Artist name: The Black Keys
Album name: Attack & Release
Label: Nonesuch
Gender: Blues Rock/Garage Rock
Release date: April 1, 2008
ZMErating: 9/10
Website: www.theblackkeys.com

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The Akron duo has always startled me as being terribly underrated, by the general public, considering their immense potential and talent. Sadly, timing wasn’t on their side. If you take a small trip down memory lane you’ll find that The Black Keys first started being active, round the same time another garage rock duo was gaining popularity, the now notorious White Stripes. Apparently the world’s not big enough to house two power duo’s, but while Jack and Meg have constantly experimented with their sound from recordc to record, The Black Keys have been content enough with their bluesy/garage rock sound. For four long albums the band has leaved their sound formula untouched, which although very tight and solid, could feel very repetitive and dull. On their latest effort, however, The Black Keys have finally managed to innovate and experiment with their vibe, through additional instrumentation and of course one of the best displays of production I have ever set my ears on. This is „Attack & Release.”

continue reading "The Black Keys: ‘Attack & Release’"

Organizers of one of Britain’s best-known music festivals on Tuesday have backed up their decision to keep Jay-Z as the headline, despite the complaints received from several rock stars, “headlined” by Noel Gallagher. The outdoor Glastonbury festival is really important for brits, and well… most just don’t think it’s right to have a rap artist as a headliner.

This of course caused the disappointing ticket sales, as it hasn’t sold out yet, contrary to previous years when tickets would disappear in a matter of hours. Gallagher, whose band headlined the festival in 1995 and 2004, said rap was to blame.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Gallagher said in an interview, an audio of which was posted to the British Broadcasting Corp.’s website Monday. If you break it, people ain’t gonna go. I’m sorry, but Jay-Z? . . . No chance.” He explained that the inclusion of a hip-hop act went against the festival’s tradition of guitar music, adding: “I’m not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. No way. No. It’s wrong.”

I mean, the guy’s right. You have a history of guitar playing rock acts, and you get Jay-Z to headline? Organizers claimed that The Roots and Cypress Hill played there too, but c’mon, it’s not the same thing. I think it’s absolutely logical that people wouldn’t crowd to buy tickets… no matter how good Jay-Z is.

I’ve told you before… we don’t do politics. Not here. We don’t pick sides, we’re not from America, not republicans not democrats not anything. Although music has some common points with politics we’ve avoided them as much as possible. But when a music titan such as Bruce Springsteen, whose music is oh so political says Barack Obama “speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years.”, something’s worth looking at it.

We’ve all listened to his music, and it’s great! But it always seemed to me that the USA he describes is more like a fantasy, and less like reality. Recently, in a letter addressed to friends and fans posted on his website, Springsteen said he believes Obama is the best candidate to undo “the terrible damage done over the past eight years.”

The New Jersey bard is known for his lyrics about the struggle of the working class average man especially in the economically ravaged factory towns of the Northeast. What’s even more dignifying for him is the fact that he didn’t take a shot at Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination, in his letter.

“Critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships,” Springsteen wrote. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man’s life and vision … often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.”

The Last Shadow Puppets are Miles Kane (from The Rascals) and Alex Turner, the famous Arctic Monkeys frontman and lead guitarist. Very close friends ever since Arctic Monkeys toured with Kane’s previous group, The Little Flames, the eclectic duo felt so great jamming together, that they decided to devise a cunning plan.

That very plan is The Age Of The Understatement, is an album of 12 full-blooded songs, bold and brassy, full of drama, wit and melody, that source the past but avoid falling into pastiche. Expect this to be a very soulful and thrilling album, after all young blood flows through the two talented musicians, Miles and Alex being 22 and all.

The album was recorded at Black Box Studios near Nantes, France in two weeks during the summer of 2007, James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) manning both the producer’s chair AND the drummer’s stool. The band then approached Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy to arrange and conduct the orchestration of the tracks, which were recorded by the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra at British Grove studios in London over Christmas.

The Age Of The Understatement is out in the UK & Europe April 21st and in North America on May 6th on Domino. Bellow you can listen and download two mp3s, including the leading single “The Age of the Understatement.”

[MP3] The Last Shadow Puppets - ‘The Age of the Understatement’
[MP3] The Last Shadow Puppets - ‘My Mistakes Were Made For Your’

“All rise, for The Roots!” was how Stephen Colbert introduced one of my long time favorites, Philly natives The Roots, as they closed last night’s show of “The Colbert Report”. The band performed an irreverent take on “The Star-Spangled Banner”, after which they simply trashed their instruments, as a sign of rebellion. Rebellion against … I’m not sure what, maybe the current state of the union, maybe world hunger or maybe just to rock out. Either way the new album, Rising Down, from The Roots is right around the corner with a release date of April 29.

I already bought my ticket for the Iron Maiden tour! Hope you have yours, cause there’s pretty much sold out; except for ebay perhaps, but that’s always taking a chance. Anyway, what could be better than going to an extraordinary event such as an Iron Maiden gig? Going to an Iron Maiden gig and seeing Anthrax too!

