Published: September 27th, 2006
What could I possibly write about the band Dr. Dog that hasn't already been written by a million or so bloggers on the internet?...Damn thats a good question; honestly, I'm not exactly sure how to answer it.
Well, let's start here. Dr. Dog is our best hope. I'm not going to stir your emotions with Beatles comparisons, although I've heard them a million times before (both negative and positive) in regards to this band. However, I will say that it's ridiculous for anyone to ever negatively compare a band to the Beatles...
Dr. Dog is the best band of my generation thus far. Best, because unlike the Strokes, or the White Stripes, or maybe even the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, there isn't anything ...
Published: September 25th, 2006
It's pretty crazy how you can feel it in the air. Or maybe it's just me... That feeling of being pulled out of a summertime vortex and into the decay of autumn harvest.
It's there, as I ride my bike around South Philly, in the wind that hits me. It's present as I watch another dramatic opera starting the Red Sox and the Yankees. Everything starts to quiet down. Nature braces itself for another long winter. And you know....football is coming too.
To make things even deeper, there's this ill tension in the water, the way of the world making things a bit more uptight. Politics suck. Nothing makes sense and everything seems so crucial...
But then out of know where, I find ...
Published: September 4th, 2006
What would Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke want for Hip-Hop were they still alive? I can't pretend to answer that question, however my intuition is that each would say something to the tune of "keep it soulful".
With that in mind it's safe to say many an old school crooner have been spinning in their grave over the past few decades as much of the heart and sweat has been sucked from mainstream R&B music and has been replaced with narcissism and shallow lyrics.
For the most part, the best place in the last 10 years to find really dirty, grizzly soul music has been in the camp of underground hip-hop. From the Rawkus heads in the late nineties, and into the ...
Published: August 13th, 2006
I can still recall the night in my mind very clearly. It was a Saturday, sometime during the fall of 1994.I went with some friends to a gym not too far from where I grew up located inside the church of St. Tolentine. It's located in the Fordam section of The Bronx. Tolentine was a place we would all go play basketball when leagues started up for the cold months. But on this night the basketball court was not packed with dudes in long shorts chasing a ball. Instead, on this very special evening the floor was packed with kids from all over the five burroughs.
From Harlem to Inwood (where i grew up), and the NE Bronx, it seemed like ...
Published: August 12th, 2006
It's easy to get down on the Hippies. When you look around at the world these days, it sometimes feels as though the Peace Movement was a complete failure. Wars are still raging, violence has increased, marijuana is still illegal, and sex ain't what it used to be.
Summers aren't even as good anymore. It seems hard to imagine that the air will ever smell as new, or that days can ever be as plain, simple, and innocent as before.
So maybe the Hippies failed. Maybe the whole thing crumbled and half of them became corporate scum bags in the '80's. So what! At least they tried. And give credit where credit is due...they really showed the world how to live.
I had ...
Published: July 13th, 2006
Lately I've been amazed by John Lennon. The beautiful, romantic, tradgedy that is his life; and more so, the way it seemed to so greatly reflect the humanity around him.
We are a society constantly searching for a hero. But something in our nature often makes us screw things up. From Jesus Christ to Kurt Cobain, humans have exhaulted the all mighty of their times, but eventually stoned them to pieces. And when it's all over everyone says "damn..how could I let that happen?"
But sometimes we just ignore the obscenely gifted altogether. It's like the opposite of Beatle-mania, someone who should be a hero is never even registered by the masses. And as a result, is stoned by annonimity.
Karen Dalton should ...
Published: June 29th, 2006
Cordalene is a heroin overdose shy of their own Behind the Music special. Their story is not uncommon; music industry drama, line up changes, etc. Whatever...
What makes Cordalene special is not that they have faced difficulties, but rather that they are still here. It's what the good artists do. They stick around, they adapt, they become more resilient and mature in the face of adversity.
With the release of their first full-length LP, Cordalene has emerged as one of the bedrocks in the Philadelphia indie scene. A guilding member of a music community that is threatening to tear through the ceiling.
The Star Ledger, released on Dalloway Records, is ambitious in it's attempt to blend charming pop ballads, with garage rock sensability ...
Published: May 11th, 2006
Oh my brothers and sisters, I feel your pain. The world is an odd place. I'm no different than any of you.
Life is rare and precious. We should probably utilize the time on earth that we're given to do important things like spend time with loved ones, enjoy relaxing drinks on a beach, or you know...sleep all day (ahhh).
But instead we humans grind. We trap the young of our species in square sized cubicles and don't let them out till they turn 65.
I, sad to say, am one of those youngsters. Gone are the country roaming, easy spirited times of my early twenties. I'm in the mid-twenties now battling away at a career so I can earn enough money to ...
Published: May 2nd, 2006
Towards the end of the 1980s, hip-hop went through some major transgressions. As the sun began to set on the Afrocentric vibe popularized by groups like Public Enemy and Poor Righteous Teachers, and the "new jack swing" era of Teddy Riley and Father MC began to fade out, two distinct branches of rap music began to emerge.
