It's the perfect time for singer-songwriter Howie Day to go mainstream and he's doing so by promoting his "Stop All The World Now" CD with a fun documentary DVD. The 22-year-old from Bangor, Maine, talks about his experiences coming into his own with the music scene.
"War All the Time," the latest effort by power-rockers Thursday, is simply bad all the time. Every one of the CD's 11 songs sounds identical and if any hard rock fan stops paying attention to what's going on in the album following the third track, he or she cannot be blamed. The CD is a cornucopia of crud, culminating with lead vocalist Geoff Rickly's lack of singing skill.
Whether it's one of his greatest hits albums or one of his early records, any CD collection that doesn't have some Al Green in it is incomplete.
Calvin Richardson's sophomore album, "2:35 PM," starts off with a bang and ends with a thud. The 12-song epic - about a crazy little thing called love - starts off with organs blasting and a desperate Richardson begging his girlfriend to stop pushing him around in the appropriately titled "Keep On Pushin'." The drum beat is simple and similar to almost all the CD's tunes, and Richardson has a nice falsetto voice, which will at first seem impressive.
On the cover of Michael Jackson's epic album "Thriller," the king of pop seems to be illuminated by an angelic light. It's quite likely that this seemly innocent heavenly glow is more than just a lighting technique, but a preview of the unearthly grooves of the music that lies within. "Thriller" is undeniably one of the best things to come out of a decade, which also spawned preferably forgettable movements such as tight-rolled jeans, hair bands and Boy George.
Believe it or not, a little violin, organ and trumpet music makes its way onto Alien Ant Farm's latest album, "truANT." Although not entirely awful, the variety in instrumentals isn't enough to save the album from mediocrity.
Listening to Neil Young & Crazy Horse's "Greendale" is a unique experience in that it does something many modern, commercialized CDs cannot - it transports the listeners to the musician's world and makes them develop an affinity for the work. Though long-winded at times, listening to "Greendale" is essentially like watching a good movie: detailed, with complex plots, characters and supporting roles. Most of the tracks fly by, even though six of the songs are longer than 7 minutes, with three coming in at a whopping 10-plus minutes.
Most people are not familiar with the principles surrounding roots-conscious reggae. The most familiar reggae artists - most will think immediately of Bob Marley and his crew - did indeed scribe a mass of potent roots songs, but often strayed into the territory of love and indulgences almost as often as they did the principle beliefs of Rastafarianism and oppression. On his album, "World Peace," roots-reggae artist Culture cuts the slack topics and engineers an album full of potent lyricism, political topics and calls for change. It's high on message, low on slack topics such as love and pleasing to the ear. The problem is with all the power underlying the lyrical content, it all seems too familiar to the seasoned reggae listener and a bit too radical to the casual fan. "World Peace" has a lot to say, but unfortunately, it seems that other artists like Peter Tosh, Buju Banton and Steel Pulse have all done it before - and done a better job with it. A.P.
Those looking for music that evokes a wide-range of raw human emotions don't need to look any further than Los Angeles-based newcomers Eastmountainsouth. On their self-titled debut, the duo harnesses the ability to put country, mountain, Celtic, blues, synthetic and classical music into the blender and hit puree to produce an eclectic and beautiful array of beats, gorgeous harmonies and raw emotional punch. But it's not completely sad.
Once upon a time a band came out of the mid-Atlantic with a sound unlike anything else on the market.
Radiohead has some pretty big shoes to fill - their own. The reclusive and decidedly brilliant band has made a career of putting out excellent albums such as "The Bends" and "Kid A" while simultaneously garnering a massive fan base and multi-platinum record sales with little aid from mainstream outlets such as MTV. But the real question surrounding the long-awaited new release "Hail to the Thief" is whether it lives up to the standard set by the band on its previous releases. To answer this question in its simplest form, "Hail to the Thief" is not as sonically pleasing and thoroughly enjoyable as "Kid A," "OK Computer" or "The Bends." That's not to say it's a bad album by any means.
