Review: Bruce Springsteen – Live At Hammersmith Odeon, 1975

Bruce Springsteen - Live At Hammersmith Odeon, 1975
Thomas Nassiff

Next in the order of Bruce Springsteen’s studio records should be Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Rest assured, I’m not skipping Darkness, but I am skipping three other studio albums. Instead of doing reviews for The Ghost Of Tom Joad, Human Touch and Lucky Town, I am instead reviewing three live performances – Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75 (from the Born To Run 30th anniversary boxed set), Live In New York City ‘01 and London Calling. Since the Hammersmith Odeon concert happened in between Born to Run and Darkness, I’m just filing the review where it belongs in chronological order. The Darkness review will be up in next week’s batch.

If you read the last review in this series, about Born To Run, you probably noticed that I liked that record quite a bit. I wrote that I think it’s the best record of all time, so it should come as no surprise that I think Bruce Springsteen’s best touring days came after the release of that album. Many people subscribe to the opinion that Springsteen and The E Street Band were even more impressive after the release of Darkness On The Edge of Town, but I don’t think anything can compare to Springsteen’s performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1975.

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Review: Balance and Composure – Separation

Balance & Composure - Separation
Thomas Nassiff

It’s May. A lot of reviewers write during this month about those summer albums that will define the next few months for America’s youth: the sky-high vocals and enormous hooks that will erupt from car stereo systems and overflow out open windows and into hot and humid summer air. Balance & Composure’s first full-length record, Separation, doesn’t have those airy, lightweight melodies that normally accompany beach trips or patriotic fireworks displays. It does, however, have one extremely important intrinsic quality to it – it’s probably the best record released in 2011 so far.

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Review: Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Thomas Nassiff

Born To Run is the best album ever written. It contains within its eight tracks the two best rock and roll songs ever written and three other songs that are damn close. The album cover is the best album art ever put on a record. This review does not reflect my bias of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, but rather my honest opinion about what I (and many others) consider to be the record that saved rock and roll music.

When a 25-year-old Springsteen released Born To Run in 1975, he was almost ready to hang up his hat on music. Columbia Records did not approve of the cult following that Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shufflecreated; they signed Springsteen with the very specific idea that he was going to sell as many records as Bob Dylan. They wanted his face on billboards on the highway, and they wanted his name on top of the Billboard singles charts every week. Springsteen has said that the only thing that made him write Born To Run was that he never wanted to have a 9-to-5 job in his life. In Dave Marsh’s biography of Springsteen, Marsh writes that Springsteen was finally going to call it quits if Born To Run didn’t succeed. Well, the record didn’t just succeed – it went down as one of the most important records ever released, and Springsteen filled an empty void as America’s beloved and adored rock and roll superstar.

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Review: Manchester Orchestra – Simple Math

Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
AbsolutePunk

”I remember seeing the Blood Brothers play at the Masquerade and it scaring me to my core. I’d never heard of them. I just went with a friend, and then shortly after that I realized that I want that power. I wanted that power just to shock people with sound.” – Andy Hull

The first time I ever met Andy Hull, we connected a bit on a love for The Blood Brothers. Not a band you would expect the frontman and lyricist of Manchester Orchestra to have a heart for, but in reality, Hull has quite a musical archive of influence, even telling me how he likes turning fans onto new bands or ones they may never have heard of. Aside from his admiration as a music fan, the above pulled quote also speaks volumes in a quest to be not only challenged, but have the audacity to simply “put up or shut up.” With 2009’s Mean Everything to Nothing, the band saw a sophomore incline of sorts: two radio singles and a well-received album that personally landed in my lap at one of the biggest changes in my life thus far. On the most personal of levels, the band’s second release was the perfect soundtrack to leaving college and moving away as Deja Entendu was the score when entering it.

