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| Bloc Party @ Roseland Theater, Portland Posted: 28 Apr 2009 02:17 PM PDT
I am happy to report that Bloc Party are great live. I wasn’t the only one having fun that night. The whole crowd danced — or at least bounced — the entire show. I’ve been to plenty of sold out shows with great crowds, but that night people seemed particularly excited, raising their arms and shaking their fists along to the music and erupting in cheers at the first chords of both new and old songs. I’d like to think they were stronger for the older songs, but that’s likely just my bias.
 Photos: Dese’Rae Stage Related Posts |
| The Cure’s Secret December 2008 Show Now Streaming on Their MySpace Posted: 28 Apr 2009 12:55 PM PDT
Set List:  Related Posts |
| Bob Dylan - Together Through Life Posted: 28 Apr 2009 11:53 AM PDT While it has become tradition to denounce recent albums (still) being put out by the omega rock gods like Springsteen, Prince, and U2, rock critics still shit themselves over anything Dylan, and - more often than not - justifiably so. Since 1997's Time Out Of Mind, Dylan's been on one hell of a roll after nearly two decades of unfortunately produced or misguided attempts to create albums of the same caliber as his mid-60's work and his mid-70's even-better-than-before comeback. But fans of Dylan knew he never lost his genius even in the darkest hours of the 80s. The rate of consistency might have slowed down at points, but it never stopped altogether, as songs like "Dark Eyes" (off the atrocious Empire Burlesque) proved. Together Through Life thankfully does not spell the end of Dylan's late-career stride, though it is debatably the weakest album of his post-Time Out Of Mind output. Together Through Life fits into Dylan's catalog alongside albums like John Wesley Hardin and Desire, but closer to the later both because of its more exotic sound and because, like Desire, the majority of the album was written in collaboration with another writer (Robert Hunter this time around; Jacques Levi last). Both are well-regarded and even the personal favorites of some fans, but neither are widely hailed as era-defining masterpieces like Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde and Blood On The Tracks are. Like all Dylan's albums since Time Out Of Mind, Together Through Life can be divided between songs where Dylan basically has his band play straight blues while he wittily croaks over them and the slower songs where Dylan actually has to come up with his own tunes. The slow ones are always better, though after a while the blues tracks become more amusing and serve to provide the album with punch if nothing else. But of course, the story is all about the slower songs like "Not Dark Yet" (on Time Out Of Mind), "Po' Boy" (on Love And Theft) and "Spirit On The Water" (on Modern Times) (with the exception of "Mississippi" on Love And Theft, a mid-tempo late-Dylan classic). Together Through Life's slow songs like "Life Is Hard" and "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'" are no exception to this rule. The first is breezy and melancholic with a Spanish flavor courtesy of a prominent mandolin and Hawaiian-sounding steel-guitar. The second is a mid-tempo melodic ballad with David Hidalgo's romantic accordion buoying the song's old-world joviality. Jovial, however, is not the word to describe Together Through Life. Dylan sounds cynical, witty and more than a little pissed most of the time actually. On "I Feel A Change Comin On" he spits, "You are as whorish as ever," and, "Everybody got all the money/Everybody got all the beautiful clothes/Everybody got all the flowers/I don't have one single rose." And the song "My Wife's Hometown" isn't the sentimental Springsteen ballad it sounds like, but rather a grimy, murky blues dirge that plods along on a down and out riff. But that's nothing compared to how nasty Dylan sounds, "She can make you steal, make you rob/Give you the hots, make you lose your job/Make things bad, she can make things worse/She got stuff more potent than a gypsy curse." And people thought "Just Like A Woman" was misogynistic. By the way, his wife's hometown: Hell. Elsewhere, Dylan sounds like a horny old bugger on "Jolene" and "Shake Shake Mama". He may be 67, but he's still down for some "good old fun." And while some other old guys would just seem pathetic spouting that kind of sentiment, something tells me Dylan can't have too much trouble scoring. The world is definitely not lacking for beautiful, young women who idolize the old master. Together Through Life finds Dylan playing the same role that David Duchovny plays in Californication: a famous writer whoring it up, drowning his sorrows in a sea of pointless sex. Dylan's been an unabashed romantic since Nashville Skyline and yeah, he's heartbroken ("Since we been out of touch/I haven't felt that much/from day to barren day/My heart stays locked away," he sings in "Life Is Hard"), but here Dylan lives up to what he said in "Times Have Changed" when he sang, "I used to care but things have changed." Dylan drives this point home in the stinging closer "It's All Good": "Big politician telling lies/Rest stop kitchen all full of flies/Don't make a bit of difference/Don't see why it should/But it's all right/’Cause its all good," he sings, and you can just see that Cheshire cat grin on his face. This isn't a zen-like acceptance of the world as it is like in "Buckets Of Rain" on Blood On The Tracks; this is Dylan ready to leave the world in a blaze of glory and pretty much telling it to go fuck itself. You gotta love him. Tracklisting:  Related Posts |
