Posts by Shawn Donohue

On Horehound, The Dead Weather injected their own warped blues into 70’s style doom rock with oomph.  On the groups second release Sea of Cowards all shackles seem to be have been discarded, allowing the band to experiment with different sounds, styles, and substances. 

Before jaunting across the pond, Dr. Dog brought their rambling road show to Terminal 5 in NYC, making it the largest venue they have yet to headline in this town, and by the packed house of chanting fans, bigger things may be in their near future. 

A deep seeded sense of fearful midlife isolation is engrained in High Violet, the newest album from The National.  That’s not all that’s here though; layers of sound and themes buzz below the surface like insects peaking out of their hive occasionally in twisting dissident guitar lines or even lyrical couplets; both tend to emerge more and more after multiple spins. 

This make-shift muscle rock outfit from Seattle does a lot with very little.  At its core Unnatural Helpers is Dean Whitmore’s baby, but he added a few extra capable rockers to accent Cracked Love & Other Drugs.  Nothing pretentious, just raw rock on display that never lasts longer then two and a half minutes with most songs ending before the two minute mark is even sniffed. 

This is angular, complex rock and roll.  Untied States has put together a jigsaw puzzle of riffs, tempo changes, click’s, synth’s, distortion and words with their third album Instant Everything, Constant Nothing.  Experimental post-punk may be the easiest way to describe it, but the fellas do everything they can to defy labels. 

This aptly named trio works within a sparseness that is commendable.  Lead vocalist Kelli Scarr (great name by the way) emotes on a spiritual (“Haunts Me”)/physical (“I Want You”) split level while Dan Chen and Nate Greenberg support her with textures of sound.   There is room to breath on these tracks; the lyrics take center stage and while some seem a bit too personal (“The Look”) others ring true for everyone (“Come Back to Me”).  Pianos, strings and soft drums are par for the course and when the fluid guitar notes show up they are welcomed with open arms.

The wafting heat flowed into New York City this weekend, very reminiscent of the dirty south; could it have been a coincidence that the gritty funk and hopping brass of New Orleans was in town?  The “Mardi Gras Road Show” rolled into Greenwich Village with two of the most active bands from the Crescent City […]

’ve never been to Norway, but I’m guessing the chaotic torrents of flooding water falling from the heavens this weekend must have seemed harsh even for this group traveling halfway around the world.  On their way to SXSW and warmer skies in Austin, The Megaphonic Thrift played a few tune-up shows under the deluge in NYC, the last of these being Monday night at the Oya Festival put on by Oh My Rockness in Santos Party House. 

Linfinity is happy to be floating along with light jam-band tinged vibes or changing strides with indie precision- in either spectrum the band’s tone is solid.  Specifically engaging was the string usage (violin, acoustic and electric guitars) transforming from mellow to dissident measure to measure if need be.  The announced new song called “Miles” illustrated this with a percussive bump and cymbals crashing build. 

This indie band from Florida seems primed to break into whatever sort of big time there is out there these days (lots of followers on Twitter?!?).  Astro Coast is engaging guitar rock that blends experimentation and main stream hooks excellently while putting a high value on sing-a-longs and riffing out. This is a surprisingly strong rookie offering and the easiest comparison to draw would be Weezer’s Blue Album as JP Pitts has an air of young Rivers Cuomo about him.

fter a ten year hiatus The Blacks release this digital EP entitled In Sickness and Health.  Well slap me silly and call me Suzy, would ya’ looky there…the first acoustic little ditty is aptly titled “Ten Years”.

Double Jointer is a breezy piece of jangly, lo-fi, garage rock from Brooklyn’s Golden Triangle.  A sexually split six-piece (3 Gals, 3 Guys) they come at you with fuzzed-up-high-pitched vocals and driving rhythms that tumble into the ear.  Some efforts (“Cinco De Mayo”, “Death To Fame”) aren’t much more then sketches while others (“Neon Noose”) are closer to polished pop.  Double Jointer plays like a group’s first record but that’s not to say there aren’t good songs and bits of potential lurking in the corners. 

The Free Ice Cream Crew has come out with another underground hip-hop scorcher via Kats’s Levitate.  The Brooklyn based MC boasts all over his “tenth album” and the braggadocios flow abounds, yet he manages to remain rooted in common stories like the tale spun on, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and that title tune, “Levitate”.

You can’t hear the vocals?!?  What fucking show do you think this is?!?!” Lou Barlow sarcastically yelled this to an ill informed fan midway through Dinosaur Jr’s ass-kickingly-loud concert at Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night in New York City…and really what the hell was that fan thinking?  This is Dinosaur Jr; beasts of feedback, lords of the distortion!

Sporting silly fur hats The Duchess and The Duke took the stage at Mercury Lounge in New York City Friday night with only their whiskey soaked voices and a pair of acoustic guitars.  While the large noggin adornments may have been needed in the single digit night air, they certainly weren’t necessary in the full house for the early show which the group headed lined.

Detroit Female Punks unite with the formation of Gorevette.  The group is a linking up of Nikki Corvette and Amy Gore from the Gore Gore Girls, bringing together some powerful pop punk chops crafted into a bouncy sing-along worthy effort titled, The Lustfully Yours EP.

This four piece shoegazing crew from Norway is a rocket blast out of the frozen north.  A Thousand Years of Deconstruction contains all the elements for future success, it has punchy fuzzed out punk (“Acid Blues” and “Son of J”), dramatic guitar interplay with dueling vocals (“Exploding Eyes”) even an acoustic come down gets an airing (“Everytime (oxygen)”).  The gravy for these disco fries is the EP’s centerpiece; an exhilarating drawn out escapade of deep space audio adventure called “Mad Mary”.

The Pixies have been back together now for four years touring and reliving their late 80’s heyday.  They haven’t recorded any new material, instead they choose to focus on their most acclaimed work and tonight they played their best album Doolittle in its entirety. 

Bob Dylan shifts and changes his live performances so much it has become an adventure to dissect his tunes from tour to tour.  A constant tinkerer, his arraignments are fluid and give him space as an artist to express himself with those he chooses to place onstage.  The current outing finds him playing with four familiar players that he has toured with over the last few years and one from his not-too-distant past.  Charlie Sexton returned to the lineup on lead guitar and added a chicken fried layer of playing that has jolted Dylan into some powerful sonic structures this time around the world.

The Dead Weather’s cover of The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band has Jack White and Alison Mosshart exchange these gruesome lyrics with giddy glee, but tonight it was the stretched out “fire” in the jamming of this tune that summed up the whole shebang.  Stretched out with raucous yet tight low end, a mean aura of keys and feedback with Rock and Roll showmanship combined to form pure, raw power.