Entries Tagged as 'Reviews'
Fantastic Playroom by New Young Pony Club is a dance party album. Nothing more. Seriously, there is nothing more to it. This album will indeed get people moving and the music itself is catchy and energetic, but there is no real depth to the songs and the lyrics go from borderline silly to downright laughable. There really isn't much more necessary to get an accurate overview other than that, to be honest - this record is a one trick pony. Catchy dance music, no depth, terrible lyrics. Full review, tourdates and MP3 samples after the jump.
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Fantastic Playground, New Young Pony Club, Tour Dates
Marcus and I went to the former the Gypsy Tea Room (now The Door) to see Maps & Atlases on Friday night, and it's apparent that the owners of the Door have done NOTHING to improve that venue; it's still the same terrible sounding, awful dump that it always was. At any rate, Maps & Atlases was very sharp and highly entertaining, and you can check out all of my photos from their show here. This was my first exposure to M&A, other than clips on YouTube, and these guys have an interesting, rather ecclectic/experimental sound, but it comes together in a nice ...
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Categories: Concerts, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, DFW, Gasoline Heart, Maps & Atlases, The Door, Tour Dates
Wolf Parade is just one of those bands that is just really fucking in the zone right now, with a superb album that is my favorite of '08 so far, building buzz around said album, and a big ole tour to go out and blow some minds, and they showed their prowess once again last night at the House of Blues in downtown Chicago. They are one of those bands that I would put in the indie 'elite' as far as bands that pretty much bring solid gold with everything they do, and that certainly includes their live show. ...
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Awesome, Chicago, House of Blues Chicago, Wolf Parade
The Helio Sequence is a band that has had several indy releases, and Keep Your Eyes Ahead, released by Sub Pop Records is a nice surprise when I threw it on the iTunes for the first time not too long ago. Overall, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is an enjoyable and even record, in that the high points aren't the most awesome, but the low points aren't the most terrible music I have heard this year, either. I think the album suffers a little from the fact that the lead vocals aren't exactly world-class, but they are passable. On the right ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, The Helio Sequence, Tour Dates
Headed up to the Beat Kitchen last night for some tunage from Welsh rockers People In Planes. You may remember when I saw these guys a few months ago in the weirdest concert venue ever, the Cubby Bear, but they managed to put on a good show despite the circumstances. I have always been a huge fan of their debut album "As Far As The Eye Can See", and now they are back in the US touring on their new record "Beyond the Horizon". Last night they put on another solid performance.
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Beat Kitchen, Chicago, People in Planes, Wales
So here’s a little album I’ve been wanting to write about for some time, but didn’t know how to proceed. It may be due, in part, to the fact that it’s been quite a spell since my last hallucinogen-induced bender. Nonetheless, Oracular Spectacular is an encompassing album that is delightfully complex, while maintaining a lightheartedness throughout. Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser have done a very impressive of job of creating a mash up of eclectic sounds and styles in a manner that would make a Flaming Lips/David Bowie love child shed a single tear of joy.
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Categories: Albums, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: Album Review, MGMT, Oracular Spectacular, Time to Pretend
Lil' Wayne had killer guest spots on two of my favorite hip-hop tracks from last year: Jay-Z's "Hello Brooklyn" and Kanye West's "Barry Bonds". However, much like when I purchased Grand Theft Auto III, I hadn't experienced the first two installments of the trilogy, so I approached Tha Carter III with a fairly open mind.
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: Album Review, hip-hop, Lil' Wayne, Tha Carter III
Posted June 26th, 2008 by BVaz · 2 Comments
Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Enadalaust - Beggars - 2008
One of the higher profile releases so far this year is certainly this new album from Iceland's Sigur Ros. The kings of dramatic, atmospheric pop have taken a bit of a change in direction on this album, with a few more focused numbers, but largely retains their sweet natured charm of their dramatic soundscapes and they deliver a very solid record.
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Categories: Albums, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: Album Review, Sigur Ros, Tour Dates
Posted June 26th, 2008 by BVaz · 2 Comments
I wasn't really going to do a review on this, because it kind of exists outside of the realm of reviews and regular albums that have come out this year simply because of the way it is put together. But since this has been such a controversial release that has been praised by many and panned by many as well, I thought I would throw in my two cents on this album. It was released last week Radiohead style and it is certainly an album everyone should go ahead and pick up, considering the pay what you want ...
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Categories: Albums, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: Album Review, Feed The Animals, Girl Talk, Greg Gillis, Mashup
Took my first trip to the Stan Mansion last night for some rock n roll, quite a strange place for a show, but not too shabby. It is basically a house a few blocks south of Logan Square, and is just in some ballroom in this giant house. It has the same "place where they hold prom" look to it that Logan Square Auditorium has, and I think they do hold gala events and stuff there. It was odd for sure, but kind of cool, you could walk around to the side of the band and see ...
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Chicago, Evangelicals, Frog Eyes, Shearwater, Stan Mansion
Islands was awesome. It's the show that, let's say the French Kicks woke up from their nap, got excited, and reworked all of their music to be high energy. With two violinists. Honestly, it was the best show that I have seen in a long while (maybe New Pornographers/Spoon of last November - maybe even longer than that). They came on the stage and absolutely ripped every song they played and the crowd loved every second of it. The show was once again at the Granada in Dallas, and when we arrived, AWOL was onstage:
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Categories: Concerts, Music, Reviews
Tags: Arm's Way, AWOL, Dallas, DFW, Granada, Islands
Posted June 23rd, 2008 by BVaz · 4 Comments
So here we have the second Hulk movie, starring Ed Norton and Liv Tyler, and while the movie is not bad, and an improvement on the first Hulk movie, there are some issues I have with this movie. Now I'm not entirely sure why they made this movie, aside from just simply setting up the Avengers thing. The first Hulk movie was bad, but it's not like this movie blows it away or all of a sudden makes me love Hulk. Quite the opposite in fact, as now I am fairly bitter towards the Hulk after sitting ...
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Categories: Main, Movies, On The Aisle, Reviews
Tags: CGI, Ed Norton, Hulk, Spiderman 3, Transformers
I have to admit that I am a Coldplay fan. I loved Parachutes, and with Rush of Blood to the Head, I really felt like the band put the extra emphasis/sound/depth on their already good songwriting that they needed in order to make Parachutes a more complete record. I think X&Y was a disappointment, and the most troubling to me was that the only song on that record which I could say was really good, Talk, was the only song on that record which wasn't wholly written by Chris Martin (I also love the video for Talk - Spaceships? Alien Robot?! Bad ass.) I ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Coldplay, Tour Dates, Viva La Vida
The Raveonettes are yet another band in the long line of bands this year of which I a) know nothing about, and b) who released an album this year. At any rate, the Raveonettes have a decent back catalog (of which I am not familiar), and they are a two-piece band set up with one guy, one girl. Lust Lust Lust is an album with lots of....stuff. There are several solid tracks, and it's a record which starts strong but really wanes in the second half, and there are lots of tracks. There is a lot of stuff going on in these songs. ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Lust Lust Lust, The Raveonettes
Posted June 17th, 2008 by BVaz · 1 Comment
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea - Drag City - 2008
What a great fucking week for album releases (and yes I'm ignoring that whole Coldplay thing). Not only do we have Wolf Parade's "At Mount Zoomer" which I have fallen instantly in love with, we also have another album from the venerable Silver Jews, and I have totally fallen in love with this album also. It is just a great album, so soft spoken, so alt-country, yet so good. There are some humorous moments, some great country jams, and just all around solid songs from top ...
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Categories: Albums, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: Album Review, Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea, Silver Jews
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