My Bloody Valentine Performs at Roseland, NYC - 9/22/08

Chapter One: Blown a Wish

I have resigned myself to my fate: I am a rock nerd born ten years too late. I had just started high school when Pavement broke up, I missed the best Built to Spill records by five years, the day of the fanzine had come and gone by the time I was old enough to care, blah blah blah. My greatest regret, though, is that I totally missed My Bloody Valentine. Loveless is one of my favorite albums of all time (which means I have a pulse) and their live show is one of the great legends of rock nerd-dom. [Author's note: I won't waste your time by trying to write about this record; instead, I'll refer you to Mike McGonigal's excellent 33 1/3 volume on the subject.] Read more

ENIGMA - Seven Lives Many Faces

As the driving force behind German band ENIGMA, Micheal Cretu has spent the majority of his 18 year long career as a recording artist creating some of the most culturally diverse music on the planet. But its not without avail. With more than 40 million albums sold worldwide, 50 number one chart positions, and 100 platinum sales around the world, ENIGMA is Germanys most successful export in the last 20 years. ENIGMA has always had a by the wayside reputation.

For music as spiritually diverse and unique, its almost a shame to see a flower growing up from proud and strong from the concrete, only to get ran over by a school of rush hour traffic. Read more

Most Influential Albums of the 80’s

Compiling a top ten list really isn’t as easy as it seems. Let’s face it, how are you supposed to cram in a decade’s worth of successful albums into ten tiny slots?

There are so many different albums to choose from that I often spend hours agonizing over which to include and which to leave out, since there are hundreds of artists that have impacted each decade of music. Read more

Top 10 Alternative Rock One-Hit Wonders of the 90’s

Ahh, the good ole’ 90’s… an era where alternative rock exploded across every airwave in America and if you weren’t wearing torn flannel, well then, you simply weren’t cool. Remember those great grunge rock 90’s one-hit wonders? You know, the ones that were constantly overplayed on every rock radio station as well as MTV (back when MTV used to actually play music videos). There were certain tunes that were so catchy, you really thought the band was on the fast track to stardom until – poof – they disappeared without a trace. Read more

Chics We Dig In Music

After a recent discussion about female recording artists, I decided to form a list of the top women solo artists based on quality music, contribution to the art and how these artists might have inspired each other, along with suggestions as to some newer artists that wouldn’t be here without them. They are all pioneers in their own right and have paved the way for all types of women vocal artists everywhere. Here’s the list of chics we dig in music.

 

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New York Romance: Songs That Remind Me Most of The Glorious City

I have an interesting relationship with the five boroughs that lie within New York City. All five of them have drastic differences that separate them from each other, and the stories I hold from each borough are vastly different, as well. I’m fond of the Queens region because I’m technically a Queens baby (for only a month before moving to the Suburbs of Long Island, but that could be overlooked). The Brooklyn area holds a special place in my heart after endless thrifting trips, aimless bouts of roaming around nameless neighborhoods after crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and discovering that I could fall in love with the red velvet cake from the Cake Man. Read more

Weezer Performs at Madison Square Garden – NYC - 9/24/08

The crowd was buzzing last night as the last song fizzled out from the speakers of Angels and Airwaves and the vertical light stands made you feel you were in the Millennium Falcon, traveling through hyperspace. Afterwards, as the stagehands worked on adjusting the sound systems and tuning up the instruments, Weezer fans trickled in and out of the stands. Most of the fan regalia sported a red t-shirt that read “weezer” in white lettering, advertising their newest record. The fans were mostly in their early twenties, enjoying the cool fall air in NYC. Read more

The Mars Volta at the Hammerstein Ballroom - 9/17/08

The front men and masterminds of The Mars Volta, Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez took the stage looking like a pair of leathery shamans. Immediately, they slammed into Goliath with an unadulterated, shameless groove, and I was refreshed. Read more

Lenny Kravitz - It’s Time For a Love Revolution

In case you didn’t know, Lenny Kravitz put an album out earlier this year. The theme of Kravitz’ latest It’s Time For a Love Revolution is - you guessed it - love; as evidenced by tracks with titles such as “I Love The Rain”, “Love, Love, Love”, and the title track “Love Revolution”, which was recently featured in an advertisement for the clothing brand Kohls (which is SO not rock ‘n roll). Read more

Metallica - Death Magnetic

The first notes of “That Was Just Your Life” snake in and out, making the new Middle Eastern influence upon Metallica immediately apparent, and then their sound hits - fast and heavy, frenetic and intense - and you know that Metallica is back. The recent bad albums and the mp3 fiasco should rightly be ignored, as Death Magnetic is all about the classic Metallica sound, albeit produced in 2008 rather than 1988. From start to finish this is a truly enjoyable metal album, and regardless of how much credit may need to go to producer Rick Rubin for shaking things up, it is quickly apparent that Metallica definitely didn’t phone this one in: the riffs and solos are powerful, the vocals and lyrics are passionate, and the rhythm section is appropriately intense. Read more

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