Team Blerd decided to jump the gun on this week’s shuffle and do a playlist for the Fourth of July. So here we are! Enjoy the day and celebrate safely!
music
Sean Stockham of Middle Class Rut: The Pop!Blerd Interview!
Middle Class Rut is poised for great things. Their just released sophomore album, Pick Up Your Head, is an astounding sonic tour-de-force that expands greatly beyond the duo’s debut and they’re just about ready to embark upon this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival which also features Alice In Chains, Jane’s Addiction, and Circa Survive. Recently, drummer Sean Stockham spoke to Pop!Blerd about why you should check out Middle Class Rut: For the uninitiated, can you give a brief […]
Jamie Lidell and the Q-Kidz find “Big Love”
In my initial review of Jamie Lidell’s latest record, I mentioned “Big Love” by name as a standout. Highly danceable, funky, unapologetically lifts its main beat from “The Pleasure Principle,” the song is an absolute standout on an already solid record. It’s an obvious choice for a single, but Lidell’s videos are never obvious visual counterparts (though they’re generally entertaining). “Big Love” focuses on neighborhood kids (actually the Q-Kidz dance team) flocking to the local rec center, which eventually turns into a near-disco-experience. […]
Front Line Assembly, ECHOGENETIC: Album Review
I first got into Front Line Assembly in the ’90s when I would pretty much buy anything that was put out by Roadrunner Records. Luckily FLA was signed to the label and I happened upon Millennium, the riff-laden Pantera-sampling industrial masterpiece that was my essential gateway drug into the world of Front Line Assembly. Cut to twenty years later and I’m still voraciously eating up everything they have to offer. With Rhys Fulber. Without Rhys Fulber. With guitars. Without guitars. […]
Deep Purple, Now What?!: Album Review
Let’s start with a bit of an opinionated, music snob mini-rant: Deep Purple is one of the most important and too-oft overlooked bands in rock history. If one looks at their obvious and strong influence on hundreds of bands and the multitude of musicians who flat-out credit Deep Purple with inspiring them to do what they do, it’s shocking how frequently their music is completely absent from the collection of many rock fans. Quite often, the average […]
The Halftime Report: Cunningham’s Best of 2013 (so far)
The first half of 2013 was dominated by a string of solid releases in the garage punk and disco-house genres, and it also featured cameos from some indie-pop gems and the occasional decent R&B album. But January-through-June was owned by a very recent hip-hop release that any true head would have trouble not listening to on repeat. 1. Quasimoto-Yessir Whatever Technically a compilation of unreleased tracks from the last 14 years, Yessir Whatever hits harder than its predecessor, 2005’s The […]
Richard Patrick & Jonny Radtke: The Pop!Blerd Interview!
Yes, it’s another feature on Filter! Why? Because we love ’em and their latest, The Sun Comes Out Tonight, is easily a contender for hard rock album of the year. The band is currently on tour as part of Art Alexakis’ Summerland tour and have just launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund their upcoming world tour. At their recent stop in Boston, frontman Richard Patrick and guitarist Jonny Radtke took some time to chat about all of that and explain […]
Metal Monday Volume 129 (7.1.13)
Shoot has been a long time coming and while I’d rather have a full length in my hands right now instead of an EP, I’ll take whatever I can get when it comes to new material from American Head Charge. Over eight years since The Feeding and six since Can’t Stop The Machine, if Shoot proves anything it’s that absence makes the heart grow fonder and that like a fine wine some things only get better with age. Is this […]
Bill Mayo of BLACK TAXI: The Pop!Blerd Interview
BLACK TAXI is a band poised for great things. Their 2012 sophomore effort, We Don’t Know Any Better, was groundbreaking and after relentless touring they’ve proven to be one of the best, most energetic live acts around. Finally the rest of the world seems to be paying attention with the their most recent video for “House On Fire” being featured on MTV’s “Buzzworthy” blog. In the midst of some more touring with a stop at Cambridge’s Tommy Doyle’s on July 5th, guitarist […]
The Popblerd! Halftime Show: Cassandra’s Best of 2013 So Far
Coming up with this list was actually somewhat easy, since the majority of my top albums I knew were “the ones” when I first listened to them. I’m going to spare the long blurbs, and try to just do some key points, but we all know how that will probably turn out. For fun, I added some notables, some EPs, some local bands (gotta rep my Local 92.9 [shameless plug]), and some looking forward to-s. Enjoy! Biffy Clyro – Opposites […]
Nine Inch Nails, “Came Back Haunted”: The Viewfinder Review
Listen…I’m going to be excited for the new NIN album and tour simply because it’s Trent and I think he’s a visionary. This video comes from a highly touted director in David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Lost Highway). It’s, admittedly by the warning that precedes it, an epileptic’s worst nightmare. What to expect? A picture of girl, transposed beneath a spider rotating back and forth, a head’s on view of a shark with human teeth, a creepy play-dough face, and Trent’s […]
The Carlton Shuffle, 6/29/13
Welcome back to our weekly Carlton Shuffle! Once again we asked the PopBlerd! crew what they were listening to this week. There wasn’t a big response (everybody looking forward to next week’s long holiday weekend?) so we threw in what we received with the Michael Jackson songs we wrote about on Tuesday’s fourth anniversary of the King of Pop’s death, along with two of the theme songs (that were actually songs) from our top 10 sitcoms and wa-lah! We have this week’s Carlton Shuffle. Enjoy!