Review: Miranda Lambert – The Weight of These Wings

Craig Manning Nov 22, 2016

Earlier this year, in a 10-year retrospective piece for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium, I talked at length about the impossibility of double albums. The crux of my argument there was that the double album was something of a cautionary tale. So many artists have tried and failed to make compelling double albums, free of filler and with enough thematic or sonic cohesion to hold together over the course of two discs. Even as a songwriter myself, I can’t fathom wanting to attempt a double album. The idea of writing lots of songs is that you can take the finest ones, the ones that best cohere to your vision, and put them on a record together.

Review: Certain Women

Nathan Hall Nov 17, 2016

Certain Women. It’s there in the title. This is a film about certain women. Their lives are interconnected in certain ways, large and small, always existing simultaneously. Their stories share some themes, but their stories are different in other ways. This is a slice of life film where the lives we’re witness to are so fully realized that even the mundane, routine, and unspectacular are rich and layered. It is a precisely made film, with art in every frame, presented with masterful control. Kelly Reichardt has crafted something fascinating, something special.

There isn’t much to the plot of the film, which feels weird to say about a story that involves a hostage situation. Yes, a disgruntled man holds captives with a gun, but this is no action movie. Just as tense as the sequence featuring Laura Dern in a bulletproof vest approaching a gunman is a sequence in which a lonely rancher drives four hours to see the woman she has a crush on but barely knows, unannounced. In a similar vein to films such as Margaret and Boyhood, we’re witnessing situations that mean very specific things to certain people, but the world around them continues to move forward, Earth still spinning, lives continuing on. Just three stories, each elevated by the context of their surroundings.

Review: Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

Thomas Nassiff Nov 15, 2016

Being drawn to Laura Jane Grace’s memoir, TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, is a natural side-effect of being hypnotized, mesmerized, and forever in awe of Against Me!’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues. I appreciated Transgender Dysphoria Blues for a myriad of reasons: It’s a hell of a rock-and-roll album, it’s intimate and personal in its storytelling, the way my favorite artists have always sung their stories, and it made me a better person. The latter point is not something that can be said for a ton of my favorite albums.

Review: All Get Out – Nobody Likes a Quitter

Aj LaGambina Nov 8, 2016

Sometimes waiting pays off.

It’s now the last quarter of 2016, and we finally have the sophomore effort from All Get Out, Nobody Likes a Quitter. The band’s last full length, The Season, was released all the way back in September of 2011. Now widely considered something of a cult classic, that record was followed up four years later with the Movement EP, an effort meant to reflect the pace and energy of the band’s live show. Now almost a year later, we have All Get Out’s second full length, and it was worth every (im)patient day we waited for it.

Interview: Deryck Whibley of Sum 41

Jonathan Bautts Nov 3, 2016

Frontman Deryck Whibley details his long and difficult road back contained in Sum 41’s new album 13 Voices, the return of original guitarist Dave Baksh, his feelings about the band’s older material, and why he doesn’t like modern pop music.

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Interview: Dan Layus

Jonathan Bautts Oct 27, 2016

Dan Layus discusses the natural transition leading to his first solo album Dangerous Things, being at home musically and content with songs living on their own, plus what the future holds for him and the Augustana name.

Review: John K. Samson – Winter Wheat

Zac Djamoos Oct 26, 2016

“Word is getting out that The Weakerthans are done.”

This tweet from The Weakerthans’ drummer, Jason Tait, last July didn’t surprise many fans – their last album had been in 2007 and they hadn’t played a show in two years – but it was confirmation, and it still stung to read. So when it was announced that Weakerthans vocalist/guitarist/lyricist John K. Samson would be releasing his second solo album this year featuring collaborations from Tait and Weakerthans bassist Greg Smith (among others), it almost felt like that hiatus was over. Many fans probably expected Winter Wheat to sound, somewhat, like a Weakerthans album. Given the members involved, it didn’t seem like a stretch, especially consider Samson’s last solo outing, 2012’s Provincial, was stylistically similar to his old band’s brand of indie rock. Those people were wrong.

