The Lonely Hearts
Born in the Dark

Americana Rock has a new face.

If steering around roadblocks and obstacles shows the perseverance and determination of a band, The Lonely Hearts are certainly decorated warriors. Starting as emo-rock collaboration Holland, the two brothers from Texas (Will and Josiah), along with now Demon Hunter drummer Yogi Watts, they released their debut album “Photographs and Tidalwaves” on Tooth and Nail in early 2003.

But with limited success the band decided to shift towards a new direction, a unique brand of Nashville Americana rock. Pressed by DJ Holland with a lawsuit to change their name, even though it reflected their last name, they changed to The Lonely Hearts. After struggling to separate with Tooth and Nail for their next release, The Lonely Hearts contractually dropped their second LP “Paper Tapes” on the Christian-rock label that stubbornly refused to promote...

Gym Class Heroes
The Quilt

Homespun Patchwork.

Gym Class Heroes have always been sort of a mystery; they mine The Roots and Fugees axiom that hip-hop should be done full band, but they never veer into social consciousness. They write some of the sugariest beats, but (up until recently) they haven't hit. They're first cd, the Papercut Chronicles, extensively dealt with suicide, dark beats and all; but their sophomore record, As Cruel As School Children, somehow rebounded and dealt with... of all problems... nymphomania. Yes, it might be true that Travis McCoy has all sorts of problems (depression, drug use, alcoholism, and the whole sex thing), but GCH have never let it deter their vivaciously interesting music. And while The Quilt is easily the worst GCH release yet, it still bounces with the originality original fans should expect from the hip-hop foursome.

In press for...

Slipknot
All Hope Is Lost

A wise man once said there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure.

That man was Chuck Klosterman, and he said something close to that somewhere in his most recent book IV. The basic (Read: Paraphrased) concept of that section posits the idea that if something gives you pleasure there should be no reason to feel guilty. I agree completely with this statement. The “guilty” aspect of a guilty pleasure only comes from outside forces making you feel badly about things that give you pleasure.

I imagine Slipknot gets a lot of that.

The nine piece unit broke into the...

UnderOath
Lost in the Sound of Separation

The Title Says It All.

Yep, UnderOath almost broke up. Yep, Spencer Chamberlain continues to have problems with substance abuse in his past. It's all a grand story, and some of it even has to do with UnderOath's new album, Lost in the Sound of Separation, the third with Chamberlain swinging the mic. But it's also a remarkably generic story, and to give credence to the Christian metal sestet's most recent effort purely based on the hardship it took to make it is completely anachronistic; the album comes first, then the story behind it adds to it. Unfortunately, UnderOath fall far short of properly exhibiting their hardships in audio form; Separation is the sound of band that has almost completely lost its way.

And it wouldn't seem like UnderOath had lost their way, if you only give Separation a passing glance. 2006s Define the...

The Gaslight Anthem
The ’59 Sound

Just about two years ago The Killers released Sam’s Town. In the time leading up to that album’s release, lead man Brandon Flowers put his band in the crosshairs of everyone with a love of easy targets with a series of ludicrous claims. “It’s one of the best rock albums in the past twenty years!” he cried from the pages of Giant magazine. It was to be “The album that keeps rock & roll afloat” according to an issue of Entertainment Weekly. What a good laugh we got out of that! It was a mediocre album at best, not even remotely close to making his claims valid. Flowers was roundly mocked by damn near everyone and even though the album sold modestly well, The Killers’ reputation has yet to recover. One remark did ring true, however, and that was the idea that the album was influenced by the works of early Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and...

The Academy Is...
Fast Times At Barrington High

They'll Never Let it Go.

We all love a good high school album. The drama, the personal insecurity, the general references to misplaced youth. It's great... except when it's not. For every Through Being Cool, Dude Ranch, or Tell All Your Friends, there will always be the clunkers like Boys Like Girls, No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls, and Popaganda. So when Chi-town emo darlings The Academy Is.. decided to call out their lead singer's former high school (from which he has been removed for almost 5 years), the obvious question is: "is this a clunker or a classic?"

