Seeing PiL in 2010, featuring Lydon, longtime members Lu Edmonds and Bruce Smith (who both date back to 1987’s Happy?) and relative newcomer, bassist/keyboardist Scott Firth, and touring the US for the first time in over a decade, offered no such surprises. As always Lydon has surrounded himself with a top-notch band and, though he’s clearly older,
Hey – what’s that smell? Did someone just open up a time capsule? Oh, I see: it’s a copy of First Gasp! Ha! What we have here is the debut release from the Brooklyn, NY-based Sloppy Heads, a 4-song EP that conjures up visions of what it must’ve been like to hear the Patti Smith Group or The Velvet Underground for the first time.
When The Black Keys released their last effort, Attack & Release, it was hyped as the duo’s breaking out of their blues rock box, but as the prophet Chuck D has proclaimed for decades, “Don’t believe the Hype!” Brothers, is Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s coming out party and it is a blinding success.
And here you were thinking the glory days of Arena Rock were long gone. The mullets have become a bit grayer and the lighters have turned into cell phone screens swaying high in the air, but the music has survived intact; for the most part. In fact, after listening to Styx slam-bang out a set of songs from their very successful past, it has actually gotten stronger.
Deer Tick staged an impressive opening for the headliner Dr. Dog who seamlessly kept up the momentum by firing up the crowd in a way this band is becoming legendary for doing!
Normally cover albums draw a lot of skepticism as they tend to be just excuses to pump an album out, which is usually comprised of shoddy renditions of popular artists's song. And the same could be said about Keller Williams and the Keels' new release, aptly titled Thief, if it were not for the oddly redeeming but sparkling choices presented in this collection.
It’s ironic that both The New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene released their new albums on the same day: two Canadian collectives with both old and young members now fighting the unavoidable “super-group” tag. However Together, the fifth album from The New Pornographers, sticks to their now well versed formula: AC Newman and his compadres playing the sunny and dark along with very special guests Neko Case and Destroyer's Dan Bejar. Together melds the pop flawlessness of 2005’s Twin Cinema with the eccentric flair of 2007’s Challengers into one cool carton of high-powered indie rock (if we can still consider Matador indie).
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.
Though the Buzzcocks have released more recent material, two albums in the last decade even, this tour was for their first two releases from way back in 1978 which were re-issued by Mute Records earlier this year and played in their entirety. That certainly sets up the potential for a show that’s more about the past than the present, but the band’s performance said otherwise.
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.