That’s right, the metal legends have announced a short spring tour, kicking off with a warmup club show at Chicago’s Double Door on May 28th, 2008. The Chicago warm-up show will be the band’s first live performance with their new singer Dan Nelson. After that, they’ll hook up with Bruce Dickinson and the rest of the guys.

Anthrax’s Charlie Benante says

“Playing with Iron Maiden again is such a thrill for us! We can’t wait to be a part of these two magical nights.” Guitarist Scott Ian adds, “It is an absolute honor to be asked to open the Irvine shows for the Kings of Metal Iron Maiden. Anthrax’s tours with Iron Maiden are my all time favorites. Up The Irons!!!” Lastly, bassist Frank Bello exclaims, “I saw them 2 weeks ago and sang every word. They’re better than ever!! I can’t wait to play with them again!! Good times!!”

They’re currently writing some material for their eagerly awaited album “We’ve Come For You All,” which will be their first album with Dan Nelson on vocals and the first studio effort since 2003. Busy busy times for them.w

The soap opera continues ladies and gents! After the already infamous O2 gig and their meeting in January it seemed that everything was going towards a tour in September. But then, Robert Plant stepped in and spoke his mind: Led Zep will not tour.

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones are featured in the new issue of Uncut reflecting on Led Zeppelin’s long history and what lies ahead for them as a band. They all support the idea of a tour… so Robert Plant is the only man who is against it.

John Paul Jones, who has said that he, like Page and Bonham, would like the band to hit the road, reflected on the reunion gig, saying,

“It felt like the first night of a tour. You think, ‘Oh, I could do that bit better, or change something in that song.’ And we didn’t get a chance to do any more.”

Jimmy Page says the band has no plans of releasing a dvd with their O2 gig:

“It was recorded, but we didn’t go in with the express purpose of making a DVD to come out at Christmas, or whatever. We haven’t seen the images or investigated the multitracks. It’s feasible that it might come out at some distant point, but it’ll be a massive job to embark on.”

For those of you a bit unfamiliarized with the band, here’s a quick rock history lesson. Mudcrutch was mid ’70s rock band from Florida, that was packed with potential and talent, but unfortunately never made it big. The band apparently broke up prematurely, as they didn’t even record a proper studio album debut, but while Mudcrutch didn’t manage to achieve success, it did however spawn one of the most popular acts ever seen in the US: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (formed by former Mudcrutch members Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench).

Now, 33 years after the Mudcrutch break up, Tom Petty rounded up the rest of the gang, calling Randall Marsh and Tom Leadon to run a reforming idea past them. “I guess I started thinking that we left some music back there, and it was time to go and get it,” said Tom Petty when asked why he decided to reunite the band. After getting back together at Petty’s Malibu crib, the band soon started to record their old songs, in a improvised recording studio. The self-titled debut was finished fast, really fast, recorded live, with no overdubs. By many, the album is considered a revelation and tribute for all the awesome past bands that were unfortunately cast upon the shadow of anonymity. Musically the Mudcrutch self-titled employs a mixture of Tom Petty-like bluegrass and conventional southern rock, that blend out really well.

The Mudcrutch debut will get out on the 29th of April, while the band will exclusively tour California until the respective release date, with some further nationwide probably in the making. Tracklisting and tour dates right after the jump.

continue reading "Mudcrutch to release debut album after 33 years + tours"

For as long as I can remember The Breeders have been subjected to unworthy ignorance and ill recognition of their efforts. Truth is people don’t know what they’ve been missing all these years, seeing as this alternative quartet has been coughing up quality, magical pieces of music since 1988. Odds are, that Mountain Battles, the band’s latest album, will suffer the same lack of appreciation, which is too bad considering how many great moments there are to uncover in this record. Shortly put, it’s a really good album; their best in 15 years. Yes, I know there have only been two in that respective time frame, but still it rocks.

Musical style-wise Mountain Battles is a bit strange, meaning it employs a very varied array of influences and tempo shifts. For example some are more clear-cut pop songs, such as “Bang On” and “Walk It Off,” while othe a lot more different like the ethnically centered “German Studies” and “Regalame Esta Noche,” which are sung in German and Spanish, respectively. There’s also a middle eastern flavored track in the form of “Istanbul” and even a little try with experimentalism in the title track Mountain Battles.

My favorite record for this week is clearly Anthony Gonzales,’ or M83 as he’s better know, fifth LP “Saturdays = Youth.” I’ve always been fascinated by the way he masterfully mixes electronic and shoegazing elements, that gave as result some wonderful eclectic ambient music. Then there’s of course one of our recent favorites Tristan Prettyman, and her latest sophomore release “Hello…x.” Also another album worth picking up this week, is the latest LP from the Californian neo-psychedelics The Brian Jonestown Massacre, titled “My Bloody Underground.”

Other worthy mentions include new material from Mariah Carey, Kooks, Jason Mraz, Freddie Stevenson, Joseph Arthur or Everclear.

M83: Saturdays = Youth

Tristan Prettyman: Hello

continue reading "New Music Monday: 15 April"