Pitchfork dropped yesterday a load of news on Andrew Bird. The reported that everyone’s favorite whistling wonder has been busy developing and laying down tracks for his followup to last year’s stellar Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs The new album, tentatively titled The Armchair Apocalypse.
In addition to adding to his library, Mr. […]

In the bleak corners of metal, there is an obscure sub-genre known as “doom metal.” I prefer to think of it as “ambient metal,” as ridiculous as it sounds. Imagine Pink Floyd with distortion doing a heavy metal Sigur Ros cover; that’s doom metal. I find this burgeoning sub-genre to be one of the most […]

Thrash metal antiheros Slayer talked to MTV about their upcoming album today, saying it may be the fastest album yet. Singer Tom Atraya:
“This album is actually like a culmination of everything we’ve done,” Araya said. “There’s one song that I’m thinking will surprise everybody, because of the song itself. I’m not going to say why, […]

Blabbermouth reports that Strapping Young Lad have completed recording their new album, titled “The New Black,” due out in July. For the uninformed, Strapping Young Lad are a Canadian metal band who are redefining the genre with their irony and pure sonic brutality. They are one of the hottest metal shows around right now. The […]

Junkie XL broke into the mainstream in the late 90s riding the techno-pop-rock wave let loose by the likes of Moby, Prodigy and Fatboy Slim. Like his peers, Junkie XL existed in some pop music void. It was a confusing mish mash of genres, spanning house and techno, to pop and rock without much sense […]

It’s Tuesday and you all know what that means, that’s right–time for new releases. This is what you all should be on the lookout for:

Sam Roberts - Chemical City
Dreamy pop rock. They have something distinctly catchy to their sound.
The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (UK)
British rapping phenomenon Mike Skinner […]

Strangely, The Eagles of Death Metal don’t sound anything like The Eagles or Death Metal. Instead they exude a distinct taste of rockabilly glam-rock. The music is over-the-top with pulsing rhythms, silly harmonies, and off-the-cuff guitar riffs. And considering the band’s sardonic name, this wacky self-indulgence is clearly deliberate.
The laid back nature of the band […]

Oh, England. Your purest, most exportable products are so snarky and they confuse us here in a land where our artists “remember the old arcade” where they “blew every dollar [they] ever made” and Haley looks so cute on the swing, but fuck if her mom doesn’t suck.
So what do we have here? A […]

Progressive metal is one of those genres with no in between—when it’s good it’s amazing; but when it’s bad, plug your ears. As the album cover implies, Evergrey, a popular Swedish prog metal band, in their sixth album fail to avoid cheesiness and over-indulgence.
Most of Monday Morning Apocalypsefollows a pretty predictable format: crunching 7-string riffs […]

My friends and I have been having a lot of conversations about how the flaming lips should be remembered. I know they’re not dead yet, but some people seem to really want them to be known for their earlier, more punk heavy, guitar-ridden stuff. Personally, I’m partial to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and […]