Free Energy w/ Miniature Tigers and Jukebox the Ghost at First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia 5/28/2010

Friday night saw the hometown debut of Philadelphia’s own Free Energy, playing their first concert in the area since releasing their fantastic debut album Stuck on Nothing. Yours truly was on hand for the show (thanks to some help from Girlie Action Media), and while Free Energy was everything anyone in the crowd could have [...]

Kanye West Returns With “Power”, Good Ass Job Slated For September

The first new track from Kanye West since 2008 snuck onto the internet on Friday. “Power” is intended for official release on June 8th, but it found its way onto YouTube just before the holiday weekend and is now spreading rapidly. The song, featuring Dwele and sampling King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man”, is reportedly [...]

Trent Reznor Brings His Wife to Work, Forms How to Destroy Angels

Yes, I know that this story is ancient in blog years, but between my absence these past weeks and new news today, seems like as good a time as any to catch up. With Nine Inch Nails (sort of) in a holding pattern, Trent Reznor saw fit to start up a new project with his [...]

We Are The Fallen Don’t Quite Tear The World Down

When We Are The Fallen announced their existence last July, they were met with cautious optimism. The three jettisoned members of Evanescence teaming up with a former American Idol also-ran sounded like a strange, high-risk teaming, but with potential to outshine Amy Lee. After a year of work on their debut album Tear the World [...]

First Impressions, Vol. 1: Miniature Tigers, Katy Perry, Shadow Shadow Shade and The Like

So I’ve been taking a break from blogging for the last few weeks, stopping in briefly once in awhile, but largely staying quiet. This is mostly a result of having other things that required my attention, not the least of which was graduating college. I start a full-time job next week, so while I’d love [...]

Punk Goes Classic Rock, or; An Exercise In Meaningless Existence

For the last half of the decade just ended, Fearless Records has been churning out volumes of the “Punk Goes…” Compilations. In large part the series has been at a benchmark of mediocrity. C-list punk acts covering hit songs of yore to varying degrees of success. Occasionally one band takes a risk that rises above [...]

Muse Debuts “Neutron Star Collision” Single, Video

Face it; anticipation for the lead single from the Twilight single is equivalent to excitement for whoever performed the James Bond single in decades past, only if James Bond had a license to sparkle and masquerade as good literature. For next month’s Eclipse, Muse has been granted first-single honors, following in the footsteps of the [...]

Free Energy Debut “Bang Pop” Video

Over the weekend Philadelphia band Free Energy premiered the video for their first radio single, the unbelievably catchy “Bang Pop”. The video was shot at Pennwood Middle School outside of Philadelphia last April, using well over 100 local college students, actors, and fans of the band to recreate the classroom scenes. How do I know [...]

RIP Ronnie James Dio, 1942-2010

Ronnie James Dio, former lead singer for Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Heaven and Hell, and general heavy metal legend, died earlier today after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 67. Dio revealed his illness in November of last year, and reports started to indicate that he was recovering nicely until weeks ago when Heaven and [...]

The Dead Weather Show What They’re Made of on Sea of Cowards

I tweeted this earlier in the week, but for those who don’t follow me (or those resisiting the Twitterverse), I’ll say it again here. I am no fan of The Dead Weather’s debut album Horehound. I thought it was a dull, half-committed peek of what those four people could provide. I thought it suffered from [...]