Rave On Buddy Holly is a behemoth and overwhelming success of a tribute album. If this was the accompanying soundtrack to a major biopic, it would be a best seller already. Almost every song is a raging success—holy shit Cee-Lo, did you just invent another crazy [good] style of singing?? And the cuts that don’t completely hit the mark are still damn good—Patti Smith’s “Words of Love” is a solid song but lacks the energy most every other track possesses, […]
Spin Cycle
Spin Cycle: Bad Meets Evil’s “Hell: The Sequel”
There’s something poetic about seeing musical legend come to fruition, like the moment we actually finally heard Brian Wilson’s SMiLE, or perhaps when The Band That Used To Be Guns N’ Roses dropped Chinese Democracy… okay, perhaps seeing musical legend come to fruition is occasionally underwhelming. After all, a wait that long serves no other purpose than to whet the appetite. Fortunately, while estranged ex-BFFs Eminem and Royce Da 5’9″ were famously rhyme partners before infighting necessitated their breakup, the duo, […]
Spin Cycle: Tech N9ne’s “All 6’s & 7’s”
A longtime, often-vaunted member of rap’s left-of-center underground, Tech N9ne has managed to forge a career out of being off the radar, of inspiring intense fan devotion (the Techn9cians even get their own affectionate name that sounds an awful lot cooler than Gleek or Juggalo), and of being gleefully, unapologetically off the wall. Those who can actually find a record store in their town may recognize Tech more from his album covers than his actual recorded output – his wild-eyed […]
Spin Cycle: Bon Iver’s “Bon Iver, Bon Iver”
Reams and reams of paragraphs, enough (and steeped in enough mythology) to ink dozens of dead sea scrolls, have been devoted to Bon Iver’s 2007 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, and not without reason; indie lovers and avid Pitchfork readers seem to flock to rootsy acoustic-slinging troubadours with gusto, special hipster points granted for being lo-fi. It doesn’t get much more lo-fi than a heart-broke woodsman holing up for the winter in a Wisconsin cabin and writing and recording his […]
Spin Cycle: Jordan Knight’s “Unfinished”
I desperately want to be a champion for Jordan Knight. A lot of folks think “Hangin’ Tough” at the mention of his name and conjure up memories of the era when you couldn’t escape Jordan’s metal-filled mug on coffee cups, posters, notebooks, etc. But the fact remains that the guy has talent. Hell, YOU try to sing “I’ll Be Lovin’ You (Forever)”. The guy’s got vocal skills and good taste in influences- The Stylistics’ Russell Thompkins Jr. and Luther Vandross […]
Kasabian Takes You Back to the Club
I have been in love with Kasabian ever since their debut was released in 2004. Whenever they announce a new album, it’s always one of my most anticipated releases of the year. They haven’t failed me yet so the news that Velociraptor!, their 4th album, is set for release in September is definitely something to dance around the room to (…which I may have already done once or twice while typing this). For those of you unaware, Kasabian is a UK […]
Spin Cycle: Flogging Molly’s “Edge of Darkness”
A viable and particularly galvanizing rock subgenre, the Celtic-punk upswing clearly derives from the Pogues, and has almost crossed over into the legitimate mainstream; these days, Boston’s Dropkick Murphys are the clear figureheads for the fusion of energetic punk and traditional Irish drinking songs. Forced to name-drop a second-most-visible representative of this oddly specific style, I’m sure citing Flogging Molly would win you some Family Feud points; after all, their 2002 record Drunken Lullabies might be the closest thing this […]
Spin Cycle: Eddie Vedder’s “Ukulele Songs”
Every once in awhile artists need a change and go off and do something completely different. Bruce Springsteen put out a record of Scotch-Irish sounding Pete Seeger songs. The Black Keys teamed up with a bunch of hip hop artists to produce the oddly cool Blakroc . Some of these are more successful than others and some are just weird (anyone remember when Tom Waits and Kool Keith were on a record together?). Luckily, Eddie Vedder’s latest obsession is the ukulele. Vedder’s new solo album titled, appropriately enough, Ukulele Songs is his […]
Spin Cycle: My Morning Jacket’s “Circuital”
I suppose it’s kind of difficult for My Morning Jacket fans to be truly pleased by one of their records at this point; six albums in, MMJ have cycled through country-rock, reverb-soaked psychedelia, discordant white-dude reggae, galloping metal, and squealing funk so quickly that really nailing down which My Morning Jacket you like can be tasking in and of itself. We only need for frontman Jim James to start spitting his oft-dippy, abstract lyrics over tight, polished grooves – the […]
Spin Cycle: Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”
My judgment occasionally gets clouded by hype. Only in most cases, the hype has an effect opposite to it’s intention. Instead of drawing me more toward something, hearing endless amounts of PR spin causes me to approach the item (whether it’s a CD, a book, a TV show or a movie) with significantly more skepticism. That’s been my issue with Lady Gaga almost since the moment she danced into stardom. It took me almost a year to give Gaga a […]