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Review: Silverstein – Rescue

Silverstein - Rescue
AbsolutePunk

Music fans are usually faced with quite the dilemma when they are looking forward to a new record, especially if it’s coming from a band they’re particularly fond of. Do you want them to evolve – perhaps taking a leap to something you might not enjoy as much – or do you want them to stay…consistent? For the most part, the consensus seems to be that bands need to evolve to stay relevant. Grow with their audience, as some might say. Some bands do just fine by staying static, though. Look at New Found Glory: a consistent sound has lead them to become perhaps the greatest pop punk band ever. When they strayed a bit, on Coming Home, fans were generally displeased.

Silverstein is another band that has utilized a tried-and-true formula throughout its career, and Rescue, the band’s fifth studio album and debut for Hopeless Records, sees the Canadians doing more of the same. While the band won many over with its 2005 breakout, Discovering the Waterfront, fans of the band seemed to either grow more loyal or completely become disinterested when Arrivals and Departures and A Shipwreck In The Sand showcased similar sounds. The latter was Silverstein’s last record, a concept album which I considered to be fairly underrated.

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Review: Thursday – No Devolución

Thursday - No Devolucion
Drew Beringer

Honestly, we all should have seen this coming from Thursday.  They’ve been dropping hints of a more atmospheric and textured sound in their records over the past five years (A City By The Light Divided, their split EP with Envy, and Common Existence).  So anyone who is saying that their new album, No Devolución, is a new beginning or rebirth for the band just haven’t been paying attention.  The common Thursday traits are still present: Geoff Rickly’s not-perfect-yet-so-perfect croon, distorted guitars, thick instrumentation, and, of course, Rickly’s realistic and cathartic lyrics.  What’s different is that No Devolución isn’t as abrasive as Thursday albums past, rather it’s soaked in luscious, experimental tones and dark melodies.

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Interview: Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years

Thomas Nassiff

In the last year and a half, The Wonder Years have ridden their early 2010 release The Upsides to levels of attention they had never experienced before. That record helped them jump from the up-and-coming No Sleep Records to indie powerhouse Hopeless Records, exposed the group to new fans and got them credibility all over the globe. After roughly an entire year of touring, the six-piece Philadelphia pop-punkers took a month to record a follow-up full-length in Los Angeles with the legendary Steve Evetts. Announced earlier today, Suburbia I’ve Give You All And Now I’m Nothing will be released June 14 via Hopeless Records. Now we’ve got for you an exclusive interview with frontman Dan “Soupy” Campbell, where Soupy and I discuss the band’s current state, a big-picture look into the new record, the first song we’re exclusively streaming, and the band’s mindset going into the release of Suburbia. Much thanks to Soupy for taking the time to answer these questions, to Hopeless for letting us bring you this great exclusive, and to The Wonder Years and their entire team for being awesome people to work with.

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Review: Mansions – Dig Up The Dead

Mansions - Dig Up The Dead
Drew Beringer

Ya know, Christopher Browder isn’t so different from you and me. Based on his previous work, I’d bet that we’ve felt the same as him at point or another in our lives, whether it be the same fears, thoughts, or aspirations. We’re all heavily flawed, and Browder isn’t afraid to share that. And that’s what makes Mansions’ second full length album, Dig Up The Dead, so instantly relatable. Throughout the ten tracks, Browder spins together intricate tales of loneliness, heartbreak, and doubt backed by layers of fuzzy, distorted guitars. 

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Review: Panic! at the Disco – Vices & Virtues

Panic at the Disco - Vices & Virtues
Blake Solomon

This is what you wanted, right? A “return to form” – i.e. slick pop layered over synths, the occasional crunchy guitar and a weird fascination with Vaudeville (despite none of us knowing what that really means) – yep, this is you getting what you wanted. And although getting what we wanted can sometimes lead to felonies or regrettable Zune tattoos (R.I.P.), in this case what we wanted is what’s best for us and both remaining members of Panic!(!) At The Disco. With Vices & Virtues, Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith have created an album that isn’t mature, because what does that even mean, but an album that understands from its first note where it’s going and the best way to get there. 

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