One branch, often labeled "gangster rap," exploded onto the mainstream radar and could not be ignored by MTV or the general public. On the west coast, NWA were the poster boys for this new sub-genre, making both Compton and jherri curls household names in middle America. On the east coast, innovators like Gangstarr and Eric B & Rakim inspired a gritty, descriptive form of ...
Published: April 24th, 2006
Right now, as you read this sentence, thousands of young people are in their rooms making music. Some of that music will be good. Some of it won't. But those genius minds out there that are making something amazing will today be able to do something that would have been nearly impossible only a decade ago. They can throw that song they made a few hours ago on the internet and instantly have an audience of thousands ready to listen.
When I first looked in on Ontario, Canada's Peter Van Haaften a few months ago, he was a relative unknown, with a few hundred fans, and two simple, but brilliant, tracks on his Myspace page. These days, that ...
Published: April 21st, 2006
Spring is here, and my flavor of the season is women! Well, I suppose women are the flavor of every season, so I'll be more specific. Quite simply, Women singers are the shot right now.
Just think for a moment about a few of your favorite bands Take about five of them aside. I guarantee you, at least three of those bands have the silky voice of a female purring over the chords. And if you don't have three, then maybe you're listening to the wrong bands! (a ha!)
Now with that in mind, let's focus our attention on our local heroes, Surefire Broadcast.
When I need someone is a great track to get you started on spring. It's got everything you ...
Published: April 13th, 2006
Okay, so you went to the 700 Club, you danced up a sweat to some Franz Ferdinand songs, you finished your last beer, and now you're ready to head home. You get lucky and meet some hot girls with tattoos visiting from Ohio and you're all geeked cause they want to come back to your apartment to smoke a hookah and chill out.
You get back home. Four beautiful women surround you and you're shirtless. Only one problem now. What music do you play?
If you play something too hard, the girls will be scared off. Play something too slow, and they'll fall asleep. Play something too emo and they'll call you a wuss and leave.
Don't worry dude - I ...
Published: April 7th, 2006
The other day I got one of those Myspace bulletins that asked me to name the 5 albums which most impacted my life. It only took me a few seconds to come up with the answers. They were obvious to me because each one of those albums were the soundtrack to one of my most important stages.
Around this time last year, I was dead broke, working miserable jobs, and screwing up my relationship. Life after college was kicking my ass, and the "real world" was breaking my idealistic heart.
This year things are different. Im still broke, but I have a better job, and with my growing acceptance of maturity and responsibility, all in all, things seem to be opening up. ...
Published: March 22nd, 2006
Clean and crisp, Walker Lundee are perhaps the most poetic indie rock band in the current -soon to explode- Philadelphia rock scene. I first latched on to this band a few months back, when listening to their song "Cowboys to Girls," a cover of the classic tune by The Intruders, which is featured on the Plain Parade compilation CD. If you haven't heard this song yet (or the compilation) go check it out. I know what you may be thinking... some indie kids covered The Intruders? Yes, they did. And it may be the hottest cover I've heard this year.
The band is comprised of brothers Robert and Ryan West on guitar and drums, respectively, and Beto Alvarez on bass. Live, ...
Published: March 11th, 2006
Is glitz pop over yet? My ride isn't pimped, and my "crib" is very small. The Black Eyed Peas scare me. Gwen Stefani is lost somewhere in the Neptunes. American Idols win all the Grammys. I already told you in the last post how I feel about pop-punk.
I like my pop simple. I like bands who don't look like they spend all day in front of the mirror. Sometimes I just want a song. A nice pleasant song to swish around in my head that helps me get through the day. This is why I like The Eames Era. They make it look effortless, and sound that way too, but the music this band is making could be revolutionary. ...
Published: February 21st, 2006
When I lived out West a few years ago, I had a roommate who used to play these myteriously familiar sounding songs on his computer all the time. One day I got around to asking him about who the band was. My roommate, Johnny, was from the Portland music scene and met a few of the guys in the band when he was growing up. There was something so energetic and so catchy about the music, you couldn't help but put these songs into immediate rotation and get them stuck in your head all day. It was infectious pop-punk at its finest... pure exuberance.
The songs "Throwaway Style" and "Sleepingaides and Razorblades" became the soundtrack to my spring. I asked ...
Published: February 3rd, 2006
I stumbled upon Land of Ill Earthquakes a few weeks ago on a cold, damp Wednesday afternoon. Out "sick" from work, I had nothing to do but surf the internet in my boxers with a bowl of cereal, while the bleak weather outside made it feel like a pretty sinister winter-on-the-east-coast kind of day.
I'm sure my mood had something to do with the fact that for a whole week I had been on this crazy Wu-Tang jones where all I listened to was Raekwon and GZA... but then, out of nowhere, I found myself (as sometimes happens while mindlessly surfing MySpace) on the page of Land of Ill Earthquakes. Instantly, I wished it was June instead of January because all ...
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