Thursday night Rilo Kiley played at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia with Benji Hughes and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. Rilo Kiley is one of my favorite bands and I have been listening to them for years, but this was the first chance I’ve had to see them live. Despite the tickets being a bit pricey, it ended up being one of the greatest concerts I have ever been to. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s always risky to pass judgment on a band solely based on their live performances without ever having listened to their recordings. Especially when you convince yourself after a live set to buy the bands’ CD’s. We’ve all been there: “God this band is good…so tight, so energetic. I’m going to buy their album after the show…” Then you realize that the band that you’ve just spent the last 45 minutes of your life watching loses quite a bit of…of something…in their studio recordings. It’s unfortunate. So unfortunate, in fact, that for the next however many minutes, my desperation will be channeled into writing this blog post. The band in question? The Ruby Sun. The venue? Terrace lawnparties. The CD? Sea Lion.
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As someone penning for this blog has already asserted, the summer concert season is upon us. For this reviewer, it is a highly pregnant season with many, many promising, quality, not-to-be-missed performances. You can pretty much rest assured, if I am interested in these shows, they are not your run-of-the-mill American Idol loser tours (read: I got your diversity right here!). Read the rest of this entry »

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When Velocifero was first pulled into the CD player in my car’s dash, I really didn’t know what to expect.  Ladytron is a band that has stunned me more with each album they release, just picking up speed as they go.  As the motor pulled their most recent effort into the player, I thought to myself how their last release, Witching Hour, is the pinnacle of what Ladytron can do.  I thought to myself that after observing their maturation over various releases, there was no way they could beat that album.  I thought wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

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I dunno if you readers out there are interested in sharing your thoughts, but I’m definitely interested in hearing them. What kind of blog posts do you like the best? Is there anything we could be doing better? If you’d like to help shape the future for this blog, throw in your 2 cents and post a comment here.

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Back in late November, 2006, while I was still digging on “The Information” by Beck, there was one song that caught my ear.

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If artificial intelligence ever reaches self awareness, I’m gonna be freakin’ thrilled. But when Weezer’s lead singer Rivers Cuomo does on the Red Album, I wanted to turn it off just to spite him. A once indie garage band group should know better than to brag about fame. Let this be a warning to you musicians out there currently making your way up in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

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Alternative Rock/Post-Hardcore brings back solid alternative rock, honest musicianship, epic-romantic lyrics, and a quality stage show

June 3, 2008: Sherazada (Bergen County, NJ) was still in its forming stages when I met Stephen Nahorniak, lead singer of Sherazada, at a party at The College of New Jersey in December 2006. Six months later, he sent me an invite to the Sherazada Facebook group. I first saw them perform at the Bogota VFW in September 2007: I blew off tailgating at a TCNJ football game to drive an hour and 45 minutes to see them perform a short set on a small stage. On May 28, 2008, I was listening to “Let it Go” downstairs, my brother heard the song, came down from upstairs and asked, ‘what band is that?’ I said, ‘Sherazada.’ He said, ‘I know the lead guitarist.’ I said, ‘I know the singer.’ My brother and I never agree on anything; but on that Wednesday, we agreed that Sherazada should have played Bamboozle 2008.

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Emos. Goths. A cult. An army. Weird.

Whatever you call them, there is one thing certain of the fans of My Chemical Romance. They are not joiners, but faithful listeners who stick through thick and thin. And looking at recent times, the group is going to need it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Last week I blogged (I suppose one can’t say ‘wrote’ anymore) about some of my jazz faves.  Yawn, right?  Anyway, continuing the theme, this week I’ll blog about some of my –well, what is the opposite of “favorites” anyway?  Whatever it is, these musicians are it.  Some pretty famous names are on this list of those that I just don’t dig.  For one reason or another, these folks are either underperformers, overrated, or artistically stale. You listening, Wynton?  Read the rest of this entry »

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Although I’ve been listening to this EP since it leaked on March 12 (nearly 2 months before its scheduled release date), I somehow haven’t lost interest in its pop-driven goodness and atmospheric “mysterrrry.” Enough online music blogs have creamed themselves over this band and everything they do [pitchforkmedia.com, looking at you, buddy], so I’ll save readers from the digital hand job that this band really deserves. And believe me…they deserve one.

Because really…they’re amazing.

Really. Read the rest of this entry »

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I noticed a fellow blogger tried desperately to categorize emo music in three paragraphs, this is not a good idea. Emo is difficult, its hard to understand. With all the bullshit press and hype around emo bands these days, its hard to really know when anything began or (in most peoples opinion) ended. Sure, you can say that Weezer’s “Pinkerton” is the most defining emo album of the nineties, and once you drink your cherry coke and sit back and agree that Rolling Stone is still relevant, you can bob your head to the new Death Cab for Cutie album on mtv’s “leak” Read the rest of this entry »

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