Music
June Sound Bites
The Mars Volta Octahedron Released June 23 After releasing last year’s thrashing, Ouija-inspired The Bedlam in Goliath, singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala vowed The Mars Volta’s next album would be its long-awaited acoustic record.
Pop, Lock and Drop It
It’s been a tough road for this year’s Popped! Festival, which brought big names like Vampire Weekend and The Ting Tings to Drexel last June.
May-be You Missed It This Month
Here’s everything you need to know about May music (but were afraid to ask while we were on hiatus this month): By the time the incoming freshmen graduate, Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong will be 40.
Defibrillator: Weezer, "Weezer" (1994)
In first grade my favorite song was “Buddy Holly.” I memorized the lyrics proudly, ready to show them off to the only willing audience I had: my older, cooler siblings.
Your Summer in Music: 2009
Which concert attendee are you? Let’s face it, working the drive-thru window at Taco Bell this summer is going to leave you with more dollar bills than you know what to do with.
‘Tric: a Treat
Despite stadium-ready hooks, polished vocals and slick guitars, Fantasies isn’t a selling out moment for Metric so much as the next step in a logical progression.
Speak of the Devil
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.
WTFork?
Neil Young has always done whatever he wants, and with Fork in the Road, he’s created an album entirely about electric cars.
Pro Kahn
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.
Turning Up the heat
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.
Guilty Pleasure: Ashlee Simpson, "Autobiography" (2004)
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.
Nap Time
Street: What brings you to Philadelphia? Had you known anything about Penn? Nappy Roots: I don’t know the college.
No Doubt, "Tragic Kingdom" (1995)
“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.
Pure Blitz
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.
Can you (Pan)handle This?
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.
Living Thingle
With Seaside Rock (2008), Peter Bjorn and John seemed to experience the writer’s block that inspired the title of their much-loved first album.
Look Who’s Talking
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.
Revelation at the Rotunda
Last Sunday at the Rotunda, the ghosts were out — and they were playing with distortion pedals and tape machines.
The Best Songs For Living the Life
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.
