Posts by Shawn Donohue

Here are five tips to abide by when planning your summer road trip to catch live music under the stars or in a smoky club. And as you know rules are meant to be broken so we will call them guidelines for your next rock and roll road trip.

The original oddballs of Sub-Pop return with Under A Billion Suns, a clanging mix of guitar noise, 50’s pop, and paranoid dirty vocals with the occasional trombone backing.

The band has closed down the dorms at Epic and moved cross town to fresher digs at J records with the release of their new self-titled effort that has been receiving the full court promotional press, and with good reason, Pearl Jam shows a band blooming in full rage.

For the record release party of their acclaimed new album Ten Silver Drops the Secret Machines took on the best-kept venue in New York, The Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel. Unlike other shows held in the gorgeous room filled by gorgeous people, this one would not be on a stage slotted back against the wall. This evening would be an “in-the-round” performance, in the tradition of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

In the midst of their current U.S. tour the California 4-piece, Mellowdrone, took the stage Tuesday night at the Knitting Factory. The one-stop singer, songwriter and front man Jonathan Bates was joined on guitar by Tony DeMatteo, keyboardist/bassist Cami Gutierrez, and uniquely rhythmic drummer Brian Borg.

Unlike the Original Funkateers (who were from another planet entirely) The Coup’s ideas are grander then the actual sound on this disk, but they vary up their hip-hop style enough to keep listeners who are not trapped in the club engaged and thinking about searching out a bigger weapon for when the revolution comes.

When the band was in gear and smoking, like during their set closing cover of Sabbath’s “War Pigs” they bring more to the table then just silliness, they bring power playing, spot on pitch perfect singing and perhaps most importantly they demonstrate what a successful live show can become.

With “Goodnight and Go,” you get a bubblegum teen romp with silly lyrics and a chorus that sounds so immature, it might make Britney puke when she hears it.

I never once thought that the kings of Irish punk/folk would regroup and play America, let alone in a place and time when I could see them. The last time I caught the whiskey bottle of a singer known as Shane MacGowan live, he was a bloody mess from falling down and being dragged off stage only 3 songs into his set with the Popes.

With most of the songs played during the set slated for a new full length in the works, black rimmed glasses wearing girls and Chuck Taylor sporting boys all across the country will be able to decipher the words and sing-a-long to Dirty on Purpose in the near future.