| Great Northern - Remind Me Where the Light Is Posted: 28 Apr 2009 09:47 AM PDT Great Northern don’t hail from the great north, but the very southernmost Los Angeles. Despite this geography confusion, Great Northern is quite the extraordinary band. With musicians Solon Bixler (from 30 Seconds to Mars) on the guitar and vocals, Rachel Stolte on the keyboard and vocals, and other friends joining for other instruments, they form quite the group. Not too long after their first CD release in 2007 with Trading Twilight for Daylight, they will be releasing their sophomore album Remind Me Where the Light Is on April 28th. This New Wave band displays their unique musical powers from the beginning of the album to its end. In the first track, “Story”, Great Northern displays their immaculate cluster of talents with a short vocal solo in the beginning of the song from Stolte along side the pounding guitar riff and drum beat. The song “Story” is later reveals its story: “a secret or a story, how about one you can hide behind? Pass it around, get me some glory, I wont forget to tack on a lie.” The lyrics in the song speak to us all just as loud as the instruments being played. To follow up the first track, “Houses” is yet another testament to their ability to create something meaningful and just flat out good music. “Houses” is a song that is about regrets, “what we left behind” and everything that goes along with it. Leading up to the song “Stop”, Bixler only sang back up vocals, and does a damn fine job of it. However, until the song “Stop”, I was unaware of his talent of singing. I also assumed that Stolte was the only one in the band that could soothe me with her voice. I was wrong. The song “Stop” features Bixler singing beautifully, a soft melodic piano, and some random cat meowing in the beginning of the song. It is a rarity to find an album that you like every song on it, even on some of your favorite band’s CDs, that does not apply with Remind Me Where the Light Is where every song is like-able. Tracklisting: Great Northern: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| Kevin Devine - Brother’s Blood Posted: 28 Apr 2009 08:43 AM PDT I don’t know if it is like this for everyone who covers music, but as a music journalist I tend to adopt artists. I grab onto a project and take my coverage of it to the next level. It becomes much more than two thousand words on a record I’ll probably never bother listening to again. It drives me emotionally to push this artist to the success they deserve in any way possible. It’s hanging fliers and posting ever piece of news possible. It becomes word of mouth and finding a way to drop their name in every interview I can. It becomes personal. Kevin Devine was my first project. I stumbled across him in late 2002, upon the discovery of the song “Letting a Good One Go” on his debut album Circle Gets the Square. From that point forward I was hooked. I received my first professional press pack and wrote my first CD review to his October 2003 release Make the Clocks Move. I continued to watch his momentum build with the release of Split the County, Split the Street, an album featuring more edge and aggression than his previous two cuts. It featured backing vocals by Jesse Lacey, lead singer Brand New, whose fans as a result gave Devine’s albums a spin. That propulsion lead to both the excitement and disappointment of a underutilized stint on Capitol Records. Put Your Ghosts to Rest, Devine’s highly creative major label release, which often found itself missing from store shelves, is nothing if not a wasted opportunity. Short of allowing Devine major label dollars to record a virtually unheard album, Capital failed to promote his 4th release properly, eventually resulting in his being dropped from the label. Brand New’s label, Procrastinate! Music Traitors eventually re-released the album on April 20th, 2008. Fast forward almost a year to that day and you’ll find Devine sitting on the release of his most complete project to date. Recorded in a manner different from his previous albums, Brother’s Blood, Devine’s fifth full studio effort, was created with more of a full band sound, rather than the previous solo artist approach. The result of this shift influenced a more modern, updated sound, taking Kevin and company from comparisons to David Bazan and Joshua Radin to friends Manchester Orchestra and Brand New. Tracks like “Carnival” and “YR Husband” capture Devine’s haunting