Month: September 2016

Sponsor: My Thanks to Touché Amoré and Epitaph Records

Touche Amore
Sponsored Post

A huge thank you to Touché Amoré and Epitaph Records for sponsoring the website this week. The band just released their epic new album, Stage Four, and you should definitely be giving that a listen this weekend. I feel like this is one of those albums that hits you almost immediately with its emotional weight and then over time expands until you just can’t get it off your mind. I find myself thinking about these songs even when I’m doing other things. It’s powerful.

Check below for the band’s upcoming tour dates.

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Possible New Lagwagon Album Next Year

Lagwagon
Jason Tate

Joey Cape of Lagwagon talked with Modern Vinyl about the possibility of a new album next year:

Hopefully we’ll make a record sometime early next year. We’re all excited about it, because we took so long to make our last record, collectively, as a unified identity that you are as a band, which I think is fine. I think we’ve kind of figured out that we’re really in a different place than we were. I feel like the last record was our most successful endeavor. It didn’t really sell, because it’s hard to sell records now. That doesn’t really matter anyway when you make music. I think if you’re a band like us, you really care about doing something that everybody’s happy with. It makes us want to continue doing it. I’m really excited about doing more music because that’s kind of where it’s at; that’s the thing.

Pardon Edward Snowden

The New York Times
Jason Tate

The New York Times:

From George Washington onward, the pardon power has enabled American presidents to further the national interest. Whistle-blowers can perform a vital role in protecting human rights, and those who disclose rights violations that are shielded by an official cloak of secrecy are among the most important of all. As Mr. Snowden put it, if “people reporting wrongdoing of the most serious nature have to basically stand up and light themselves on fire, we are very quickly going to find ourselves out of volunteers the very moment when society needs them the most.”

In his biography on Twitter, Mr. Snowden says: “I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public.” That should not be something that gets you locked up for a lifetime or compels you to live in exile. The president has an opportunity to correct that injustice. It’s time to pardon Mr. Snowden and bring him home, not to face the music but to work for the security and privacy of us all.

I agree.

Review: Touché Amoré – Stage Four

Touche Amore - Stage Four
Aj LaGambina

In a year full of good music, it can be difficult to decide which records deserve your attention most. It seems as though every week has at least two releases worth dedicating precious listening time to. At that rate it can quickly become an overwhelming task to simply keep up. That’s why I find it necessary to tell you that if there is one must listen record this year: it’s the latest offering from Touché Amoré, titled Stage Four.

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Review: Dawes – We’re All Gonna Die

Dawes - We're All Gonna Die
Craig Manning

I’m of the mind that no artist—band or solo—has had a more stellar run this decade than Dawes. After debuting in 2009 with the promising North Hills, the Los Angeles quartet fired off Nothing Is Wrong (2011), Stories Don’t End (2013), and All Your Favorite Bands (2015) in the space of just under four years. Not only are all of those records among the best of the decade so far, but they are also all markedly different from one another. Nothing Is Wrong is pitch-perfect Laurel Canyon folk rock, emulating Jackson Browne so successfully that Browne actually agreed to provide backing vocals on a track. Stories Don’t End took the band’s sound in a more modern, studio-driven pop direction, while last year’s All Your Favorite Bands was an Americana road trip of a record that returned the band to their live, improv-heavy roots. The latter features arguably the best playing of any rock album released since 2010.

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