Shane Handler, Author at Glide Magazine

Spoon: Transference

Shane Handler January 29, 2010 No Comments

Transference remains a grower with its brooding underbelly, but once you get it, you’re thankful for the not-so obvious pop nods. The one catchy exception is “Written In Reverse,” where the ker-plunky piano and crashing drums make for another silent classic. With Transference Spoon is further cementing their status as cult survivor rather than a pop/blog flash in the pan, thanks to their intense consistency and only selling out to their fan-base, not the mainstream.

Vandaveer : DC-by-way-of-Kentucky tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger

Shane Handler January 20, 2010 No Comments

Vandaveer is the alt-folk song-singing/record making/globetrotting project penned and put forth by DC-by-way-of-Kentucky tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger. Vandaveer’s debut album, Grace & Speed, a mostly live, stripped down affair, swiftly entered this great big dusty world in the spring of 2007. Touring continually on both sides of the Atlantic ever since, Vandaveer has played 250+ shows, sharing stages with a host of artists including Bon Iver, Vetiver, Alela Diane, Alejandro Escovedo, Vashti Bunyan, Bill Callahan and Fleet Foxes. Vandaveer’s sophomore effort, Divide & Conquer, touches upon similar themes found in its elder sibling, winding timeworn themes of love & death, malice & goodwill, sin & perseverance into (mostly) four-minute vignettes.

Jeff Tweedy: Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, AZ 12/27/09

Shane Handler January 4, 2010 No Comments

es, it was Christmas with the Tweedys as the now beloved Wilco front-man travelled to the Grand Canyon with his wife Susie, sons Sam and Spencer to spend the holidays with Tweedy’s sister. So for us lucky Arizona residents Tweedy decided to book a single gig at Phoenix’s Orpheum Theatre, for a reason he explained as “a way to pay for his family's visit to his sister's house for the holidays.” Whether or not that is true, it doesn’t matter – it is sure as hell beats The Nutcracker.

Steez

Shane Handler December 15, 2009 No Comments

As we all know, it’s damn near impossible to blow up on the jamband scene, so don’t let Steez fool you. After releasing their first feature length debut this past August, Creepfunk Crusade, the funky Madison kids did crack their first issue of Relix; get named New Groove of the Month on Jambands, receive a nod as one of the ten most influential Madison bands of the decade; and are currently in the running studio album of the year on the Homegrown Music Network, but that all comes after six years of pounding the pavement

It Might Get Loud: by David Guggenheim

Shane Handler November 25, 2009 No Comments

It Might Get Loud is as revealing as a guitar documentary gets, even with the warts and all finale of the three playing a rough version of The Band’s “The Weight.” But that’s what makes the film worthy, it shows three rock stars at their most vulnerable and human – proving once again, the guitar rules over everything else.

Crash Kings

Shane Handler November 19, 2009 No Comments

LA based trio, Crash Kings, are putting their own unique spin on the three-man-band concept. Fusing keyboard-born compositions with agressive layers of rock, their crafty tunes are accomplished without the hint of a guitar. Incorporating a clavinet (a keyboard with guitar strings) outfitted through a distortion pedal, the result is an arsenal of innovative and rich sound.

Phish: Festival 8 – Empire Polo Grounds, Indio, CA 10/30-11/1/09

Shane Handler November 11, 2009 No Comments

As Phish’s powerful rendition of The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street defined their Halloween desert escapade, Festival 8, it was a line from the immortal songwriting team of Jagger/Richards that best summed up the drama of Phish festivals 1-7: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Yo La Tengo: Marquee Theater, Tempe, AZ 10/14/09

Shane Handler October 26, 2009 No Comments

There are two things you can be sure about at a Yo La Tengo show: bored security and an odd mix of cutesy indie pop lying next to long instrumental noise jams. Ira Kaplan along with his wife Georgia Hubley and James McNew, elder statesmen of the modern indie scene, brought their “New York kitsch” to the Arizona desert for a performance at the drab Marquee Theater. Opening with the swirling rock number “Here to Fall,” the band tore into the guitar squaw workout of “And The Glitter is Gone” – two tracks off their latest album Popular Songs.

Bon Iver: Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ 9/29/09

Shane Handler October 9, 2009 No Comments

When you hear Justin Vernon talk in between songs with a deep vibrato, you wonder if this is the same guy with the ghostly falsetto responsible for that album of songs penned around a frigid Wisconsin winter. But then when he starts to sing, you nod in clear realization.

Muse: The Resistance

Shane Handler October 5, 2009 No Comments

There’s no doubt from his growing resume, that Matt Bellamy desires Muse to become the biggest band in the world. Well until they drop their appetite for over-production and over-achieving (which in the end hurts them), Bellamy and Muse might still be clinging to two thirds up the musical food chain.

Shane Handler

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