Interview: Interview: Kevin Devine

Aaron Mook Oct 25, 2016

I caught up with Kevin Devine on the same morning that his new album, Instigator, launched for stream onto the internet — a fact he seemed almost as relieved as he was excited about. Over the next hour, we talked all kinds of things from the connection between the album’s title and its artwork, how his song “No Time Flat” has aged over the past decade, and what full-length album he might want to cover next.

Review: Jimmy Eat World – Integrity Blues

Craig Ismaili Oct 24, 2016

“The open road is still miles away. Ain’t nothing serious. We still have our fun. Oh, we had it once.” These words, from the second verse of Jimmy Eat World’s perpetually underrated song, “The World You Love,” sum up so much of why I have fallen head-over-heels in love with this band over the past five years of my life. Jimmy Eat World’s music is best represented by the open road late night drives that “The World You Love” calls to mind. The freedom to explore the best of what the world has to offer.

My life is currently in a state of transition. One change, in particular, looms larger than the others. One of my closest friends, and one of the catalysts for thrusting me headfirst into Jimmy Eat World super fandom, is moving 600 miles away at the end of the month. Someday, maybe soon, I will end up relocating as well. So that line, so symbolic of the open road optimism for the future, is also simultaneously so wistful about the places we’re leaving behind, and the fun we’re putting in the rear-view mirror.

It’s this tightrope act between pensive, longing reflection on the past and relentless optimism for the future that I pondered as I drove north on I-287 through the rain, with no clear destination in mind, and the dashboard clock winding towards midnight. And sound-tracking that late-night drive was Integrity Blues, the breathtaking ninth studio album from Jimmy Eat World.

Review: Kevin Devine – Instigator

Zac Djamoos Oct 20, 2016

“I can’t say I’m underrated,” Kevin Devine sings at the beginning of a new Bright Eyes-like folk song called “No One Says You Have To.” Although in the context of the song, it serves as a reminder to Devine to appreciate the success he’s found, I’ll have to disagree with him there. The 39-year-old Brookyln singer/songwriter is now nine albums deep and still hasn’t put out a bad album. He was able to release two albums in the same year – on the same day – with nearly two completely different sounds and both were rightfully acclaimed. But for all that, he crowdfunded his last two albums and he was dropped from Capitol after only one release — he can say he’s not underrated all he wants, but I’m going to disagree every time.

Instigator is my argument as to why.

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Interview: Zach Lind of Jimmy Eat World

Jonathan Bautts Oct 19, 2016

Drummer Zach Lind chats about thinking differently on Jimmy Eat World’s new album Integrity Blues, the challenge of taking your craft up a level, the delicate balance of tracklisting, and being notorious for not knowing what people are going to like.

Interview: Matthew Followill of Kings of Leon

Jonathan Bautts Oct 14, 2016

Lead guitarist Matthew Followill speaks about Kings of Leon’s new album Walls, going after a classic but still relevant sound, why slow songs tend to come the most naturally, and how the band quit fighting to become more inspired than it’s ever been before.

Interview: Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind

Chrisanne Grise Oct 13, 2016

After a busy couple of summers on the road, Third Eye Blind is back with the new seven-song EP, We Are Drugs. I recently caught up with lead singer Stephan Jenkins while he was recuperating from the band’s most recent tour. We talked about the new songs, staying punk rock, and of course, that infamous show during the Republican National Convention this past July.

Interview: Lee Kirk on Directing ‘Ordinary World’

Jonathan Bautts Oct 12, 2016

Writer-director Lee Kirk discusses his new film Ordinary World, the changes that come with having kids and turning 40, and working with Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong in the lead role.

Interview: Van McCann and Johnny Bond of Catfish and the Bottlemen

Jonathan Bautts Oct 7, 2016

Frontman Van McCann and guitarist Johnny Bond talk about Catfish and the Bottlemen’s second album The Ride, how playing live informs everything they do, and why the band is only getting warmed up.