In Jesseworld, no band compares with Will Haven . They’re this weird mix of hardcore and sludge with this air of evil floating above that sounds like nobody else. If you’ve never heard them then you’re missing out. When they disbanded shortly after the release of 2001’s Carpe Diem, I was heartbroken. They announced a return in 2005 which was promising until vocalist Grady Avenell dropped out of the mix resulting in their fourth album, The Hierophant, being recorded with a different […]
Album Reviews
Spin Cycle: Jack’s Mannequin’s “People and Things”
Fans hooked by the first Jack’s Mannequin record, 2005’s Everything In Transit, can collectively rejoice: after a shift from effervescent, sun-kissed piano-pop to artful, introspective songwriting on the group’s second album, The Glass Passenger, Jack’s are back with a new record and a new outlook. Of course, Jack’s Mannequin figurehead and Something Corporate ex-pat Andrew McMahon was well within his rights to craft a weighty, introspective album: The Glass Passenger chronicled his much-publicized battle with leukemia, which allows any singer-songwriter at […]
Spin Cycle: Stephanie Mills’ “Feel The Fire: The 20th Century Collection”
Generally, I leave the reissue-oriented stuff to my brother Mike Duquette and his site The Second Disc , but occasionally, there is a compilation or reissue that catches my eye enough to want to write something about it. I’ve got to say, Hip-O Select has been killing it with the reissues of late. Pulling from the archives of Universal Music, the company that distributes (or has distributed) MCA, Geffen, Def Jam, A&M and Motown (among other influential labels), they certainly have plenty of source material […]
Spin Cycle: The Knux’s “Eraser”
The merger of rap and rock is a notoriously dubious proposition: sure, sometimes you get surefire party-rockers like Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s legendary “Walk This Way” team up, Anthrax and Public Enemy’s raucous “Bring the Noise”, or the entire righteous-anger-fueled career of Rage Against the Machine. But more often than not you get Crazy Town. You get Quarashi. You get Limp Bizkit. You get Lil’ Wayne’s Rebirth album, the sound of leaping headfirst into a blender and turning it on. Enter The […]
Spin Cycle: Twin Sister’s “In Heaven”
Long Island’s Twin Sister is one of those bands that without the Internet, I may not have stumbled across. I believe it was a post over at Gorilla vs. Bear that originally introduced me to music from the band’s then-forthcoming EP, Color Your Life. I was immediately hooked by their ethereal, dreamlike pop, and happily rushed to purchase the EP (even though it had been available for free on bandcamp.com ). Color Your Life quickly became one of my top picks for 2010, in […]
Spin Cycle: Phonte’s “Charity Starts At Home” // 9th Wonder’s “The Wonder Years”
In the reasonably notable absence of the classic line-up of North Carolina hip-hop trio Little Brother, we’ve been fortunate enough to hear from the individual parts; frontman Phonte made waves as one half of the critically-acclaimed Foreign Exchange, and producer 9th Wonder’s been nothing short of prolific behind the boards. And, of course, there’s Big Pooh, who’s been… well, Pooh’s been doing something, probably. There were even a couple of 9th-less Little Brother albums that totally don’t count because they’re […]
Spin Cycle: Kasabian’s “Velociraptor!”
The first half had me worried. A little too much ’60’s psychedelia and nostalgia for my tastes perhaps? With the exception of stellar single “Days Are Forgotten”, the first half of Kasabian’s fourth album, Velociraptor!, falls short of the high expectations I set for this band. Velociraptor! doesn’t come alive for me until act two. From the moment the title track hits halfway through the disc, I’m sold. Tom Meighan spits lyrics in rapid fire succession until the wide open […]
Spin Cycle: Wilco’s “The Whole Love”
It’s interesting, really, that Wilco’s latest album begins with the dissonant, twitchy, seven-and-a-half minute “The Art of Almost”. Not that it’s weird for Wilco to record long, strange songs that culminate in discordant, cacophonous jam sessions – “‘Spiders (Kidsmoke)’!,” everyone who’s ever heard the alt-country pioneers’ A Ghost Is Born record just yelped in unison – but because, once you get past the opening track’s mind-melting uniqueness, The Whole Love is really quite accessible. Lots of people have followed Wilco’s career trajectory, after […]