vocals and insightful yet metaphoric lyrics flawlessly. His ability to speak clearly through riddle filled sentences is second to none in the business. Without detailing excessive plot or setting, Devine has the ability to tell a story so relatable, you can easily find yourself assuming it was written about your life or your friends. Though Devine tends to adopt the “speak softly but carry a big stick” style in his writing, the subject matter he crams into his simple and poetic sentence structures are far from small. His topics in the past have ranged from substance abuse, suicide, divorce, politics and insecurity. Brother’s Blood is no different. Songs like “Time to Burn (Another Bag of Bones)” manage to hit world politics, racism and religion in one sharp swing. It also highlights a frantic and angry Devine, who growls his lyrics over a pretty effective wall of sound. Of the song, Devine states, “When you have a globalized communication system, a globalized economic system, a globalized military system and everything's shrunk and everything affects everything, it's the butterfly effect or whatever it's called.” His ability to capture that thought process, in it’s entirety in a 4 minute rock song is something I think few artists could do without appearing stale or preachy. Here, Devine manages neither. “Time to Burn” makes its point without becoming a public service announcement. But above all, it also manages to be a very good listen, turning out to be one of the best tracks on the album. In fact, the only track on this cut I find more appealing is the radio friendly masterpiece “I Could Be With Anyone”. Featuring moog hooks and big 90’s guitar solos behind KD’s two-hundred mile an hour energy, the song manages to capture the energy of Devine’s stage show. It also highlights a cast that has had Devine’s back for as long as I’ve been listening. The Goddamn Band is at its finest of the finest of Kevin Devine songs to dates. If you’re already a fan of Kevin Devine, I have no doubt that you’re going to be overjoyed by Brother’s Blood. It’s without a doubt the greatest work Devine has completed. Added to an already impressive resume, I feel safe telling you this album is worth your purchase. For those of you who have heard it, either though downloading or streaming, man up. If you downloaded the album and hated the album, fine, you saved yourself twelve bucks. But if you found the leak and loved the album, do the right thing. Artists deserve to be rewarded for releasing an albums that move you. If you found yourself drawn to Brother’s Blood, help Devine be able to release further discs by supporting his craft. You can find the link to order it from Favorite Gentlemen Records here. Kevin Devine: website | myspace | Put Your Ghost To Rest review | @ north star bar | @ the picador | @ the troc balcony | interview with pt. I | interview with pt. II  Related Posts |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2009 06:45 AM PDT I'm 19. I'm not 35. Husker Du's Zen Arcade, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig were all released before I was even conceived, but I still think, know, and believe that Bob Mould is a legend. Life And Times is classic Mould: rushing guitars and angsty lyrics delivered in his classic bulldog skin of a voice. While few will likely complain about the lack of vocoder this time around, Mould's continued growth and experimentation as an artist is what has kept him vital for more than 20 years since he made his early masterpieces. Last year's District Line may have been slightly less consistent than one would have hoped, but it found the then 47-year-old Mould continuing to journey outside his comfort zone when others his age need their kids to get their songs from their computer to their iPod. But Life And Time's strict adherence to Mould's classic songwriting style (one steeped in late 80's/early 90's alt-rock conventions, which, to be fair, Mould played a large part in shaping) makes it sound dated despite being released in 2009. What saves Life And Times from pure nostalgic mediocrity is the fact that Bob Mould is Bob Mould. It's impossible to put this information aside when judging Life And Times. Mould's songwriting skills - regardless of what decade they may be stuck in - are still as refined as ever. Life And Times' only standout track, "I'm Sorry Baby But You Can't Stand In My Light Anymore", may be a power-ballad that's pure 1996, but that does little to diminish its emotional pull. In fact, if it had been released back in 1996, it would probably be considered one of Mould's finest songs. Asides from the wistful closing track, "Lifetime", the majority of Life And Times is made up of mid-to-fast-tempo alt-rockers that don't attract much attention individually. However, even when Bob Mould is just doing an adequate job of sounding like Bob Mould, it's hard to really complain too much. He is a legend for a reason. Life And Times is available now on ANTI Records. Tracklisting:  Related Posts |
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