Posts by Shawn Donohue

It is great to literally hear the walls of genre coffining labels collapse when Akron/Family starts a’rolling.  Their newest release Set’Em Wild, Set’Em Free isn’t as experimentally weird as past efforts, but still brings enough freak with their Nuevo-hippy folk to keep listeners on edge.

Few bands have successfully produced two decades of quality music and lived to liven listener's senses for a third. Even fewer bands staking that claim hail from that musical-bridge between the late 80’s and early 90s. Yet that is exactly what Dinosaur Jr. has re-affirmed with their newest release: Farm.

Coming off the most accessible album of their career, Rather Ripped, the 16th full length recording from Sonic Youth is aptly named, The Eternal. They have returned to odd timing’s clanging guitars and poetic lyrical workouts, however not all the mainstream sheen is worn away.

These Tuscaloosa, Alabama boys made their first stop in NYC a memorable one at Piano’s on the Lower East Side.  Equipped with trucker hats, pompadours, and sideburns that could cut a steak, this 5-piece blasted out the doors and invigorated a small but eager crowd.  They powered through their set with a three guitar attack and rock solid low-end that dripped hellfire an Jack Daniels.   

Overall it is a solid effort for the duo, with top notch production and a few odd vocal choices; but it is far from the ruin implied in its title.    

The newest release from Richard Swift is The Atlantic Ocean; delivering strings, odd poppy stabs of synthesizer and varying whacky lyrics.  The constantly plunking western saloon style piano is omnipresent to a point that teeters on annoyance.

Over the last few months George McConnell has been going back to the glory days of rock and roll releasing “Virtual 45’s” complete with B-Side’s.  Come to think of it, that is pretty close to the glory days of today an I-tunes, but either which way McConnell decided to combine all his individual tunes into this full length titled, appropriately enough, Singles Only

Les Claypool is a rare beast.  After being asked to score music for a videogame (“Mushroom Men”) and a horror film about a mutant pig (“Booneville Stomp”) he decided to keep the weird juices flowing and put out a full length album.  Maybe he should have slowed his roll a bit.  Of Fungi and Foe is a scattered, loose effort that feels like Les is reheating some leftovers. 

Overall One Last Century is an excellent effort and as Dezen grows and continues to express himself lyrically hopefully the music behind him will grow and challenge the listeners as well.  Download today and enjoy.  

Straight out of The Breakfast Club comes The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, quite the band name/album title and one that really is apropos of the music contained within.  The sound of love-longed teens lounging in their Tiger Beat pin-up covered bedroom, crossed with shaggy-haired-skinny-rockers in a garage; turning up the feedback and peppering the skins and keys with the combined angst and pressure of a first kiss.    Layers of acoustic guitars and feedback build on the quick opener “The Contender” before the abrupt end, leading to the swinging catchiness of distant broken lovers in “Come Saturday,” whose ending contains a sped-up Jesus and Mary Chain “Head On”-esque riff.  The hooks, dreamy voices and lovelorn lyrics would flutter away if it was not for the impressive low-end teaming of Alex Naidus on bass and Kurt Feldman on drums giving the group a power-pop-punk vibe in the vein of The Exploding Hearts.  Sure, you’ve heard this all before, and at times it borders on mimicry over tribute, but tunes like “Everything With You” and “Hey Paul” are fantastic and will win you over instantly.            Earnest and melodic; borrowing heavily from Black Tambourine and slightly from My Bloody Valentine, while mixing in a sunshiny-sheen on top of the playing that bursts through.  Where those groups were dense and required multiple listens you GET IT upon the first run through with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.            

This is a no-frills DVD from the no-frills Akron, Ohio duo. We catch them in their live element and thus fans will rejoice and haters will not be swayed.  The Black Keys play a compact set that – encore included – just breaks the hour mark, no guests, and no major surprises, just straight ahead white boy blues/hard rock.  Dan Auerbach shaggily fires off riffs and vocal grunts on fan favorites “Stack Shot Billy” and “10 am Automatic” and drummer Patrick Carney crushes his foot pedal into dust on the thunderously jammed out “Busted”.    The sound is excellent here with Carney’s floor tom vibrating through the screen while the fluid segue between “Set You Free” and “ThickFreakness” screeches.  In the end, no doubt there is fiery playing however, there just doesn’t seem to be much variety and the set ends up feeling like one long song.    Visually the direction and the lights are major players, Lance Bangs who uses more tight shots and close-ups to accentuate Auerbach and Carney than wide stage shots, a few crowd pans are tossed in, as well, to break it up.  The editing was heavy, but not hyper-spastic – a mixed bag overall.  The lighting, on the other hand, is flawless and inventive, cascading over the sold-out house, playing havoc with lenses and creating fantastic visuals, Mike Grant should be commended for his work here.    There are only a few extras, three “official” music videos, some behind-the-scenes-footage, as well, but the live set is why fans are buying it, especially if they caught the Keys on this tour.  It will definitely stay in the collection but this effort would seem to play better as a background disk at a party than a sit-down-to-be-studied concert film.   

