On March 22, eighties synthwave band Depeche Mode released their thirteenth album, Delta Machine. From the title alone, it is immediately apparent what the threepiece is going for: electro-blues.
It’s apparent forty-five seconds into lead-off track “Sail to the Sun” that Afraid of Heights, the latest record from surf-rockers Wavves, is sunkissed and spontaneous. After the album presses start on a strange chime section, it barrels into a late-90s punk jam. I don’t know if Nathan Williams (vocals/guitar) has a prized copy of Green Day’s Dookie jammed in his stereo, but I wouldn’t put it past him.
While Justin Timberlake was busy pursuing a career in acting, I was busy wondering whether he’d ever come out with a new album. After a long, seven-year hiatus, he finally released The 20/20 Experience and I’m not disappointed.
Phosphorescent’s Muchacho settles into a groove, but unfortunately it’s one that feels all too comfortable by the end. Houck’s latest does little to offend but, by the same token, little to distinguish itself.
When The Strokes released their first album, everyone said that this was it, that these guys were the saviors of Rock and Roll music. With the album’s melodic take on 70‘s garage rock, 2001’s Is This It generated the template for 21st century guitar music and engendered a surge of interest in “indie” rock as a sound, rather than a designation of contra-mainstream status. Because of this hype, the general populace has held its tongue about the steadily decreasing quality of The Strokes’ records in the hopes that the next record will herald a return to their classic form. Sadly, now with their most recent Comeback Machine, it seems clear that all hope for a comeback is lost.
Scrolling through my iTunes library, cluttered with only the hottest, most mainstream artists of the day, such as everyone’s favorite extreme gothic metal band, Graveworm, I fail to come across many groups that I have ignored as thoroughly as the Swedish sextet of Soilwork (accidental alliteration accomplished). Having previously purchased only two songs from Stabbing the Drama (2005), I had almost no incentive to sit down and listen to the 84 minute, 38 second monstrosity that is The Living Infinite…until I happened across the pre-release singles on YouTube.
Britney Spears’ debut album …Baby One More Time offers up timeless songs that are perfect summertime jams.
Any self-respecting nineties kid knew and loved the compact collections of pop songs from NOW That’s What I Call Music.
The 90s were a strange decade for music. It seems the catharsis for the laughable panache of hair metal, the unmistakable sheen of shameless power-pop outfits, and the homebrewed sincerity of hip-hop’s early years split into two dominant camps.
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” Joni Mitchell asked in her 1970 single “Big Yellow Taxi.” Mitchell may have been singing about paving paradise to put up a parking lot, but her message applies just as well to the way in which we, as a society, tend to approach pop culture.
Before the time of Facebook and Twitter, of rip-off 3-D films and BlueRay, of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, there were the ’90s.
The University Jazz Ensemble, directed by John D’earth, played an engaging concert Feb. 23, showcasing a unique and varied sound that showed the audience a new and exciting type of jazz.
If you are brave enough for the lyrical liaisons of Thom Yorke’s voice or are willing to let your ears dive into Yorke’s consciousness, AMOK is crooning your name.
Don’t lie: whether you love her or hate her, you’ve probably seen at least one (or ten) Taylor Swift music videos. No matter how many times you’ve watched them, however, you may be missing out on some of the valuable life lessons Swift espouses through her videos.
The folk rock band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down originated in a town familiar to most University students — Falls Church, Va., or in other words “NOVA.” The group has since moved past its Commonwealth roots and is now based in San Francisco, but still remains relatively unknown after the release of their full length album We the Common.
There are few things more entertaining than a prodigious mandolin player. Chris Thile, mover and shaker of the Punch Brothers, is one such musician.
Life Is But a Dream, a new HBO documentary exploring the journey of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as an artist, wife and mother, is a rousing and inspiring success story sure to appeal to both die-hard fans and new converts.
Even in a crowd of so-called hipsters, I entered the floor of the Jefferson Theater Feb. 4 with a sense of smugness unparalleled by any other concertgoer there.
When Ben Thornewill, the vocalist for the Philadelphia-born, Brooklyn-based trio Jukebox the Ghost, abruptly stopped playing piano mid-song during the group’s Feb.
By 10:30 p.m. last Thursday, the Jefferson Theater was ringing loudly with the sounds of the quintessential sweet spot of a bluegrass concert.
