Mike Patton has been unpredictable throughout his professional life. Announced in 2000, his “pop project,” known as Peeping Tom presented another unexpected detour after projects such as Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantomas, Lovage and the bizarre solo release Adult Themes for Voice. Similarly, few probably expected the project to take six full years to reach shelves. […]

My dad has played bass for 30 years and he somehow just found out about Les Claypool. He called me one day to tell me he wanted to go to a Primus concert and I laughed at him. I told him to download some of the music before he made a decision like […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Staff writer Mark Manson has a review of Show Your Bones, the latest effort from indie rockers The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The review is short and sweet, just like the album. Enioy–after the drop.

Perhaps I have a fetish, but there’s something strangely sexy about a punk girl yipping and barking into a microphone. Judging by […]

I’ve got a treat for you all this afternoon, something new. A band you’ve probably never heard of. But one you’ll likely be hearing a lot about in the near future. Shoplifting is the newest acts to drop an album on the Kill Rock Stars label. Body Stories is a fusion of styles that makes […]