Renée, Naemi and Elin, the three wonderful girls that make up the Swede power-pop trio Liechtenstein, just recently played their first show in the states, where (from what my sources tell me :D ) they simply brought the roof down. The band is still very obscure, but trust me, they’ll get very big in the coming months for sure (as big as you can get as an indie outfit). They’re debut album, Survival Strategies in…
Blink 182 to tour with Weezer and loads of other bands for mega-summer tour!
If you’ve been living in a cave for the last few weeks then the highly hyped Blink 182 reunion might come as a surprise. We really don’t have much time to explain what went on, so just follow the previous link if you want more details. What’s important though is that, what’s possibly, the most influential punk rock band of the last 15 years, Blink 182, will soon head out on a massssssive summer tour,…
Monolith fest announces 2009 line-up via Twitter and Facebook
I’m really big fan of social media, using it every day. I love blogs, twitter, facebook, digg and all that jazz. I love how anyone ca raise an issue for the world to see and actually get some visibility across. Power to people, ha! That’s why I’m really enthusiastic by the Monolith Festival officials’ recent decision of announcing their lineup first on twitter and facebook, instead of doing it on their website. That’s a wise…
Download: St. Vincent – ‘Bicycle’
We praised a lot Annie Clark’s new album, “Actor,” in these past weeks, but who can honestly say she doesn’t deserve the hype ? Today, we’ve got a new Annie Clark track for your ear’s delight, the melancholic B-Side on the LP “Bicycle.” From the first verse you can tell it’s a deeply Annie-centered song of ravishing fines. Actor is out now, and you can order it from Amazon or iTunes. [many thanks to The…
New Music Monday: 19 May
A myriad of intersting new music this week, folks. My personal favorite release is “Romanian Names,” the latest release from behalf of what’s possibly one of the most under rated contemporary singer/songwriters, John Vanderslice. Check out our download/stream of John’s Fetal Horses in a previous post, for a bit of sampling. Yes, genious . Can’t help noticing there are a lot of R & B and hip-hop centered albums this week, most probably having to…
Mastodon ‘frighten’ David Letterman @ Late Show
Just recently Mastodon were invited to play a tune on David Letterman’s Late Show in the usual post-show format. The experience, apparently, left Dave a bit ‘frighten,’ but I’m pretty convinced he’s now gone past it and erased the show out of his memory altogether. Can’t be hard at all, considering Mastodon’s performance was completely pale and unmemorable. All their shows seem this way lately. What’s happening to you, guys? The album itself, Crack The…
Manic Street Preachers’ New Album & the Undying Love between Art and Controversy
Provocative artwork? Surely not. That’s not blood on the cover of the new Manic Street Preachers album, just a boy with one side of his face more red than the other. Or to put it in more artistic terms a la frontman James Dean Bradfield, “a much more modern version of Lucian Freud-esque brushstrokes”. But either way you look at it, this work of album-cover artistry for the Journal for Plague Lovers has been banned…
Aiden: ‘Knives’
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…
Hot Streaming: Bat for Lashes bonus track – ‘Wilderness’
Those of you kind readers who’ve been following my writing for the last couple of weeks may have noticed that I’m a big fan of Natasha Khan’s latest LP, “Two Suns.” It’s eery, up-lifting and filled with hope. I always feel more motivated and ready to face the world after I give it a spin, from the first to the last track. The bonus songs on the album aren’t too shaky at all, too.If you…
Ben Harper & Relentless7: ‘White Lies For Dark Times’
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…