With lead vocals (Eddie Argos) reminiscent of Bobby “BORIS” Pickett’s hit tune “Monster Mash,” and Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, rhymes like “satisfaction” and “can’t stop scratchin’” and subject matter ranging from using a cell phone as an alarm clock while riding public transportation to looking for missing socks, it might be hard to for anyone to believe that Frank Black produced Art Brut vs.
Save for the occasional overly-contrived pop star, it wasn’t too long ago when cool chicks had a hard time asserting their dominance in a sea of musical testosterone.
Now We Can See, The Thermals’ long-anticipated follow-up to their 2006 album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, delivers contemplative and often somber lyrics packaged sweetly in methodically structured pop-punk sing-a-longs.
As the old saying goes, there are four things that every true musician needs: a former member of 98 Degrees as a brother-in-law, lip service from Ryan Cabrera, a very, very loving father and a reality show.
“Only 16?” As if, Gwen. I was only eight when I first tuned into MTV’s Top 10 Countdown to watch the “Just a Girl” video, pulling the bottom of my t-shirt through the neck hole and sporting a hand-drawn dot in the center of my forehead.
Sure, she was just a girl.
It’s Blitz!, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first full-length album in three years, delivers listeners the band’s brand new sound — one that trades meaty guitar riffs and guttural yelps for a synthesizer and disco backbeats.
Flo Rida’s latest release, R.O.O.T.S, rides the popular flow of his debut album, 2008's Mail on Sunday, by essentially remaking it and streamlining his schema for success.
Smaller than a stick of gum and serving the dual function of tie-clip and 4GB mp3 player, Apple’s new talking iPod Shuffle ($79) is both elegant and understated.
Best Song for Eating Alone in Commons
Backstreet Boys, “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely”
So you’re still on the Penn Dining plan and it’s getting harder to give out those Moocher Meals.
If you’re confused by An Horse’s non-traditional use of the article you’re not alone. One can only assume that this is how drum and guitar duo Kate Cooper and Damon Cox discuss their equine escorts in thick Australian accents when they’re throwing shrimp on the barbie back in their hometown of Brisbane.
Fist of God, the second LP from punk bassist-turned-electro house DJ Jesse F. Keeler and cohort Al-P, is an attempt at creating a cohesive dance record.
This album’s all about “good for nothing types of brothers” — you know, guys who don’t pay their girls’ bills, say their names or know when to stop paging them.
Making Time
No write up of dance nights in Philadelphia would be complete without a mention of Making Time, the behemoth that arguably birthed this burgeoning scene.
This is not the Mirah who innocently devoted an album’s worth of songs to a number of different insects, nor is it the Mirah who gave lyrical love advice through the poppy C’mon Miracle. With (a)spera’s return to Spanish-influenced guitar plucking, addressing listeners directly and thinly veiled moralizing politics, comes the striking of a different note: gloom.
There’s an important but subtle difference between burning love and getting burned. Neko Case explores the effects of toggling that particular four letter word in and out of the equation on her latest album, Middle Cyclone. More aggressive and revealing than her previous solo release, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006), and more straightforward than her New Pornographers material, the flame-haired indie/dixie diva is at her songwriting best.
Five years ago, the music gods smiled on Kelly Clarkson and the American public’s desire for a more palatable Alanis found its apotheosis in an awesome little song about dumping your loser boyfriend.