This album is a regression for The Secret Machines – and one that is to be expected with the amicable departure of guitarist Ben Curtis, who focuses now on School of Seven Bells. 

When I first heard that Kings of Leon were headlining the worlds most famous arena, I have to confess I did a double take.  Was this not the same band that only a few months ago were playing Webster Hall to an eager-but-miniscule crowd?  Well, the pretty boys pulled it off and rocked out last night while having a sold out fan base in its grips.  Caleb Followill remarked that KoL “have one of the last true fan bases in Rock and Roll.”  While that rather lofty declaration is up for debate, what is indisputable is the crowd’s reaction: pure adulation.    Playing through their entire catalog from Holy Roller Novocain to the arena rock tribute album Only by the Night, KoL ran through their catalog.  Highlights were “Milk”, “Sex on Fire”, “Revelry” and “Black Thumbnail” during the main set and, as a shout out to the island hosting them; they cut into “Manhattan” in the encore.  Removed from the music, one of the more interesting aspects to the Kings’ set had to be the spotlights, highlighting the brothers-Followill on drums, bass and lead vocals/guitar, while their cousin Matthew, on lead guitar, remained in the shadows.  A strange setup that was made even stranger when, post-encore, the three bowed on stage while Matthew left….your humble reviewer is not trying to start drama, but it was a weird sight.    All in all, while they could certainly fill MSG, the room may have been too big for them as the sound seemed to dissipate as the set progressed; “Cold Desert” and “Trani” were a bit weak and didn’t work as closers.  Kings of Leon are a big time rock band that will hopefully feel more at home when they play here next tour.  Setlist: Crawl My Party Molly’s Chambers Closer Revelry Fans Milk Four Kicks Wasted Time Sex on Fire Slow Light So Long The bucket Notion Black Thumbnail On Call Use Somebody Cold Desert Trani Encore: Knocked Up Manhattan Charmer

New York City’s Pistola thrives in the late 90’s post-hardcore realm, don’t tell them it is almost 2009 and all the kids are using Garage Band as a short cut; they don’t want to hear it.  They are content in playing in the same vein as Quicksand, Unsane and Helmet and have consistently done so on their new release The Bleeder.

Simply stated there has never been a release like this in the history of popular music.  17 years in the making, what kind of expectations is one supposed to have for Chinese Democracy?  One thing is certain, the name may be Guns N Roses but this is an Axl Rose solo project with hired “Guns” brought in to round out the “Rose”.

“I’m going back to the country/cause country’s what I am”  Grayson Capps sure as shit is country, he is “eatin’ cornbread and raising hell” an singing about “Big Ole Woman”, but how many other good ole country boys pontificate on Oscar Wilde and Salsamaggiore, Italy?  Grayson Capps has got more then a little poet in him, a whole lot of living to talk about and with the help of the Stumpknockers backing him up he explores his roots and then manages to fly above them on Rott-N-Roll. 

It doesn’t matter that you can’t understand a word that is sung (unless you’re fluid in Japanese) on Shugo Tokumaru’s third solo release Exit, his emotions shine through.

Electric Jazz and Bass fans already know what S.M.V. stands for but for those new to the thick strings it is a super-group combing Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten, for their first release Thunder.  “Super Group” is a term that gets thrown around a bit loosely, but no one can argue with this trio’s credentials. 

his seven song EP from Brooklyn by way of a Connecticut duo is something fierce.  Their sound is rooted in the blues while coming blistering alive in the vein of DIY garage rock, from the gut wrenching “Wayward Son” to the funky-strumming-intro of “51 Weeks and 7 Days,” until they kick down the barn door lighting the place afire with crashing cymbals and broken strings during “These Bones.”

In 1958, Fender moved to court more serious guitar players when they unveiled their Jazzmaster guitar to the world.  Namely the company wanted to appeal to jazz musicians with their new release, hoping to get it into the hands 50s greats like Herb Ellis and Tal Farlow.