…
Clichés are basically the exact opposite of a box of chocolates: you always know what you’re gonna get next. The key to making clichés work in songwriting is to couch the clichés in a bunch of other interesting stuff so that they’re not all that important to the song, in the end. This is a lesson I learned last night, watching Jason Isbell give a fantastic performance upstairs in Whelan’s. Supporting act for the night…
Album name: The Great Disruptors EP Artist name: Sweethead Genre: Rock Released: July 13 2009 Label: Strange Addiction ZME Rating: 8/10 Website: sweethead.net With PJ Harvey taking various detours away from her intelli-punk rock of old, Brody Dalle’s Spinerette sounding less like the Distillers than a slightly more modern No Doubt, and Courtney Love continuing to disappear into a putrid puddle of confused irrelevance, there’s a gaping hole in the rock industry, just waiting for…
We’re three songs into Ham Sandwich’s set in Whelan’s, and the entire crowd is already covered in confetti and there are maybe ten beach ball-sized balloons being batted between audience and band. Everyone in the venue is either grinning madly or openly laughing. Ham Sandwich are clearly here to have some fun. But wait: like a bunch of drunks in charge of a time machine, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. (That’s an old Mr. Biffo…
Album name: Knives Artist name: Aiden Genre: Emo Released: May 12 2009 Label: Victory ZME Rating: 2/10 Website: aiden.org Jesus Christ. Look, I’m not saying that Aiden are the worst band in the world. But you know that feeling you get when you see a 13 year old boy trying to be rebellious by wearing a lot of black and swearing in a really unconvincing manner, claiming that he’s angry at the whole entire world…
Album name: White Lies For Dark Times Artist name: Ben Harper & Relentless7 Genre: Rock Released: May 5th, 2009 Label: Virgin ZME Rating: 8/10 Website: http://relentless7.benharper.com/ Band names, eh? There’s rarely an in-between with them: they either sound exactly right, or absolutely ridiculous. Try saying any death metal band name with a straight face in polite company, and you’ll have an idea of what I mean with the latter. When your grandma asks you what…
You know how some people can just walk into a room, and instantly take control of it? All eyes will shift to them, all attention will be focused squarely on them, the entire congregation will hang on their every word. Think Penny Lane from Cameron Crowe’s wonderful Almost Famous – when she walks into Stillwater’s hotel room, starts reciting the pre-flight safety spiel, and commands the rapt attention of every last person in earshot. The…
I think at one point or another, we’ve all wondered what would happen if you took two parts Van Halen, mixed in one part Red Hot Chili Peppers, spiced it up with a little Joe Satriani, and then settled on the most confusingly wrongheaded band name ever (and if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you, guy?!?!) So it’s with a mixture of joy and insomnia-induced hysteria that I present to you this band: Chickenfoot. Joe…
Al Byrne