Casey Boland

Songs About a Sick Boy One would be justifiably wary of an album that consists entirely of a man's attempt to document more than a decade's worth of illness, addiction and mental breakdown. Such is the story of Stephen Howard's solo debut. Though he's spent time with acts as diverse as Pinebender, Ambulette and Mississippi […]

Protect 2: A Benefit For The National Association To Protect Children The compilation is a cipher in the current music landscape. Where once they served a utilitarian purpose of exposing new bands or bringing attention to worthy causes, the internet has nearly killed the album as a viable musical entity. A generous swath of music […]

You Can Take It With You Though commonly associated with emo, Long Island, New York's As Tall As Lions always stood apart. They never sounded like the bands with whom they shared stages, and they never fit the stereotypical Long Island sound. While their peers found inspiration in '90s alternative bands, ATAL fashioned their music […]

Prehistoric Knife Fight EP Continuing where 2007's This Sinking Ship left off, Smoke Or Fire bang out two new songs of throbbing, melody-soaked punk rock. They don't shoot for the stars or strive to make grand artistic statements. This is proletarian punk, made by four dudes holing up in a room together (that likely smells like an […]

Revolutions Per Minute Conscious hip-hop is barely conscious in 2010. While hip-hop culture has never been more fully immersed in mainstream culture the world over, much of it wants for artists who refuse to fall in the trapdoors of rap clichés. Talib Kweli could and should be the David to confront this Goliath of commercialized/exploitative […]

Acid Tiger Given their inclusion of Converge and United Nations members, Acid Tiger will surely garner attention. Yet they share scant semblance to the aggro-blitz of either. Acid Tiger's songs ooze a sultry swagger that is more at home in '70s porn flicks (or '80s arena-rock concerts). The band hit their stride when they inject […]

Indoor Voices New York's Bridge And Tunnel could only come from the basement. Their rough-hewn pop-minded punk oozes the sort of DIY aesthetic that proved the defining ethos for a wide swath of agitated guitar rock during the '90s. Like the finer groups of the steadfastly indie basement underground, Bridge And Tunnel have evolved from […]

Photo: Ben Phelps STORY: Casey Boland “All Time Low MEETS All Time Perverts!”–that’s the announcement on the website of Westboro Baptist Church in regard to All Time Low’s show on Dec. 6 in Philadelphia. The WBC-an independent Baptist church focused on anti-gay propaganda–brought their message of hate to the City of Brotherly Love to vilify […]