NEW YORK – Jun 23
Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #64 Spring 2009 issue with The Decemberists on the cover (and concluding part twos of our awesome Death Cab for Cutie, Sloan, and Devo interviews) is now on the stands. / “That [‘60s British folk] generation was really into discovering the centuries-old songs that had to deal with really dark and violent themes of romantic and sentimental love. Particularly Anne Briggs, Maddy Pryor, June Tabor—an essay could be written about feminism and the British folk revival, and how a lot of the women artists were arranging songs where rape figured pretty prominently—and I don’t know why that is. I think it was an interesting way of highlighting how different the relations between the sexes were in the 16th century, the 17th century, and how violent the culture that people were living in was.”—COLIN MELOY
BROOKLYN – May 21
33 years and counting, the Damned remain an unstoppable force.
BROOKLYN – Jun 10
SY has a great sound, and even when the lyrics are silly or lackadaisical, Lee and Thurston’s distinctive guitar timbres push all the right buttons. They invented this sound/style, and despite all the bands influenced by it over the past three decades, they’re still the best.
BOSTON – Jun 28
Prog rock lives, with emphasis on the rock…no Roger Dean-inspired fantasies here.
NEW YORK – Jun 28
I begin my series on Middle Eastern black metal with three bands from Iran.
OAKLAND – Jun 10
So Slanted & Enchanted is not exactly “A tragedy of epic proportions!” More of a problem comedy—too realistic to offer the patriarchal cathartic moneyshot. Or, as Kathleen Hanna puts the wait for the Next Big Indie Thing—“It’s almost like this pregnancy where the baby never gets born. I feel like it’s been as if ‘The baby’s coming! The baby’s coming! And it’s five years later. And the woman weights three hundred pounds…and is not having the kid.”
PHILADELPHIA – Jun 26
I wouldn’t wanna go back to the Husker Du mentality, side 2 of Zen Arcade. That’s not really good for anybody’s health.
NEW YORK – May 25
Blacklist’s medium is a message not only of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, but of geo-politics, socio-cultural dynamics, and revolt.
AUSTIN – Jul 3
The New Zealand quartet’s seventh album isn’t as jangly as I remember them being; it’s a moody proposition with songs that require multiple listens to sink in.
PHILADELPHIA – Apr 22
It’s a rush of noise around good-old-fashioned pop melody, and of course wrapped up at once with wishes, dreams, and hopes.
NEW YORK – Apr 14
Last week I saw The Whip at Bowery Ballroom and, as expected, they killed it.
LOS ANGELES – Jan 21
Some say a band is “selling out” if they promote themselves and their tunes via commercials and ads.
