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(11/15/07 5:00am)
Saturday, the Sabbath: Pastor Carl Hinds charismatically leads a sermon on sovereign stewardship and the role of man in service to God. A congregation bedecked in their finest packs the pews, hanging onto his every word. Children with saucer-pan eyes squirm hyperactively, while a few boisterous tots need a little extra attention; parents pull them close and gently reproach them to sit straight and pay attention to the pastor. His words hit home in a form of call and response: churchgoers laugh, nod their heads in agreement and a tall man with shut eyes cries in the back of the room, "Mhmms. Yes, yes. Praise the Lord."
(04/05/07 4:00am)
Before Britney shaved her head and Madonna abused wigs, there was Stevie Nicks and her static sorceress hairstyles. Lest we forget, the late '70s were a weird time for music and for hair. Fast forwarding 25 years, Stevie Nicks reminds us that she is still alive by releasing Crystal Visions... The Very Best of Stevie Nicks. Packed with 16 songs of incomprehensible glory, this best-of collection breaks and mends hearts. With a bipolar singing style that can range from sensual to agitated, Nicks is a vocal painter with a diverse palette.
(03/29/07 4:00am)
A raucous sound will fill the air at the corner of 22nd and Chestnut St. tonight as scores of people line up to see Tokyo Police Club open a sold out show for the Cold War Kids. Hailing from Newmark, Ontario, Club personifies the dreams of all high school garage-bands with their quick rise success and recognition in the indie music scene. Barely into their twenties, the four tight-jeaned youths that make up Tokyo Police Club are still humble suburbanites, slightly overwhelmed with their constant tour schedule. As Graham Wright, the purveyor of Club's rich Casio keyboard tones and supplementary vocals, remarks, "We were on the verge of breaking up, we got back together for a gig. It snowballed, and here we are touring with just an EP. Its almost a surreal joke to me."
(03/22/07 4:00am)
In weather like this, it's kind of hard to imagine that across the world, suicide bombers are targeting English-speaking schools in Pakistan and Iraq. March 20th marked the four-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq; that's a fifth of my life or the length of a presidential term. Though to tell you the truth, I sometimes forget that the United States is still at war.
(03/15/07 4:00am)
In Apostle Of Hustle, Broken Social Scene's lead guitarist, Andrew Whiteman, has finally found the perfect outlet to sport his breathy vocals. Formed in 2001, Apostle is heavily influenced by the music of Whiteman's country of origin, Cuba, and the Toronto-based indie music scene where he currently resides. But rather than evoking a toothless hockey player playing trumpet in a smoky mambo club, AOH pulls off an amazingly well-synthesized brand of noise.
(02/15/07 5:00am)
Last summer, in the chocolate bazaar of Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a friend and I couldn't help but notice scores of elementary school girls bedecked in black eyeliner and pyramid-studded belts. A few whisperers hid behind the shelf next to me and focused on an emo-clad foursome standing in the clearing just beyond. "I think it's them," the girls giggled. "Oh my god! They're so cute." Bewildered, my friend asked the girls who they were talking about and received a retort in unison, "Fall Out Boy, duh!"
(02/15/07 5:00am)
Philly rockers stellastarr* are back in town tonight for an appearance at North Star Bar. Street writer Alex Kwan sat down for a phone interview with lead singer and guitarist Michael Jurin and talked about New York's "Sixth Burough", stellastarr*'s new album and the state of the biz.
(02/08/07 5:00am)
A successful debut LP can be a blessing or a curse. It can be the precursor of legitimate greatness or it can spell doom for a band's future with the weight of unachievable expectations (think of the wasted potential of The Libertines or The Stills). The real pressure for these groups lies on their second album, where they have so much more to lose.
Bloc Party fans everywhere had been crossing off days on their calendars in anticipation of February 6th, the release date of the band's second studio album, A Weekend In The City. The sophomore attempt creates a darker and more processed ambience compared to their critically acclaimed debut LP, Silent Alarm. Weekend picks up where the second half of Alarm left off, with gradually building songs that shift from calm, retrospective ballads to frenetically paced melodic spirals. Herein, though, lies Weekend's problem.
Where Alarm was innovative in form and feel, Weekend corners itself creatively at times, leaving the end of the album exposed to a repetitive feel.
In many songs, the sound of the instruments seems to revolve solely around Kele Okereke's lyrical mood swings, which in turn limits variation. Meanwhile, drummer Matt Tong's intricate rhythms from Alarm are lost to standardization. The initial excitement of Weekend loses its appeal by the end of Saturday night.
Despite having tied its hands together creatively, A Weekend In The City still has many bright points. "Hunting for Witches" possesses all the swirling, neck-traveling riffs of Bloc Party's early hit "Helicopter", while being lyrically provocative - translating feelings of displacement and apathy towards a chic, Vichy-like London. "On" also possesses brilliance with Okereke's confessional proclamation, "You make my tongue loose." Songs like these reaffirm a very promising future for Bloc Party.
(02/01/07 5:00am)
It's a bold new age of information. YouTube represents an archive of millions of hidden or long-forgotten documentations of some of the greatest performers in music, free and at the tips of our fingers. This week a newcomer from the Dirty Dirty teaches us how to pimp our ride.