Because I sit in front of a computer almost all day long (which explains my pear-shaped form) and stream the World's Greatest Radio Station, I'm constantly exposed to a multitude of amazing emerging musicians and bands. KEXP played Frank Turner at me earlier in the week and based on that single 3:26 exposure, I immediately sought out his new release, Poetry of the Deed. The fact that the album is distributed in the US on Epitaph should tell you a lot about him right away. Based on the couple listens I've been able to squeeze in, Turner is working a vibe that combines Billy Bragg with Dropkick Murphys, a combo of punk rock passion and Irish soul. Tracks on the album run the gamut from singer/songwriter solo strumming to full-blown rock power. Favorite line thus far: "And there’s no such thing as rock stars, there’s just people who play music, and some of them are just like us, and some of them are d**ks."
Back in March, during my annual trek out to the SXSW Music conference, I managed to see Silversun Pickups twice, including a slot opening for Metallica at the "secret" show that my buddy from Activision snuck me into. Silversun were good in Austin, but not as completely, utterly ON as the night I saw them in San Francisco, where they were so amazing that you could literally feel a somewhat bored, early crowd perk up and instantly become fans. It was shocking, actually, a spike of energy I don't often feel at live shows. Don't dismiss Silversun as LA hipsters or Pumpkin-biters, they've got their own sound going on. The fact that they can make all that noise happen with a single guitar on stage is pretty damn impressive, too. This video from Swoon features hot girls playing musical chairs, so watch it for the ladies, if nothing else.
I wanted to embed the video for the awesome first single, House of Flying Daggers, but the profanity meter wiggled a bit 'cause of a few random f-bombs. Instead, here's a clip from Rock The Bells where Raekwon drops a shout-out for MvC2 around 23 seconds into his solo rendition of one of my favorite Wu jams, C.R.E.A.M.
Dinosaur Jr. was an amazingly important band for me in the 90s. J was the guitar god in an era that had become utterly dismissive of solos, when Bob Mould was switching from booze to Sugar and even Metallica thought the end was nigh for axe grinding. Dino's take was to ignore all that -- J sings in a Neil Young-ish warble that was (and is) all but lost in the howl of his guitar during extended, speedy solos that define the shape of their music. Live, the Dino Jr. experience is as much a physical event as it is a concert; J started out as a drummer and felt that the guitar just wasn't as meaty as skins, which lead him to push his amps to volume levels that make your clothing ripple. I remember during one show at San Francisco's Warfield Theater for the Wagon tour feeling my sternum contract as the band galloped full-tilt into "Freak Scene."Lou Barlow has nominally gotten over being butt-hurt with J's utter lack of social interaction and the original line-up has been bouncing around together again for the last couple of years. Their latest, Farm, recently dropped, and is proof positive that not every band runs out of ideas and energy after taking time off. Check out the clip above to see the crew hammer out "Pieces" from the new collection of songs (can you still call them "albums" anymore?) on Fallon and marvel at the giant wall of Marshalls stacked up behind the grey-haired six string wizard.
Hey, gang! Do you dig the boss tones of American Rock and/or Roll? Then I am quite positive you'll find The Gaslight Anthem keen! Think Bruce Springsteen, Lucero, The Hold Steady, perhaps a touch of Social Distortion and you'll be on the right sonic track. These Jersey boys have survived on my iPod since The 59 Sound was released in August of last year, which is saying something as I have a very shotr attention span. The above video is for one of the best songs on the album (naturally, since it's the title track) and also caught my eye because of the high quality video and scissor-kick inducing performance. Surprsingly, these guys didn't play SXSW this year, but I hope to catch them live this September.
