Historically, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Yet musically, historical mimicry can be intentional, or at least done with awareness. Sound trends and genres are cyclical. Bands seven years from now will inevitably be shaped by the music of today, as those musicians will draw from the sounds of their formative […]
Critics of The Fiery Furnaces say the siblings” quirky, indie-pop lacks structure and that it is just selfish indulgence made intentionally challenging and purposefully alienating. Yet supporters swear by the band?s confusing genius and bizarre structures that make the expansive, abstractly thematic catalogue. One thing both sides agree on – the band is prolific, four […]
The Vines’ Craig Nicholls has finally written the material for a great record. Unfortunately, those songs are spread over three LPs. He’d be able to piece together an impressive “Greatest Hits” record by cherry-picking his best cuts. But his tendency has always been to sandwich carefully crafted pop tunes between lazy, unfocused musical temper tantrums. […]
Hard-Fi epitomizes everything wrong with contemporary popular music. In an era when bands wear idols so openly on their sleeves, the quartet could fill a Boy Scout vest full of patchwork influences. Yet English acts pay homage more unapologetically than any other performers. But while the Editors, the Libertines, the Futureheads and the hundreds of […]
If The Sounds set out to make an intelligent pop record with intensely thoughtful arrangements of dynamic melodies, the band succeeded. The Swedish quintet’s follow-up to 2003′s “Living In America” is more sonic. The layers of synthesizers and guitar hooks bleed together with the consciousness that fun records don’t have to be low-brow. The Sounds’ […]
When Editors’ frontman Tom Smith sings, “Blood runs through our veins / That’s where our similarity ends,” he is certainly not talking about Interpol’s Paul Banks. In fact, the vocalists sound so identical, they may have the same blood running through their veins. The two share a bellowing, despondent voice that is so morosely haunting […]
Jim Gaffigan likes food. Over the course of his second comedy release, the Indiana native makes that abundantly clear. Of the 21 tracks, 17 are dedicated to cake, Hot Pockets, pie, cereal or something edible. And fittingly, the audience at Chicago’s Vic Theater ate it up. The problem, however, is the jokes don’t taste as […]
During the late ’90s fallout from the last great Brit-pop era, Richard Ashcroft surfaced as the leader of the oft-mediocre quintet, The Verve. Yet despite the group’s affinity for boring, uninspired melodrama, Ashcroft always managed to be passionate. Or at least he appeared to be passionate. Which, to his credit, must have been difficult given […]
The Arctic Monkeys are three things that propelled the English quartet to sudden super stardom. First, they are young – really young. No member of the band legally could buy a pint here in the States. The band is relatively adolescent, too. After a couple years resulted in only a handful of shows, the group […]
In one of the few unfortunate adaptations in the film version of Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” a character chastises Belle and Sebastian for being too maudlin, too morose. Though the Scottish twee outfit delves into mild tempos and murky arrangements at times, the ensemble always is one short kilt string away from irresistible pop. Which […]