Interview: Polyenso

Craig Ismaili Jun 1, 2016

A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to attend the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a high-energy weekend filled with great bands (both up-and-coming and established). One of the best bands I saw was Polyenso, who played an early Saturday set on the Buford Highway stage. Afterward, I got to sit down for a bit and chat with the band about their new record The Pure In The Plastic, what they’re anticipating most from their upcoming tour with PVRIS, and how their songs change in a live setting.

Review: Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool

Aaron Mook May 31, 2016

Rarely does one have a moderate stance on Radiohead. More often than not, those who are familiar with the band have by now either accepted that Thom Yorke and company are geniuses (or perhaps aliens) or that the band is, as Dan Ozzi so eloquently put it, “for boring music nerds.” It should be no surprise that I fall in the former camp, believing the band’s penchant for mystique and evolution has helped pave the way for other scene favorites (including Thrice and Brand New) and that even their most flawed albums (The Bends, Hail to the Thief) contain a spark that is integral to their later-career masterpieces.

Interview: The Front Bottoms

Craig Ismaili May 30, 2016

A few weekends ago I was lucky enough to attend Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. While there, I got a chance to catch The Front Bottoms on Friday afternoon. Their set was one of the best I saw all weekend, and after, we got a chance to sit down and chat with them about a variety of topics (including a possible The Front Bottoms craft beer).

Review: The Hotelier – Goodness

Drew Beringer May 27, 2016

Three months ago, Christian Holden, vocalist/bassist of The Hotelier, posted on the band’s Tumblr a very personal essay reflecting on how their last album, Home, Like NoPlace Is There, affected the band’s lives and how they were going to proceed in the future. The essay also featured Holden coming to terms with being a public figure and exploring trust, art, and “realness.” Somewhere in the middle of the post Holden writes, “And I think this is what bums me out about the wishy-washiness of rock music and performance. Realness is a treasure in life. I don’t want to see uncritical postured realness. I want transparency.” And, well, you can use that declaration as the thesis statement for The Hotelier’s stunning new album, Goodness.

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Review: Thrice – To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere

Aaron Mook May 26, 2016

You have to pick one: an album you enjoy or an album that the artist is happy with.

I’m not here to say either answer is correct or to call those who don’t enjoy Thrice’s long-awaited comeback, and ninth studio album, To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere, selfish or wrong. But let’s be honest and say that rarely does artistic growth and vision mesh completely with fan expectation. Essentially, I’m arguing that there are going to be some fans who are disappointed with Thrice’s new album. As unfortunate as that is, the band should take solace in knowing they’ve crafted their best work in years.

Review: Saosin – Along The Shadow

Craig Ismaili May 25, 2016

Surely by now you have heard the good word: almost two years ago, Anthony Green rejoined Saosin, the band he fronted back in the early to mid-2000s, for a series of long-awaited headlining dates. It was unknown at the time whether the band would ever reconvene for a proper full-length with Green on vocals. But sure enough, here we are in 2016, and Saosin has just released Along The Shadow, their first full-length in seven years. The titular shadow could well refer to the dark specter of expectation that looms over this comeback album.

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Review: PUP – The Dream is Over

Blake Solomon May 24, 2016

PUP’s aesthetic isn’t a cool one. It’s not wrapped in two layers of irony, obsessed with a worldview, or holier-than-thou. Words that can describe both the band and The Dream Is Over are simple ones: loud, brash, louder, unsettled, loudest. In fact, naming their album The Dream Is Over is probably the most complicated thing about it, if only because it requires a backstory. (A doctor gave singer Stefan Babcock an apocalyptic diagnosis after observing his shredded vocal chords. But you know that already.) Everything else is pretty straightforward.

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Interview: Riley Breckenridge of Thrice

Jonathan Bautts May 23, 2016

Drummer Riley Breckenridge breaks down Thrice’s first album in five years, To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere, and how being present in the moment has reinvigorated the band to come back as strong as ever.

