Articles tagged with alternative rock

Have you ever wondered if there was more to Kentucky than Fried Chicken? If you have, you would have probably discovered that there is also a lake, a zoo and a Science Centre. Well, now I bring you its best export. And no it doesn’t involve mutated meat covered in breadcrumbs. It instead appears in the form of five young men, dipped in nothing but rock and roll sauciness (see what I did there). They consist of Jim James on vocals and guitar, ‘Two Tone’ Tommy on bass, Carl...

The thing about N.E.R.D. is that it's really the one act where you see Pharrell the most comfortable. It's spaztastic, genre-busting music that's not intended to fit anywhere. Unlike past releases by N.E.R.D., this album isn't intended to 1) sell beats or 2) transcendent hits by a concept band.

Seeing Sounds is basically a concept album, but it's...

Austin, Texas superstars Spoon recently emerged from their studio with a new high in their already brilliant career. Their sixth album, “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” managed to be everything people weren’t expecting: it wasn’t a bunch of radio-friendly singles, and it wasn’t a return to the stripped-down rock of their breakthrough, “Kill the Moonlight”.

Opening with the swaggering piano rock of “Don’t make me a target”, we get an immediate feel that things are a bit rougher...

In an era where you can download whatever you want and music isn’t something you sit outside the record store and wait for anymore, it takes a lot for a band to create a tour de force that gets people out of their musical complacency and truly rock out. Well, like all acquired tastes — Thrice — might not do that for many people. But whatever you felt about them before the release of two double CDs over a six month span, you have to respect what they’ve created...

Band of Horses recently burst back into prominence with their second album, “Cease To Begin”, a distinct improvement from their debut effort, 2006’s “Everything All The Time”. The collection plays with more sounds and styles, and reflects the band growing up and moving back home to South Carolina, and has a bit more of a country tinge to their dreamy indie-rock/pop.

Opening with the beautiful highlight of the album, “Is There A Ghost?”, is a...

If you’re ever planning to cruise along route 66 in a convertible Cadillac, then Darker My Love’s debut album must be in your CD player. Or, as it’s an old car and probably doesn’t have an in-built CD drive, I suggest you record it to tape first, and then play it. The five-piece’s tie-dye Californian sounds are reminiscent of the likes of Stone Roses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with a pepper pinch of Dandy Warhols – perfect for those leather-clad wild times. Self-proclaimed...

Headlights' debut, "Kill them with Kindness" is a mixed bag of an album. On one hand, it's musically very strong, padding the ground paved by such bands as Stars, the Shins and Spoon (though the fact that these similarities all begin with ‘S' is purely coincidental). However, on the other hand, it's, well, not very memorable. Not one of the songs has you humming along after work after bugging you all day with a nagging chorus like Stars can do, or have that...

They’re one of the biggest bands of the past 20 years and have more critical acclaim than they know what to do with. Due to this, reviewing a Radiohead album is possibly one of the hardest jobs going – no matter what is written about the album, there will be someone who has a different opinion of it. However, whatever your thoughts, you’ve got to agree that Radiohead have guts – their release strategy for this new effort has been well documented in the national press, and has...

Have you ever had a bad day? Well I have the perfect remedy for you, and no, it doesn’t involve stimulants. It comes in the shape of La Rocca, a quartet from Ireland who ooze stereotypical Irish charm you normally find replicated in bars in Spain. Three of the four lads met at college in Wales in 2002, and with the addition of Simon Baillie, the lead singer’s brother later that year, the foursome decided to hence forth and make some sunshine feel-good tunes. In 2004, the two brothers...

Lackluster. Almost boring in spots. There, now you can move on and go track down some interesting music without wasting anymore time on this weak effort at modern music. Still reading? Hmm, did the part where I paraphrased, “Disappointing disc, go check out something vibrant” not sink in yet? I am trying to help you by saving your time by starting with a conclusive, brief summary so you can move on to something...

For those with some imagination, the album’s title might immediately evoke thoughts of intelligencia pondering that place between fire and water where life and blood exist. Or maybe it is simply that fire, blood and water are just the essentials of life? Maybe that is the simple tie, I really don’t know, but to me this music is raw and essential. It has the energy of the early Who albums, though maybe not that talent. Though entirely different than The Who in so many ways, I can’t...