Dan Leroy
Here’s how Hyro The Hero and Disturbed’s David Draiman came together
When he wrote the lyrics to “We Believe” four years ago, Hyro The Hero believed he’d come up with an anthem. The song, which is about the difficulty of knowing who and what to put your trust in, seemed to speak perfectly to the present moment.
As he finally...
’80s Afro-Punks Fishbone are reforming for new political LP with Fat Mike
Fishbone keyboardist, trombonist and songwriter Chris Dowd is describing a creative miracle: hollandaise sauce. “You’re taking an egg and some olive oil. Two components that wouldn't mix together,” he explains, “but you whisk it together a certain way, and that causes it to bond.”
Dowd, who studied ...
King Youngblood are navigating protests and the pandemic in “Opaque”
If there’s an award for most topical music video of the year, we should probably close the voting now. “Opaque,” by Seattle’s King Youngblood, folds today’s two major storylines—the pandemic and protests—into one striking five-minute clip. The video conflates the isolation of the...
These 16 early Afro-Punk artists made huge contributions to alt-rock
The 2003 documentary Afro-Punk lifted the lid on how many black musicians and fans were part of punk culture. Yet even today, there persists the idea that black participation in rock music is some sort of novelty or anomaly.
That disregards, of course, mountains of evidence to the contrary, going back all the way to March 1951...
ROAM will satisfy your need for pop punk anthems with ‘Great Heights & Nosedives’
ROAM
Great Heights & Nosedives
ROCKS LIKE: New Found Glory, Simple Plan, Blink-182
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: The difference between this album and 2016’s full-length debut, Backbone, is simply a coat of extra polish. Recording in Los Angeles with Kyle Black at the helm, this U.K. quinte
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Algiers’ ‘The Underside of Power’ is a darker-hued follow-up to their debut album
Algiers
The Underside of Power
FILE UNDER: Nonstop diversa-pop brilliance
ROCKS LIKE: The Pop Group, the Veldt, TV On The Radio
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: This Atlanta-based act’s 2015 debut, which gave us the sound of a soulful ghost in the post-punk machine, was rightfully called a stunner. And its
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Machine Gun Kelly gives authentic, compelling take in ‘bloom’
Machine Gun Kelly
bloom
ROCKS LIKE: Kid Rock, Wiz Khalifa, Everlast
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: The best way to view MGK’s third studio set is through the prism of two recent tracks. One of them, of course, is “Bad Things,” the breakthrough duet with Camila Cabello that blew up last year by showcasing Kells’ softer side. bloom contains a half-doze
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LA songwriter Ryan Pollie follows up with ‘Los Angeles Police Department’
Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
FILE UNDER: Beefed-up bedroom pop
ROCKS LIKE: Elliott Smith, Daniel Johnston, Grizzly Bear
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: The sense of intimacy and the country-tinged aesthetic survive from LA songwriter Ryan Pollie’s 2014 debut, which produced the left-field hit “She Came Through (Again).” But this epon
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K.Flay deliver strong lyrics and signature genre-blending in new album
K.Flay
Every Where Is Some Where
FILE UNDER: Pop, politics, power
ROCKS LIKE: Santigold, MC Lars, Lizzo
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: In our Spotified world, the hard-to-classify genre-bending that used to bedevil artists like K. Flay (aka Kristine Flaherty) has now become an asset. Ev...
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Dangerkids offer a bleak, betrayed outlook that gives them something to shout about in ‘Blacklist_’
Dangerkids
Blacklist_
FILE UNDER: Nü-Metal Apologists
ROCKS LIKE: Linkin Park, Sworn In, My Ticket Home
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: The ongoing homage to Noughties nü metal remains intact from Dangerkids’ 2013 debut, Collapse, updated with occasionally spooky electronics and just enough emo vulnerability to allow for a closing ballad (“Invincible Summer”). What’s really different is that during the long wa
Metal, EDM renew their mating ritual in the Algorithm’s latest album (review)
The Algorithm
Brute Force
As metal and EDM renew their periodic mating ritual (which dates back to the ’80s heyday of Ministry and continues with bands like Enter Shikari), the spawn is usually best described as “pulverizing.” But the third album from Frenchman Rémi Gallego is less brutal than bombastic, boasting an intricacy and melodicism that hearkens back to the grand old days of prog. Sure, t
The 10 best twenty one pilots songs
Columbus, Ohio, duo twenty one pilots are proof that bands can still break big the honest, old-fashioned way. Building a following for their singular brand of hip-hop, pop, electronica and emo confessionals through tireless touring, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun became nationally known after signing to Fueled By Ramen in 2012
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New Politics can write hits. Playing them? That’s another story
As songwriters, David Boyd and Søren Hansen are developing a hitmaking partnership. The Danish-born, American based duo – two-thirds of the band New Politics, along with New York drummer Louis Vecchio – crafted two big singles from 2013’s A Bad Girl In Harlem. And they followed up “H
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The Top 10 twenty one pilots Songs Of All Time
Columbus, Ohio, duo twenty one pilots are proof that bands can still break big the honest, old-fashioned way. Building a following for their singular brand of hip-hop, pop, electronica and emo confessionals through tireless touring, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun became nationally known after signing to Fueled By Ramen in 2012
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Reggae’s New (Rare) Breed
If anyone can tell you about the ups and downs of starting a new label, it’s Vinnie Fiorello. The Less Than Jake drummer and lyricist helped create Fueled By Ramen, one of the world’s most iconic alternative music labels, almost two decades ago. Since then
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OK Go – “Another Set Of Issues” song premiere and interview
“Thank you for being my guinea pig,” jokes OK Go frontman Damian Kulash, at the end of a lengthy, but fascinating new analogy he’s just created, about the way songwriting is like a sonar device. “Now I need to get that down to a one-sentence version.”
Kulash is known best, perhaps,
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“I’ve always been a bit of an outsider.” —K.Flay on her new album
“I’ve been inhaling paint fumes all day,” confesses Kristine Flaherty. It’s not what you think; Flaherty has actually been helping paint sheds all morning as part of a Warped Tour community service project. And if you know anything about Flaherty’s musical alter ego, K.Flay, you already understand ...
Bleachers – Strange Desire
Bleachers
Strange Desire
There’s nothing strange about fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff’s desire to take his talents solo on this side project. You’re unlikely to hear a more earnest album than Bleachers' Strange Desire this year, nor are you apt to find a release more faithful to the spirit and sound of Top 40 radio in the late, great ’80s. With the help of super-producer Vinc
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Artifex Pereo – Time In Place
Artifex Pereo
Time In Place
From Yes to Muse, bands with prog tendencies have tended to succeed by knowing exactly how far they can stray from the old-time rock ’n’ roll pulse that thumps below the grandiloquent gestures. This Louisville, Kentucky, sextet do an admirable job of anchoring their more outré leanings—expressed via such prog hallmarks as an esoteric name (it’s from a quote attributed t
Pixies – Indie Cindy
Pixies
Indie Cindy
Watching someone grow old daily is a subtle, sometimes imperceptible process. But when a friend shows up again after more than two decades, the reunion can be a shock, and the focus is almost inevitably on what the person is now not
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