Album cover for Folie a Deux by Fall Out Boy
Ever since the immense success of their second full length album, From Under The Cork Tree, which went double platinum, the guys from Fall Out Boy and in particular lyricist and bassist Pete Wentz have served as icons of this decade’s rejuvenation of the pop genre. Your mothers-in-law’s dream boys as fronted by Backstreet Boys and Boyzone are but fainted memories, replaced by screaming emo-kids with a depressing outlook on life, and Fall Out Boy are the indisputable forerunners of the genre.
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Posted: Dec 11, 2008 / Category: Album Reviews / Written by: Lars-Christian
Album cover for Sixpence None the Richer's My Dear Machine EP.
After 2004’s breakup, fans doubted a quick return for Sixpence None the Richer. Sixpence, an alternative pop group featuring members Leigh Nash and Matt Slocum, abruptly left fans with only four studio albums and a greatest hits compilation. Lead singer, Leigh Nash, took on a solo project, while Matt Slocum fashioned a new band called The Astronaut Pushers. Each sub-project released a record, but only found moderate success compared to that of their previous collaboration, Sixpence. This could be one of the reasons they decided to regroup; the success of the partnership, the magic of the teamwork. Whatever the reasons, Sixpence officially returned to the scene this year under an independent guise, producing a new release called the My Dear Machine EP.
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Posted: Dec 06, 2008 / Category: Album Reviews / Written by: Matt S.
So, it’s finally December, which means I am now actually open to the idea of listening to Christmas music (unlike some people who like to start November 1st).
Through the years, I’ve collected various abstract Christmas and other holiday songs from different artists, and I thought I’d share some of my favorites. I’ll start with EPs and albums.
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Posted: Dec 05, 2008 / Category: Feature Articles / Written by: Matt S.
The album cover for the upcoming, self-titled release by Fiction Family.
After at least a year of speculation, Fiction Family’s first single from their full-length debut is available for free on their website. Two super-writers, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, originally created a duo called The Real SeanJon back in 2006, humorously hoping to be sued by the rapper P. Diddy over use of the nickname. Eventually, the two wised up and renamed themselves Fiction Family and recorded an album of new material. The album is to be released on the twentieth of this coming January.
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Posted: Dec 05, 2008 / Category: Fresh Waves / Written by: Matt S.
Molly Marlette will have you talking and listening at the same time!
A few months back I got a friend request over at VIRB (a cleaner, less cluttered MySpace-esque social network) from a random girl with a couple of songs on her profile. Usually I don’t give friend requests from artists I’ve never heard much thought or attention, but for some reason, which could probably be only be interpreted as divine intervention or something of the sort, I decided to give this girl’s music a chance, and I fell in love with it.
She had no record deal, and was just a girl who wrote songs and performed them at local clubs, and it was the desire to share the music made by this girl that gave birth to the idea of Silent Sound Waves.
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Posted: Dec 04, 2008 / Category: Fresh Waves / Written by: Lars-Christian
Day & Age album cover.
If you know The Killers, you know that they’ve always been inventive, energetic, and focused. Hot Fuss introduced us to the dramatic, new-wave side of the band; and then Sam’s Town threw the whole thing in reverse with surprisingly raw rock and admirable depth in lyric.
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Posted: Nov 29, 2008 / Category: Album Reviews / Written by: Matt S.
Album cover for The Eventually Home by Right Away, Great Captain!
Concept albums are tricky. Trying to create a musical concept story about a 16th century sailor spanning three records relying almost solely on a guitar and your voice is surely bordering on crazy. But with the recent release of The Eventually Home it looks like Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra just might pull through with the plans he made for his solo-venture, Right Away, Great Captain!
The Eventually Home is the second record of the planned trilogy, and it picks up where the first, The Bitter End, left off with Captain I’m Fine and Thank You for Everything, in which our sailor’s captain left (died), and the sailor himself took over the captaincy of the ship.
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Posted: Nov 28, 2008 / Category: Album Reviews / Written by: Lars-Christian
One of my old favourites, Swedish garage band rockers have teamed up with spokeswoman for girls of the eighties to create what’s in familiar Hives-modesty described as the best holiday song on this side of White Christmas. The track is appropriately titled The Hives & Cyndi Lauper in a Christmas Duel, and can be downloaded for free this weeked from The Hives’ website.
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Posted: Nov 28, 2008 / Category: News / Written by: Lars-Christian
Album Cover for the upcoming Working On A Dream
You can now download the titletrack from Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming album, Working On A Dream, for free at iTunes or here (where you can also sign up for his mailing list, which fans of the Boss should do of course). The offer is only good for two days, so better download it as soon as you can.
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Posted: Nov 24, 2008 / Category: News / Written by: Lars-Christian
Remember that interview we did with Socratic a while back? It was so much fun, and turned out so well that I decided to go hunting for some additional bands that would interested in answering a few questions for us. I think it’s safe to say that we got more than we bargained for, because I just got confirmation from The Gaslight Anthem that they would be happy to answer whatever questions we throw at them in an interview.
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Posted: Nov 21, 2008 / Category: News / Written by: Lars-Christian
