Track: “Green Like the G Train, Green Like Sea Foam”
We’re still nearly a month away from the official release of Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties’ Bittersweet, and yet we’ve already received an adrenaline boost with the passionate bookends of the three-song EP. Not unlike the previously released ’67 Cherry Red’, The Wonder Years’ frontman unleashes his inner turmoil over flamboyant horns and subtle folk influences on ‘Green Like the G Train, Green Like Sea Foam.’ It’s a song rich with emotion and imagery as Dan Campbell reveals his more poetic side with a sense of conviction – On a calendar long enough, all my grief starts to decay / Staring off at the skyline over shorebreak, and remembering that this same ocean almost killed me. For a fictional character, Aaron West feels more like a personal outlet for Dan Campbell’s passions, doubts, and struggles. The colorful visuals throughout the latest single hint at much more than lyrical storytelling, feeling more like raw and poignant reflections drawn from real experience. With his delivery as abrasive but refined as ever, Campbell holds nothing back as he brings his lyricism to life with a vibrant energy. Fictional character or not, the latest chapter in Aaron West’s story feels compellingly genuine, and it’s hard not to feel a sense of connection with the song’s vivid and relatable lyrics.
Kevin Morby’s latest solo offering, Singing Saw, has been described as “written simply and realized orchestrally.” This statement makes perfect sense within the context of the album – none of the songs feel overly complex in nature, but the delicate addition of instruments like horns and pianos breathe life into Kevin Morby’s authentic songwriting. A shining example would be the invigorating ‘Dorothy’, which urges you to tap your feet alongside what could perhaps be Morby’s most exuberant performance on the album. Yes, he sounds similar to Bob Dylan at times, but he also harbors enough of his own unique style to stand out as different in the modern folk scene. Behind his somewhat familiar croon, ‘Dorothy’ steadily swells into a bombastic number with heavily layered instrumentation. The song is simply brimming with energy, and one can’t help but feel alive and refreshed by its optimistic mood. Armed with a guitar, a knack for storytelling, and unique orchestral touches, the former Woods bassist seems to be realizing his full potential on Singing Saw, and ‘Dorothy’ stands tall and proud as the peak of his accomplishments.
About the time of the festival where you realize how much quality sleep you haven’t gotten over the past 48 hours, how much carb-loading you’ve done in the name of trudging to that next stage, how badly you calculated your water/hard alcohol balance and consequently will spend the first half of the work week with your office door closed. Reduced to watching the amazing Kamasi Washington and his sprawling backup group under the beer garden tent while grubbing down another order of crab fries – all that gourmet cuisine this year and go fuck right the hell off – was not ideal, but the peak temperatures of the weekend necessitated it. It also made Washington’s loose set even more impressive, crowding turntablists next to saxophonists and drummers and even Washington’s father on flute on the Outdoor Stage with a setlist that seemed like it could go anywhere, and usually did.
I skipped between the Gobi and Mojave tents for the next hour, taking in sets from Tennessee tongue-lasher Meg Myers, who accurately conveyed her man-eating persona live but who’s voice fell a bit flat at times, and Joywave. That latter band, who played to a surprisingly full Mojave (likely on the strength of single “Tongues”’ placement in that cellular commercial), should be a hit, but frontman Daniel Armbruster’s vocals come and go, and his asshole-hipster shtick comes off as more manufactured than genuinely funny in a festival setting. “Destruction” is still a jam, though.
Loaded with artists I wanted to see but cursed by conflicts, Saturday was a bit of a disappointment. The breeze that made Friday such a blessing in disguise (no dust storm!) fell away to a typically scorching April sun in the desert. My first stop was no stage but a hefty order of crab fries lathered in disgustingly pungent/delicious garlic aioli – my one true love and certainly the most consistent item at Coachella. After that came Canadian indie poppers Alvvays, who have somehow avoided the Coachella hype train and were making their festival debut. I had seen Molly Rankin and company multiple times in the past year, and their set was enjoyable but, at this point, sort of workmanlike. In hindsight, checking out a new face – SOPHIE in the Yuma or Strangers You Know at the Mojave was probably the move.
