Contributions
Weezer - Weezer
Weezer Weezer After 2005’s semi-return to form Make Believe, many assumed Weezer were gracefully riding off into the sunset, having finally pleased critics, fans and themselves with an album that while nowhere near as generation-defining as 1994’s Weezer or 1996’s Pinkerton, at least left those who had an emotional investment in the band with a […]
Bloggings on an otherwise anniversary.
This past Saturday, July 12, was the fourth anniversary of my first day of work at AP. It's kind of nuts to me to think about these past four years, and just how quickly time has flown by. Take a walk with me down memory lane, won't you? Here are some things I'll never forget […]
Death Cab For Cutie- Narrow Stairs
Narrow Stairs It’s been an interesting few years for Ben Gibbard. After plugging away for nearly a decade with his indie-pop outfit Death Cab For Cutie, he finally struck gold (well, technically platinum) with 2005’s Grammy-nominated Plans. Death Cab’s major-label debut didn’t differ much from their mostly brilliant back catalog, yet in some indier-than-thou circles, […]
Gods Reflex - When It's Down To This
Gods Reflex When It’s Down To This After two brilliant albums of highly literate, emotional punk, Gods Reflex disbanded in 2003, a fraction too soon to be fully appreciated by anyone outside of the Northern Illinois underground. Luckily, three-fourths of the band reconvened for When It’s Down To This, their third and most-realized album. GR’s […]
Blog for the scraping.
As the music editor of AP, I'm supposed to not only be familiar with but have a deep knowledge of pretty much every band in the punk underground from the '70s to present day. Not only that, I'm also expected to be a champion for the "good guys" — the bands that are function over […]
Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire
Angels & Airwaves I-Empire It was easy to get caught up in the web of hype Tom DeLonge spun for Angels & Airwaves’ 2006 debut We Don’t Need To Whisper. But after the dust settled, we were left with a solid melodic-rock album that withstood most of the backlash from DeLonge’s hyperbole. (Although 18 months […]
Saves The Day - Under the Boards
Saves The Day Under The Boards When Saves The Day released Sound The Alarm in 2006, it wasn’t so much a return to form as it was a new, refined, mature band who could be both aggressive and poppy, a duality 2003’s In Reverie severely lacked. While the record was warmly received, no one realized […]
Against Me! - New Wave
Against Me! New Wave Really, we all should've seen it coming. With their spot-on cover of the Replacements anthem “Bastards Of Young” on 2006's We'll Inherit The Earth tribute compilation, Florida quartet Against Me! started the shift from scene-leading punk band to culture-creating rock band. With New Wave, their major label debut for the recently […]
Paramore - Riot!
Paramore Riot! Glancing over Fueled By Ramen’s lineup card, it’s easy to see there’s a lot riding on Riot!, the sophomore offering from Tennessee-based pop-rockers Paramore. The band haven’t yet ascended to AP cover status like the Academy Is… or Cute Is What We Aim For (and they aren’t even close to Fall Out Boy […]