For the most part, clunker.

Fast Times at Barrington High, unfortunately, doesn't pick up where TAI's excellent debut Almost Here left off in terms of high school insecurity. Where Beckett used to be more...

The Walkmen
You & Me

Reports Were Greatly Exaggerated...

You've all heard the story. The phenomenal success of FOX's teen drama The O.C. did great/terrible things for bands/Rachel Bilson... well, mostly bands. Adam Brody's incredibly written Seth almost single-handedly catapulted the careers of bands such as Death Cab For Cutie, Phantom Planet, Patrick Park... and oh yeah, The Walkmen. Although they had an excellent release to help out (2004s Bows & Arrows), undoubtedly a turning point was their live appearance in Season 2 of the genre-defining show. But after the defection of writers/Mischa Barton, The O.C. was cancelled, and the fallout began. Each band (with the exception of Death Cab) began a mercurial descent into anonymity. In the case of the Walkmen, it was the inexplicable whole album cover of Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats. So, unfortuately, all we can...

Okkervil River
The Stand-Ins

Concept as Secondary; Music as Primary

Double albums are notoriously tricky things (re: Say Anything's In Defense of the Genre). For some, the strict adherence to a theme or plot can make 20-30 tracks on one proper album seem awfully long-winded, and for the most part, boring. For others, a double album just seems like a artistic excuse to not edit studio sessions down to a complete whole. So how, then, do you mitigate the double album curse, while still creating a concept too big for one album alone?

How about two albums?

Hey, it worked for Coheed & Cambria (whose four album saga rarely, if ever, lingered in bore). And, thankfully, it worked for Okkervil River, who release The Stand-Ins on the heels of last year's excellent Stage Names. If you haven't caught the concept yet, lyricist Will Sheff and his novel-esque...

Women
Women

Women's debut tells you they've a sound of their own, but they definitely know all the people you've heard of.

It’s just my opinion but I don’t think there are enough quality lo-fi recordings that get recognized as good lo-fi recordings. I’m not saying that there aren’t lo-fi records getting credit for being good. There are plenty of albums that have that “home recording” sound that get plenty of acclaim for the music itself. When I say that I mean to say that I don’t think many lo-fi records get credited for taking advantage of the medium; for the warmth that the hiss of a recording tape can add to an album. However, when I listened to Women’s self-titled debut album the recording process and the music itself often seemed inseparable.

At times, in fact, it seems as if the band tries to make a point of not sounding over-produced, but once you get past the initial “we get it, you’re independent” shock when...

Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst

There is a Muddy Field, Where A Garden Was.

The last line from the first track of Conor Oberst's self-titled album reads "I know victory's sweet/even deep in the cheap seats."

Let's get one thing straight-- Conor Oberst will never be in the cheap seats.

Ever since his breakout perfection of LIFTED, or the marketing masterstroke of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash In a Digital Urn, Oberst has (apparently begrudgingly) accepted the role of this generations popularly labelled 'New Dylan.' However, this might be his heartfelt attempt to distance himself from the Bright Eyes moniker and fame. It doesn't really work as well as it could have, though. Bright Eyes member Nate Walcott, who contributed keys and arrangements to the excellently overbearing Cassadaga, is back in the group of five members who hung...

The Gallery
If You Know What I Mean

The Song Is Always the Same.

Getting out of San Antonio, and into the music festival of the city of Boston, taught me a lot about how most cities in America, musically, are diametrically different and yet completely the same. Special bands come and go from the scene, and some even survive until their second record; most, however, merely exist somewhere in the middle of success and abject failure. The Gallery, a Massachusetts via Florida emo-rock quartet, exist somewhere in the latter sphere of the ballooning by the day scene.

Another mark of bands that tend to have trouble getting themselves out of the scene is that they market themselves as an off-kilter smattering of legendary bands with way too much cred. The Gallery, in their press release, apparently believe that they are the bastard child of a menage a trois of Stay What You Are Saves the Day, The...