As a respite from the heat and the uncomfortable roiling feeling the crab fries were bringing to my stomach, I headed to the Despacio tent, a new attraction that appeared to be a one-time-only event for Coachella. Despacio is a bit of an oddity at Coachella, although it fits right in with the festival’s aesthetic. Designed by James Murphy and the Dewaele brothers from Soulwax along with audio engineer John Klett, Despacio is billed as the world’s best listening experience, a cutting-edge speaker system specifically suited for spinning vinyl classics. It’s a small tent lit by a series of lights and a quintessentially…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 22, 2016. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Aborted – Retrogore (Century Media Records Ltd)
Andy Stott – Too Many Voices (Modern Love)
A$AP Ferg – Always Strive And Prosper (RCA Records)
Beast Wars – The Death Of All Things (Destroy)
Blue October – Home (Up/Down-Brando Records)
BoneHawk – Albino Rhino (Ripple Music)
Carlos Niño – Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening! (Leaving Records)
Doomsday Ceremony – Black Heart (Cogumelo Records)
Dust Bowl Jokies – Dust Bowl Jokies (Rodeostar Records)
Elephant Tree – Elephant Tree (Magnetic Eye Records)
Elessar – Reflections (Elessar UK)
False Gods – Wasteland (Independent)
Te Fall of Troy – OK (Independent)
Ferium – Behind the Black Eyes (Independent)
Framix – Lucky Monkeys (Frakamix Production)
Fruition – Labor Of Love (Randm Records)
Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight (Metal Blade Records)
Greys – Outer Heaven (Carpark)
Guided by Voices – Please Be Honest (GBV Inc)
Ill Wicker – Untamed (The Sign Records)
Knifeworld – Bottled Out of Eden (Century Media Records Ltd)
Legendary Pink Dots – Pages of Aquarius (Metropolis Records)
The Loom – Here In the Deadlights (Crossbill Records)
Matthew and the Atlas – Temple (Communion Group Ltd)
Mean Jeans – Tight New Dimension (Fat Wreck Chords)
Media Solution – The Prelude (Pavement Entertainment Inc)
Messenger – Threnodies (InsideOut Music)
Mortichnia – Heir To Scoria And Ash (Apocalyptic Witchcraft)
Nicolas Godin –…
It was only appropriate that Axl Rose lasted all of one night of Guns N’ Roses’ ballyhooed reunion tour before breaking his foot, resulting in Rose taking a cue from a less fatter veteran in Dave Grohl and performing much of the band’s headlining Saturday set at Coachella in a throne. After all, a solid majority of Coachella 2016 attendees were likely barely able to walk themselves when Axl last performed with this lineup of a formerly great band. Instead, we were treated to Rose bringing out Angus Young (an appropriately shameless tie-in for Rose’s new role as frontman of AC/DC ) and a bloated (rimshot!) setlist that most of the crowd only joined in for the karaoke favorites. That Goldenvoice, the promoters behind Coachella, recently announced plans for a new festival of some of rock’s heaviest (and greyest) hitters was a happy bit of corporate synergy for a festival that has succeeded in mining nostalgia to its further extent.
2016 was a year of disappointing headliners – the joy of seeing LCD Soundsystem again was dampened a bit by them hitting literally every festival on the planet this year, while Guns N’ Roses and Calvin Harris symbolize Coachella’s ruthless pandering to its most profitable audiences at its worst. Lucky, then, that Coachella has improved in most every other facet since I started attending seven years ago. The food is downright gourmet; the security experience is more streamlined, save for the…
I should be less surprised that All Human’s sophomore release has consistently been one of my favorite releases of 2016. Though Teenagers, You Don’t Have to Die! is my first exposure to the brainchild of Adam Fisher (Fear Before, Orbs) and Brian Ferrara (Trophy Scars), I should know by now that anything Adam Fisher has a creative voice in is going to stick with me. The man has one of the cleverest pens in modern music and a gift for slinging words together in the kind of rhyme schemes that should be studied in academic English classes, after all. But he also has a knack for composing and arranging music that just resonates with the same off-beat his lyrics hit. Or maybe the music just has to revolve around that lyrical beat. It beats me, but the point is, it always works.
It’s hard to single out a track on Teenagers to highlight since it’s an album full of high points stitched together with impeccable flow. But if we’re going to start, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
“And So Peter Dances” kicks off with a nice little spoken word bit about how much working sucks, which is particularly enjoyable whilst sitting in your cubicle. The music paints a dark and snowy street corner while Fisher’s lyrics complete the scene by adding in the lonely man freezing on that…
Whereas King Crimson seems to corner the market when it comes to being the pioneers of prog, there was actually a band that King Crimson’s producer, Tony Clark, worked with years before In The Court Of The Crimson King was even conceived. The name of that band? Well, The Moody Blues of course! And it was for no other album than their crowning achievement Days Of Future Passed. The album is famous among casual classic rock fans for the beautiful, eerie hit “Nights In White Satin” – but any prog enthusiast who has investigated the album further knows that it is brilliant from beginning to end. Fully orchestrated and dream-like, it’s almost impossible to select one song worth highlighting.
