There’s something naïve about The M’s, even three albums into the band’s catalog. It’s this unabashed hopefulness that gives the Chicago quartet its warmth, its starry-eyed pleasantry that other 1960s revivalists lack. The mid-60s were a magical time for contemporary rock’n’roll, and Real Close Ones is the closest that these four Midwesterners have come to […]
You’ve got to hand it to Clinic: the band sticks to its principles. First, there is the always-present medical garb. Then there’s the members’ borderline anonymity (a result of the medical garb). Finally – and most importantly – there’s the trademark, increasingly distant take on pseudo psychedelia. Yes, the band made up its mind early, […]
There’s quite a bit at stake on “Neon Bible,” the second LP from Montreal’s Arcade Fire. As the biggest name from a city with a beehive worthy of buzz – courtesy of The Dears, Wolf Parade, Islands, The Stills, Malajube – the album marks the first notable release from a hometown act since the location […]
The Arctic Monkeys can’t catch a break. Well, no, the band can’t catch a break after their records are released. Prior to each LP, the English lads have benefited from unprecedented hype, which is why the backlash has twice been so severe. The quartet’s prophetically titled 2006 release, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What […]
Since the international break of The Hives in 2000, it seems like every band that fuses 1960s mod-rock with 1970s proto punk hails from Sweden. From Fireside to Caesars, to Hellacopters to The (International) Noise Conspiracy, it’s been safe to assume that, unless proven otherwise, any adrenaline-fueled, sweat-laced garage band that is finally getting its […]
Liam Gallagher is finally right about something regarding Blur. The outspoken Oasis frontman has spent years bashing his Brit-pop counterparts, and recently taken to insulting his country’s newest crop of rock by calling the acts … gasp … “a bad version of Blur.” That was the case two years ago when the ever-cheery icon took […]
The title of the Klaxons’ debut LP, “Myths of the Near Future,” might as well refer to the band’s revival of U.K. rave culture. The London-based trio has been credited (blamed?) since its 2005 conception as being the saviors of the long-dormant warehouse dance scene. Often associated with sexual exploration and rampant drug use, the […]
Henry Rollins has always been funny. The problem is, until recently, he’s never tried to be. Whether it was fronting the seminal L.A. punk band Black Flag or fronting the less punk and certainly less seminal Rollins Band, and as a published poet, magazine columnist, radio personality, video game character or occasional movie actor, the […]
When Houston, TX became the hotbed of the Dirty South’s hip-hop underbelly, Paul Wall was waiting to take his tales of oil refineries and hustling to the rest of the country. But on the 27 year old’s fifth official LP in as many years, “Get Money, Stay True,” he still sounds like that down-and-dirty ruffian […]
The most endearing thing about mega-producer Timbaland’s catalogue is that it has never sounded like that of a trendsetting superstar. While his club/hip-hop peers Diddy (who has parlayed his production work into that of an international icon) and The Neptunes (who have spent as much energy in recently becoming sex symbols as they have making […]