Street Dogs
Street Dogs State Of Grace [4/5]
On Street Dogs’ fourth album in five years, former Dropkick Murphys frontman Mike McColgan is still singing about bloody idealists and fallen heroes with calloused hands-and few do it better. “Kevin J. O’Toole” eulogizes McColgan’s late uncle, a retired fireman. The anthemic “A State Of Grace” finds soul-crushing struggles...
Reggie And The Full Effect - Last Stop: Crappy Town
Reggie And The Full Effect Last Stop: Crappy Town In his various roles as underground hardcore legend (Coalesce), emo icon (the Get Up Kids), sideman to the stars (My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory) or as ringleader of Reggie And The Full Effect, it’s all good for James Dewees, even when it’s crap. Consider Last...
Love You Moon
Love You Moon Waxwane [4/5]
It’s a minor miracle that Rx Bandits CEO Matt Embree had time to work on a proper solo project, what between his busy touring schedule with the Bandits and the gaggle of side projects he already moonlights with (the Sound Of Animals Fighting, Apotheke and PebaLuna, among others). But make...
Deftones, Taking Back Sunday added to Bamboozle Left
Deftones and Taking Back Sunday have been added to the list of performers slated to play this year’s Bamboozle Left, which takes place April 4 and 5 on the festival grounds of Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, California. Both bands will be playing on Sunday, April 5. Tickets go on sale at 12 p.m. Feb....
Cult Of Luna
Cult Of Luna Eternal Kingdom [4.5/5]
While rehearsing in an erstwhile asylum in Umeå, Sweden, Cult Of Luna discovered Tales From The Eternal Kingdom, the fantastical ramblings of a mental patient who blames his wife’s death on scheming anthropomorphic animals and a Luciferian folkloric figure. Even without consulting the lyric sheet for this backstory...
Styrofoam
Styrofoam A Thousand Words [3/5]
Styrofoam’s 2004 full-length Nothing’s Lost was a groundbreaking mix of twitching electro-quirks and organic melancholy. But on the slick A Thousand Words, Arne Van Petegem (aka Styrofoam) worked with the Los Angeles-based production crew WAX LTD, whose clients include Miley Cyrus and Jessica Simpson. Although Words’ warm, bubbling synthpop contains...
Nightbeast
Nightbeast Inside Jokes For Outside Folks [1/5]
Former Hawthorne Heights bassist Nick Testa currently can be found guitar-teching for bands like HH, Punchline and Say Anything. But when he’s not busy tuning strings, he apparently records painfully unfunny, dragging electro-emo-pop songs. Nightbeast’s debut aims for some sort of cute humor attained by acts like Hellogoodbye...
Punchline's Chris Fafalios co-authors new 'children's' book
Whistle Pig, "a children’s book for people who used to be children," is now available for purchase at buywhistlepig.com or their MySpace. The book is a collaboration by long-time friends Chris Fafalios (Punchline) and Tony Hartman (formerly of The Interns). It features comical poems, fairy tales, illustrations and a foreword by Santa Claus.
Negativland
Negativland Thigmotactic [2.5/5]
Like the conceptual modern art that adorns the liner notes of their most recent work Thigmotactic, Negativland’s music challenges you to assume things are flying over your head, when in reality, it’s quite possible their riffing is less profound than it appears. Stark statements about sending bombs to advertising executives aside, Negativland...