Although I wholeheartedly recommend giving the entire record a dedicated listen, today’s Throwback Thursday installment will focus on one snippet of what the gorgeous experience entails. “The Morning”, is a single track that exudes the raw beauty of the orchestra fueling Days Of Future Passed‘s creativity. Gliding in on waves of awe-inspiring strings, subtle piano, and magisterial horns, it progresses to a rhythmic and undeniably catchy verse before culminating in a forlorn, wise-sounding chorus: “time seems to stand quite still…in a child’s world it always will.” The way the song weaves between pop sensibility and orchestral ambition is a thing of beauty, and it manages to be all at once familiar, progressive, and aurally stunning.…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 15, 2016. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Alkerdeel – Lede (Consouling Sounds)
Ashley Shadow –Ashley Shadow (felte)
Amber Rubarth – Scribbled Folk Symphonies (Chesky Records)
Ash Meteors – Fragment I (Ash Meteors)
Bear Hands – You’ll Pay For This (Spensive Sounds)
Blaqk Audio – Material (Blaqk Audio)
Cate Le Bon – Crab Day (Drag City)
The Coathangers – Nosebleed Weekend (Suicide Squeeze Records)
Crematory – Monument (Steamhammer)
The Decoys – In Our Blood (Unsigned)
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros – PersonA (Community Music Group LLC)
Game Over – Crimes Against Reality (Scarlet Records)
Goatess – Purgatory Under New Management (Svart Records)
Graham Nash – This Path Tonight (Blue Castle Records)
Gypsy Chief Goliath – Citizens Of Nowhere (Pitch Black Records)
Hemotoxin – Biological Enslavement (Unspeakable Axe Records)
Hestina – Blossom Talk (Autumn Tone Records)
Holy Dragons – Civilizator (Pitch Black Records)
Howls of Ebb – Cursus Impasse (Voidhanger Records)
Izegrim – The Ferryman’s End (Listenable Records)
J Dilla – The Diary (Pay Jay Productions, Inc)
John Carpenter – Lost Themes II (Sacred Bones Records)
Kevin Morby – Singing Saw (Dead Oceans)
Lita Ford – Time Capsule (Steamhammer)
Murder Made God – Enslaved (Comatose Music)
Nightmen – Fifteen Minutes Of Pain (Lovely Records)
Nucleus – Sentient (Unspeakable Axe Records)
Omophagia – In The Name Of Chaos (Season of Mist)
Otep – Generation Doom (Napalm Records)
Pathways –…
I don’t think very many bands could make something like the overuse of amphetamines seem so harmless and enjoyable, but then again not every band is Direct Hit! Following in the footsteps of 2013’s satirical Brainless God, the Milwaukee pop-punkers seem to be picking up right where they left off with their latest energetic single. ‘Forced to Sleep’ wastes no time, as huge vocal hooks are intertwined with drug-induced lyrics and crunchy guitars. As usual, it’s the band’s bitingly sarcastic delivery and lyricism that keeps them ahead of the game. Beneath the sugary-pop vibe, ‘Forced to Sleep’ is a raucous recollection of living a fast-paced life, and eventually being worn down by a steady intake of substances. It’s nothing new we haven’t heard from Direct Hit! before, but it’s a familiar and fitting way to kick off their upcoming LP, Wasted Mind. Not only that, it’s reassuring that despite a three year absence, they sound as scathingly sardonic and humorous as ever.
Wasted Mind will be released on June 24th through Fat Wreck Chords
Talking with Mechina’s Joe Tiberi is always entertaining, because not only are interviews with him basically late night brodowns, but there are no time constraints, no PR people or next interviewers interfering. Time is never of utmost importance with Joe, which is suitable for a guy whose band is still woving together a colossal space epic that is nowhere near completion, and also ironic because the guys in Mechina seem to run into time-related freakouts year after year due to Tiberi’s self-set, merciless schedule, where he will release an album on the first of January, with a lengthy single bridging the wait in summertime. When we had talked for about three hours with Joe, and I had just declared that I had asked all the questions I had written down for the interview (and more), he said that hey, he’s got another 15 minutes before he has to go anywhere, so naturally we talked on for about another 45 about both important stuff (for how long could Mechina really go on for, or how, being a sound engineer, Joe has worked with hip-hop artists, about which not many people knew of) and thoroughly unimportant stuff (my aspiring lyric-writing, for example, or how robots could be a viable alternative to pets). So how did 2015 turn out for the Chicago-based space lore weavers? Where did Mechina go to and where do they plan to go to? Read on to find out.
