Album A Day: Sublime – Sublime

Sublime is one of those bands that whose music is OK, and whose fans make me nuts to the point where it affects my liking of the music. Maybe it’s because I’m neither a skateboarder nor a stoner, but the band has always been just alright. Yet the people whom I’ve met who like Sublime [...]

Album A Day: Valencia – We All Need A Reason To Believe

OK, I’ll say it. Valencia are quite probably the coolest band to come out the Philadelphia area since The Roots. Valencia are from Philly and named for a region in Spain, but everything about their live show and album project the sunshine and good times of California. As the sun set on glorious Saturday at [...]

Album A Day: Linkin Park – Meteora

As I type this I’m trying to decide which Linkin Park album is my favorite. I’m stuck in a toss up between this, Hybrid Theory and Minutes to Midnight. And none of them are sticking out as clear winners. Each one has a lot of great things about it. But Meteora wraps past, present and [...]

Moment of Zen: Because 20 Years Later Tetris Still Hasn’t Gotten Old

Next time you decide to play Tetris, either on your old school Game Boy or on one of the dozens of emulator sites on the web, I invite you to turn the sound down, and instead as your soundtrack use this, your moment of zen. Tetris Theme (ska version) (YSI) And for good measure, one [...]

Album A Day: Michelle Branch – The Spirit Room

Fact: Michelle Branch was the first celebrity musician I remember having a crush on. (I was the weird 13 year old who didn’t think Britney Spears was all that great) Look, I’ve never been a big fan of the whole pop singer-songwriter thing. Folks like John Mayer, Jack Johnson, and even to some degree Michelle [...]

New Green Day Song Shows Growth, Grows With Time

After weeks of waiting (and biding time with the leaked title track), Green Day dropped the first single from next month’s 21st Century Breakdown. “Know Your Enemy” went to radio and digital music outlets earlier today, just 29 days before the album’s scheduled release (but really, who’s counting?) Make peace with the following fact right [...]

Album A Day: Staind – Break the Cycle

No write-up for this one today…giving myself a bit of a break to relax from a busy day. So instead I’m just gonna zone out a bit to the angsty sounds of Aaron Lewis. I’ll be back later tonight with some stuff, including thoughts on the new Green Day track. Staind – It’s Been Awhile [...]

Album A Day: Plain White T’s – Every Second Counts

There really isn’t another way to put this; Plain White T’s are by and large a simple pop-punk band, much like the many who came before and the ones who have come since “Hey There Delilah” invaded the airwaves. What gives them thir charm is the fact that they are in many ways the second [...]

Lil Wayne Drops Some Green Day. Eminem Takes Aim At Five Years Worth of Celebrities. Both Underwhelm.

Two of the biggest rappers of the last decade released new songs in the last week or so. Lil Wayne released “Hot Revolver”, a track that made the rounds on one of his bazillion mixtapes but got a formal release as a single from the inexplicable Rebirth a few weeks ago. For the record, the [...]

Album Review: Silversun Pickups – Swoon

Prior to this album review, my awareness of the Silversun Pickups music began and ended with “Lazy Eye”, their hit from 2006′s Carnavas. To that end, I was aware of Silversun Pickups as sort of a Smashing Pumpkins clone with big choruses, intricate guitar arrangements and an androgynous-sounding singer (I still don’t know if the [...]