Shawn Donohue, Author at Glide Magazine

The Dead Weather: Music Hall of Williamsburg

Shawn Donohue November 23, 2009 No Comments

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.

Elliott Brood: Mountain Meadows

Shawn Donohue November 17, 2009 No Comments

When you hear the title phrase Mountain Meadows, you may think of pastoral fields growing high in the sky with peaceful ease, not so for this Canadian trio. Elliott Brood has constructed an aggressive electric folk period piece that deliberates on, or at was least inspired by, the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857. Things kick off hot and mean with the best track on the album “Fingers and Tongues”; guitars ring with confidence over a feedback drone and ghost-like backing vocals.

Cymbals Eat Guitars, Holly Miranda, Delorean: Le Poisson Rouge, NYC 10/23/09

Shawn Donohue November 6, 2009 No Comments

It is safe to say that this year’s lineup for the annual CMJ festival was the most underwhelming in years, maybe ever. Usually there are 10-20 established acts, and a handful of showcases packed with up and coming contenders that everyone is clamoring to get into, not so for ’09.

Cymbals Eat Guitars / Holly Miranda / Delorean: Le Poisson Rouge, NY, NY 10.23.09

Shawn Donohue November 2, 2009 No Comments

On the Friday night Cymbals Eat Guitars, Holly Miranda, and Delorean played the Self-Titled Magazine/Pop Mart Media Showcase in the Village at Le Poisson Rogue.

Girls: Album

Shawn Donohue October 27, 2009 No Comments

Girls debut Album is getting some internet hype, and a lot of it focuses on Christopher Owens upbringing and escape from the Children of God cult. While certainly unusual and worthy of telling, if you just take a look at the music, you probably wouldn’t think twice about religion because the focus here is on…well, girls.

The Flaming Lips: Embryonic

Shawn Donohue October 19, 2009 No Comments

This is a huge organic blob of an album. The Flaming Lips have never been shy about their grandiose tendencies (Zaireeka) and this one flashes them all, making it impossible to absorb upon the first few listens. Embryonic is a double disk in a day in age when singles seem to be clocking in at less than 2 minutes, a bit out of place in the time realm, but smack dab on the cutting edge when it comes to the music. Chock full of sound Embryonic bombards the listener with twitches and musical gleeks over distorted drums strings and chimes. It is an audio genetic soup in there, and that’s what the album seems to be getting at.

Built To Spill: There Is No Enemy

Shawn Donohue October 14, 2009 No Comments

Earlier this year Doug Martsch, the creative force behind Built to Spill, said in an interview that “There are plenty of Built to Spill records- no one is in a hurry to hear something new”. With a hugely impressive back catalog he is right and from the sound of his newest album There Is No Enemy, hurrying was one of the last things on the bands mind; they seem to be stuck in neutral and coasting.

Monsters of Folk: Monsters of Folk

Shawn Donohue October 12, 2009 No Comments

"Cross Collaboration,” “Super Group,” call it whatever, Monsters of Folk simply sound good…real good. Conor Oberst, Jim James (Yim Yames), Mike Mogis and M. Ward have all established themselves as artists to reckon with in this new millennium and they gathered back in 2004 to start tossing ideas around. Their self-titled album was released this month; it is an enchanting mix of guitar strums, wonderin’ blues and flat out gorgeous vocals.

Brendan Benson: My Old, Familiar Friend

Shawn Donohue October 9, 2009 No Comments

My Old, Familiar Friend is Brendan Benson's newest solo effort (recorded between Broken Boy Soldiers and Consolers of the Lonely) and it again finds him digging in his familiar rut of broken hearts and failed relationships most of which are apparently his fault; some things don’t change.

Pearl Jam: Backspacer

Shawn Donohue September 25, 2009 No Comments

For Pearl Jam’s last album, the first single (for a band that still cares about Rock and Roll singles) was the cataclysmically-intense “World Wide Suicide” which jarred listeners. This time around the band’s first release off of Backspacer is the pop-rock, easy-swinging “The Fixer” which will cause more hopping and sing-a-longs then soul searching and rages against the machine.

Shawn Donohue

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