I remember when I first started getting into music and it felt like every song I heard was speaking directly to me. It was a great era in my life because everything seemed to carry unprecedented weight, as if the artists were sitting down at a table with me and hashing out my emotions on paper. As the years progressed that feeling obviously fell by the wayside – I mean you can only be awestruck by everything you hear for so long, right? Music soon became more about the technical aspects – did that bridge really work?would this song have been better if they amped up the guitars and pushed the vocals back in the mix a little? There’s something to be said for any level of music appreciation, but the older I got, the more everything started to sound like an imitation of something I’d already heard. For lack of a better description, music’s meaning in my life just hollowed out a little bit.
Enter Frightened Rabbit’s Painting of a Panic Attack. Now, I haven’t even finished listening to this album yet but I can already tell you that there are certain songs on here capable of totally wrecking me at any given moment. I know this because it’s been forever since I’ve felt my eyes getting misty upon first listen of a track, or felt a lump in…
I’m going to cut straight to the chase – Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’ is one of the best songs he’s ever penned throughout his illustrious and weathered career. Not because of musical innovation, but because it contains perhaps the most profound and venomous lyrics he’s ever conjured up. We all know Dylan could write great lyrics in his sleep during his prime, but the heavy subject matter that permeates ‘Masters of War’ is nearly unmatched by anything else he’s put to paper. Musically, it’s one of the most simplistic songs on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, but behind the repetitive strumming of the guitars, Dylan unleashes a poignant performance that honestly examines both war and greed. He doesn’t just examine these harsh themes, however, he calls out the offenders with a sarcastic delivery –you ain’t worth the blood that runs in your veins/even Jesus would never forgive what you do. It only gets better from there, as he belts out more powerful lines – is your money that good, will it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could/I think you will find when you death takes its toll, all the money you made will never buy back your soul. Finally, he viciously damns the lovers of war and money — I hope that you die, and your death will come soon, I follow your casket by the pale afternoon/I’ll watch…
Thirteen years after making a lasting imprint in Saosin’s sound, Anthony Green is returning as the band’s vocalist in all of his former glory on the upcoming Along the Shadow. The second single released from the album, appropriately titled ‘Racing Toward a Red Light’ is a high-octane promise of what to expect from the band’s first LP since 2009. It’s relentlessly heavy (at least by Saosin standards) as Green boisterously belts out his pent-up aggression alongside the chaotic pairing of pummeling drums and guitars. With a breakneck pace and no shortage of adrenaline, the song seems to end as quickly as it begins, but it sure as hell does its job in building up anticipation for Green’s much-awaited return to the band. His work with Circa Survive is remarkable in its own right, but it’s hard to remember the last time he sounded quite this passionate and enraged.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of Apil 8, 2016. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
April Towers – Silent Fever (LAB Records Ltd) The Dandy Warhols – Distortland (The Dandy Warhols) –Raul Stanciu
Ben Watt – Fever Dream (Unmade Road)
Black Peaks – Statues (Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited)
Camp Claude – Swimming Lessons (Believe Recordings)
Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas – Mariner (Cult of Luna)
Deftones – Gore (Reprise Records)
Drose – boy man machine (Orange Milk)
Ed Prosek – Truth EP (Ed Prosek Music)
Filter – Crazy Eyes (Wind-up Records)
The Frances Desire – Persona (Out of Step)
Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack (Atlantic Records UK)
The Glorious Rebellion – Euphoric (Magnetic Eye Records)
Gracepoint – Echoes (Independent)
Heidemann – Detectives (Fabrique Records)
HIGHS – Dazzle Camouflage (Indica Records)
Holy Pinto – Congratulations (Soft Speak Records)
Ihsahn – Arktis (Tanglade Ltd)
Inherit Disease – Ephemeral (Unique Leader Records)
The Lumineers – Cleopatra (Dualtone Music Group) M83 – Junk (M83 Recording Inc) –Rudy K.
Moving Units – Damage With Care (Metropolis Records)
Ommadon – Ommadon (Burning World Recordings)
Palace of Worms – The Ladder (Broken Limbs Recordings)
Parquet Courts – Human Performance (Rough Trade)
Shy Shape – Out at Night (Noisy Poet Records)
Tax The Heat – Fed to the Lions (Nuclear Blast Entertainment)
Viot – Astana (Langage Records) Woods – City Sun Eater…
