2011 in music | Page 5

Suck It And See For Yourself!

by Jesse on Jun 7, 2011 • No Comments

Further proof behind my theory that everything Josh Homme touches turns to gold, Suck It And See, the latest by the Arctic Monkeys is a rollicking tour-de-force that’s equally planted in the world of QOTSA as it is surf-rock. While Mr. Homme only adds his vocal talent and not his production skills on Suck It…, his presence is felt throughout. Listen to “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” through “All My Own Stunts” (With it’s tinny opening riff that goes […]

Metal Monday Volume 21 (6.6.11)

by Jesse on Jun 6, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / Metal Monday / music / New Releases

“ Gossamer ” off of Tombs last record, Winter Hours, is one of my most favorite metal tracks ever. It’s this lumbering behemoth that lurches along and just when you think you know where it’s going, it smacks you in the face with a 2 X 4. It’s so good that the quality of the rest of the album doesn’t matter (It helps that all of Winter Hours is great but that’s not the point…). Based on that one song, Tombs follow-up Path […]

Hank & Cupcakes Return To Boston!

by Jesse on May 31, 2011 • 2 Comments

Blerd Appreciation / Indie Rock / music / soul music / Videos

Ask anyone over at the Blerd, we love the soul. We love the old soul, we love the new soul. Hank & Cupcakes has both with some future soul thrown in. Brooklyn-based (By way of Melbourne, Tel Aviv, Cuba, and Jerusalem), H & C are a male/female duo unlike anyone out there today (I’m looking’ at you White Stripes and Ting Ting’s!). Hank plays the bass. Cupcakes sings and plays drums…just like Phil Collins…but she stands up…and she’s way prettier…and her name is […]

She Wants Revenge: Out of the Shadows, Into the Light

by Jesse on May 24, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / music / New Releases / Pop Music / rock music

Maybe the Psychedelic Furs tour had a bigger impact than I originally thought . The latest from She Wants Revenge , Valleyheart, would be a more fitting soundtrack to a John Hughes movie now than say, a Tim Burton one. In other words, the darkness is gone. There are moments boiling beneath surface (“Take The World”, “Reasons”, “Suck It Up”) but for the fans longing for “Tear You Apart” part two, you’re going to have to look elsewhere. This isn’t a bad thing, people. […]

Metal Monday Volume 19 (5.23.11)

by Jesse on May 23, 2011 • 3 Comments

Album Reviews / Metal Monday / music / New Releases / rock music / Videos

If you were a fan of Cave In’s earlier work but let them go from Jupiter onward then White Silence should get the band back in your good graces again. Never before has a band managed to take the sum of all of its separate parts (Old Man Gloom, Clouds, Zozobra, Octave Museum, etc…) and make such a cohesive record with it. The first thing you’ll notice about White Silence is how visceral and raw it is. Caleb Scofield is […]

Metal Monday Volume 18 (5.16.11)

by Jesse on May 16, 2011 • 1 Comment

Metal Monday / music / rock music / Support Good Music in 2011 / Videos

Karma to Burn are a band that when they put out an album, it will automatically go in my Top 5 for the year without hearing a single note off of it. Because they’re that good and I’m that confident in each album being a sonic slab of instrumental rock goodness. So what do these West Virginian boys sound like? Like awesome. Heavy riffs, thunderous drums, and a low end that can peel paint from the walls. In a word: Monolithic. They first […]

All Good Things Must Come to An End (Jesu Delivers a Stinker)

by Jesse on May 11, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / Metal Monday / music / New Releases / Spin Cycle

Jesu’s Ascension in one word: boring. The worst part is on my Itunes, immediately following Ascension is the “Annul” single from last year which is sooooo good. There’s no life here. For a guy who just resurrected his industrial alter-ego Godflesh for a handful of shows last year and again this summer, you’d think that some of that visceral, raw energy would spill over into Jesu. Nope. It seems like all the projects Justin Broadrick has his hands in may […]

Support Good Music in 2011: Chapter 4 (Ulterior)

by Jesse on May 10, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / music / rock music / Support Good Music in 2011 / Videos

Wild in Wildlife is how you do a debut. If Hollywood ever gets so stupid that they have to remake The Hunger then I will be the first person to campaign for Ulterior to do the entire score. A UK-based rawk band, Ulterior’s first full-length just came out a few months ago but is easily one of the best albums this year. “Sex War Sex Cars Sex” is that song playing during the club scene in that ’80’s movie where the hero/heroine […]

Metal Monday Volume 17 (5.9.11)

by Jesse on May 9, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / Metal Monday / music / New Releases / Support Good Music in 2011

Anomie is an album that has somehow managed to encapsulate all that Tim Skold is up to this point (Shotgun Messiah, KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, etc) yet go above and beyond into the future with guns blazin’. Teased for almost 2 years now and 15 years since his debut, Anomie is a brilliant return for Tim Skold . Starting with “(This Is My) Elephant”, Anomie gives off a vibe more in the vein of Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen” then say, “Chaos”, the lead song off […]

KMFDM…Doin’ it Again!

by Jesse on May 6, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / Metal Monday / music / Support Good Music in 2011 / Videos

I always get incredibly excited when a new KMFDM is announced. They are definitely the AC/DC of industrial metal i.e. they do what they do and they do it well. Love ’em or hate ’em. For some reason when WTF?! was announced a few months ago, I got a little more excited than I usually do. They released “Rebels in Control” in December in support of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and “Krank” soon followed. They weren’t reinventing the wheel or anything but they definitely […]

Moving Mountains Will Move You.

by Jesse on May 6, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / Indie Rock / music / New Releases / rock music / Support Good Music in 2011 / Videos

If you thought the last few Thrice albums lacked that certain somethin’ somethin’ or you yearn for the days when The Receiving End of Sirens still put out music then Moving Mountains latest album, Waves, is for you. Their first for Triple Crown, Waves is a triumph through and through. Waves is such a departure for Moving Mountains , yet not. If you listen to Pneuma and this back-to-back it’s like two different bands. This isn’t a bad thing (And Pneuma did come out […]

Metal Monday Volume 16 (5.2.11)

by Jesse on May 2, 2011 • No Comments

Album Reviews / Metal Monday / music / Videos

Can we all agree that Nivek Ogre is one of the most underrated wordsmiths of our time? His flows are alien. His voice is unmistakable. He is a showman in every aspect of his being. Seriously, if Kanye West would’ve made a song like “comedown” (Or at least come up with the beats) and put it on 808’s & Heartbreaks, it would be huge. Such is the case when it come to the truly talented and by that, I mean never appreciated […]