Interview: Frank Turner

Craig Manning May 19, 2016

Frank Turner is about to return to the United States for another leg of the Positive Songs for Negative People tour. I got a chance to chat with Frank about how he feels about the album now that it’s been out for a little while, why his next record will be more “radical” and “experimental” than anything he’s ever done before, how Butch Walker ended up producing the album, why playing shows with Jason Isbell is a realization of a years-old dream, and how recording the mournful “Song for Josh” in a live setting almost made Turner, a “profoundly, sternly atheist man,” glimpse a higher power.

Review: Modern Baseball – Holy Ghost

Drew Beringer May 13, 2016

About halfway through “Note To Self,” the third track off Modern Baseball’s new album Holy Ghost, Jacob Ewald earnestly proclaims: “There will be no more fucking around today.” On this particular song it’s mostly about Ewald taking control of his life, but that line can be applied to the Philly quartet’s evolution as well. The band’s first two releases (Sports and You’re Gonna Miss It All) catapulted the band from humble beginnings into playing shows with punk stalwarts like The Wonder Years, The Menzingers, and Say Anything. This rise set them up as the premier band on Run For Cover’s roster. But there was also plenty of fucking around on those albums while they blurred the lines between pop-punk and emo. On Holy Ghost, there are no more assholes with iPhones or songs about Chloe’s Twitter handle. Rather, Modern Baseball’s third LP works as a split release – Ewald writing and leading the first six tracks while Brendan Lukens undertaking the last five. On the surface this may seem like a recipe for an uneven listening experience; however, Holy Ghost rolls through its eleven tracks beautifully while touching on topics like finding love, battling depression, fighting addiction, and coping with mental illness.

Review: Good Charlotte – Youth Authority

Jason Tate May 12, 2016

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on May 12th, 2016. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Hahah, ok, yeah, maybe not what people would expect me to do a first listen for, but the album showed up, and after I did a listen of The Living End’s Shift while queuing up news for tomorrow morning, I threw this on kind of as an after thought for fun, not really expecting much.

Um.

I like it. Like, it’s kinda really fun and good pop-rock music. Like, it’s kinda the best album the band’s written since Young and the Hopeless. Like, maybe it’s the two beers, but whatever, I’m gonna do another listen and write some thoughts about this one. News is queued up, to-do list for the day is done, and it’s too late to do any actual “work” for the rest of the evening.

Interview: Robby Takac of Goo Goo Dolls

Jonathan Bautts May 10, 2016

Goo Goo Dolls’ bassist, Robby Takac, talks about keeping things fresh on the band’s 11th album Boxes, the slow progressions they’ve undergone over their now 30-year career, and never taking success for granted.

Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium

Craig Manning May 9, 2016

Why would any band ever release a double album? Serious question. The deck is stacked against you. Even the Beatles couldn’t do it without filler, and they were working in the days of vinyl. (Plus, you know, they were the Beatles.) What the hell do you have in your songbook that justifies two CDs of material? Calm down, go home, cut some tracks, and come back when you’re ready to be serious about making a cohesive work of musical art.

By all accounts, double albums are impossible. Even the acclaimed ones don’t escape the charge of filler, from Bruce Springsteen’s The River to The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness. Let’s not even get into the kind of reputation that Foo Fighters’ In Your Honor has, or Arcade Fire’s Reflektor. And you can sure as hell bet that Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience and Green Day’s trilogy would have better legacies if they had been single-disc affairs.

Review: Thrice – To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere

Jason Tate May 5, 2016

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on May 5th, 2016. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Ok, this is totally not really a “first listen,” this is more like an eleventh or so listen, but I have been having a lot of fun doing these the past few nights, and after getting the podcast done and up, and a bunch of news queued up for tomorrow morning, I found myself with about an hour to do things before I am going to call it a night. I could, maybe should, work on some features on the forum, but I decided that a Thrice live blog is what gets my time tonight.

Beer for the night: Full Sail “Pilsner”

The regular rules still apply: These are my first thoughts, totally fully of spoilers, mostly just a live blog of what I’m thinking, I can change my mind at any time, and feel free to ask questions!