Whoever said pop music is all bad obviously hasn't heard the Eels. With a keen ear for upbeat music and an obvious appreciation for all things musical, Eels mastermind "E," or Mark Oliver Everett, has made a name for himself in the alternative rock scene by trying a bit of everything while keeping it simple enough for the audience not to get lost. The Eels' latest effort, "Shootenanny!" is the kind of eclectic rock album we haven't seen since Ween's 1994 classic "Chocolate and Cheese." Although "Shootenanny!" does not trump Ween's weirdness, the album's ability to evoke comparisons to Morphine, Tom Petty, the Smashing Pumpkins and Beck, to name a few, allows it to stand on its own as a solid album through and through. The album's opening track sets the collective piece up nicely.
In "Kill the Music Industry," the final track on their recent release, "Year of the Spider," Cold bites the hand that feeds the five-piece band. Sound-clips of gunfire are followed by a wickedly crunching guitar riff as vocalist Scooter Ward repeatedly growls "Sick of all this monotony/kill the (expletive) music industry." And Ward has a good point.
I'm in danger now. Extreme danger. It's not my fault, either. It's my job here at The State News. You might scoff.
For a time in the '60s the Byrds were considered the American counterpart to The Beatles. As founders in the folk-rock movement, alongside the likes of Bob Dylan, it's easy to see why. "The Essential Byrds" sheds light on the band's illustrious career.
Here's an idea: Musically inclined siblings forming an act to produce 20-something poppy beats with rhyming lyrics and infectious whining. OK, so it isn't an original idea, but throw an actress into the mix and the duo known as Boomkat is formed, creating an upbeat mix of hip-hop, electronic sounds and Gap commercials. Kellin and Taryn Manning make up the group and were raised by musically influential parents.
New York quartet Longwave's new album "The Strangest Things" takes its audience on a tour of astral sky-scrapping epic guitar sounds. With warm atmospheric drums, dissonantly murky basslines and spacey floodlight guitars, Longwave has a sound that's graduated from the U2 college of epic rock balledry.
Pioneers of the "keep away," "stay away," "go away," "get away" genre, Godsmack is set to release its latest Alice in Chains imitation, "Faceless." The album will surely be a success in fans' eyes with songs titles such as "Releasing the Demons," and "I Fucking Hate You."Everyone's favorite jigga man, Jay-Z, is laying down fresh beats with "Blueprint 2.1," a continuation from 2001's "The Blueprint," which brought Jay-Z success with Izzo (H.O.V.A.).Ginuwine is riding his pony on in with his new record "The Senior." With song titles such as "In Those Jeans," and the proactively clever "Sex" it looks like this album will not be a departure from Ginuwine's sexily smooth R&B sound.The Black Keys released its major label debut, "thickfreakness," on Fat Possum (a subsidiary of Epitaph records). The two-man-band has a mean, thick-skinned, blues-rock sound it's been unleashing on sensitive unsuspecting Sleater-Kinney fans while touring as openers.Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis and perhaps better known as Michael Jackson's ex-wife, is releasing her debut, "To Whom it May Concern." The album will feature collaboration with Zwan's Billy Corgan.On the punk front, Rise Against is releasing its new album, "Revolutions Per Minute." The group has been featured on the indie/hard-core/punk Atticus compilation.Continued coverage on the punk front shows Flashlight Brown is releasing "My Degeneration." Formerly known simply as Flashlight, this group has hooked up with Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Goo Goo Dolls) for production.New albums are also being released today by Jayhawks, Lucinda Williams, MC Honky, The X-Ecutioners, Yo La Tengo and Boomkat.Joseph Montes
Hip-hop is a door not easily accessible in Ann Arbor and definitely less in Lansing. Artists have fewer options of places they can perform which causes problems building an audience and attracting fans. Members of Ann Arbor's Switch Stance, who have been together since 2001, have been finding a way to break the stereotype and surrounding frustrations while putting together solid beats and rhymes.
The East Lansing band Flatfoot's debut record "Down in the Cellar," shows the band has probably lived