Noel Gallagher is an easy target, if only because he gleefully takes aim at just about everything in his sights. In recent years, he’s pointed his abrasive Mancunian accent at Jay Z, The X Factor and, most famously, his own brother, Oasis frontman Liam. Scroll through enough of his soundbites and it’ll… Source: RollingStone Link: Looking Back […]
It’s been nearly four years since Of Monsters and Men unleashed their debut album, My Head Is An Animal, and the long-awaited follow-up is finally on the horizon. The Icelandic folk-pop quintet announced that their second LP, called Beneath The Skin, will arrive in June, with new single “Crystals” offering a… Source: RollingStone Link: Of Monsters […]
Brandi Carlile isn’t the only member of Brandi Carlile. For more than a decade, the big-voiced roots-rocker has shared the road with twin brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth. Everyone sings. Everyone plays. Everyone writes songs. At its most collaborative, Brandi Carlile — the band, not the person — recreates the sort of… Source: RollingStone Link: Brandi […]
Founded in London in 1963 by singer Phil May and an original Rolling Stone, guitarist Dick Taylor, the Pretty Things took their name from a 1955 Bo Diddley single and covered four of his tunes on their debut LP. The Pretties also supercharged Diddley’s iconic shuffle and tremolo strum into… Source: RollingStone Link: Bouquets From […]
As Bob Marley took reggae to the world in the Seventies, singer-producer Vivian Jackson, a.k.a. Yabby You, was filling the wake in Jamaica with righteous and sensual singles — the sublime debut, “Conquering Lion,” the poised confrontations “Jah Vengeance” and “Run Come Rally” — that fused dread sermons and R&B-vocal class. On… Source: RollingStone Link: Dread Prophecy
Elliott Smith’s all-too-brief career inspired a generation of artists taken by his piercing lyrics and delicate melodies. On this loving, hit-or-miss tribute, Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield draw largely from Smith’s 1997 breakthrough, Either/Or, and his posthumous work. Mayfield provides the highlights with her grunge rendition of “Roman Candle”… Source: RollingStone Link: Seth Avett […]
Welcome to alternative rock’s Chinese Democracy. Modest Mouse’s sixth studio album is the Washington state band’s first full-length work of new songs since 2007; it may also be the longest hour of music you hear this year. Singer-songwriter Isaac Brock and drummer Jeremiah Green, aided by a cast of dozens,… Source: RollingStone Link: Strangers to […]
Paul McCartney, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman — comparisons are inescapable for this 29-year-old singer-songwriter. But accusing Tobias Jesso Jr. of piano-rock plagiarism is like accusing Shake Shack of hamburger mimicry. His debut LP gathers 12 beautifully lean ballads sung in a vulnerable tenor, with vintage studio touches blended by sharp producers… Source: RollingStone Link: Goon
Singer-songwriter Ron Nagle was proudly out of step in acid-rock San Francisco: leading the Who-ish pop-art band the Mystery Trend, then issuing this sweet-and-salty 1970 meal of prescient roots rock and slippery romanticism. This two-CD reissue has demos that show how Nagle got to his lost-classic blend of proto-Rockpile brawls… Source: RollingStone Link: Bad Rice […]
L.A.’s Awolnation broke out with their 2011 hit “Sail,” a dark and stormy electro-rock power ballad on which singer Aaron Bruno succeeded in sliding the phrase “blame it on my ADD” into the pop consciousness. His ADD is still cooking on the band’s latest album: Bruno is a studio impressionist… Source: RollingStone Link: Run