Power Pop
Liquid Mike Near Power-Pop Perfection on Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot
Following the buzzy S/T, Liquid Mike once again one-up themselves. Liquid Mike’s New Album Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot Nears Power Pop Perfection Jonah Krueger
Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo Discusses the Sad, Elliot Smith-ness of SZNZ: Winter and Teases “Big Tour Announcement”
It’s ambitious, it’s sprawling, it’s creative, it’s Weezer‘s new SZNZ project. Back when the California band announced four EPs based on the seasons cycle at the beginning of this year, questions were raised: How similar to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons would this be? Has the band now entered the “Classical Weezer” era? Would Summer‘s songs all sound like “Island in the Sun”? Will Rivers Cuomo continue rocking the mustache + mullet combo he boasted on the “Hella Mega Tour”? Now that Weezer has released the final installment of SZNZ, Winter (out Wednesday, December 21st), we’ve got our answers. Though inspired by Vivaldi’s original concept, SZNZ is Weezer through and through — that being said, Cuomo has based each season around emotions, rather than lean solely into the environmenta...
Courtney Love Joins The Lemonheads to Perform “Into Your Arms” in London: Watch
Courtney Love and Evan Dando go way back, and the two had an emotional reunion in London recently when Love joined The Lemonheads on stage to perform their classic “Into Your Arms.” Love and Dando were friends in the early ’90s, and speaking before the performance, the Hole frontwoman praised Dando for staying by her side during a turbulent time. “He was my one constant,” Love said. “One man who doesn’t have a fucking bad bone in his body.” Speaking about “Into Your Arms” specifically, the artist grew emotional as she recalled covering the song at the end of Hole shows “to make myself sane again” after her band’s intense sets, which she described as “wrath and Medusa, blood, shit, puking on the stage.” “I haven’t played guitar in a long time,” she added, holding back tears. Watch the sweet...
The Story Behind How They Might Be Giants Built a “Birdhouse in Your Soul”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS The transition from 1980s new wave and hair rock to 1990s far less follically-minded indie pop wasn’t always a smooth one. But enigmatic, idiosyncratic, and frequently non-grammatical duo They Might Be Giants made it all go down so easy with instantly catchy hooks and frequently hilarious lyrics. The band’s tongue-in-cheek non-sequiturs and unconventional instrumentation masked a knack for writing songs that made us hum the first time we heard them. Nowhere is that more evident than in their major label breakout hit “Birdhouse in Your Soul” from their 1990 album Flood, which is likely the first — and only — song ever sung f...
Mikey Erg Announces New Album Love at Leeds, Shares “Almost Like Judee Sill”: Stream
Mikey Erg has a new album on the way. The punk veteran’s latest solo record, Love at Leeds, arrives June 24th via Don Giovanni Records, and first single “Almost Like Judee Sill” is out now. From his time as drummer and principal songwriter in The Ergs! to his current solo venture, Erg (born Mike Yannich) has been invested in DIY culture for two decades. Still, only recently was the musician able to work with a staple of the genre, producer (nay, recorder) Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey). Fulfilling a lifelong dream of his, Erg traveled up to Albini’s famous Electrical Audio in Chicago to record and mix Love at Leeds in just five days. Jeff Rosenstock, Alex Clute, and Lou Hanman, the team of musicians who helped Erg record his first solo album, Tentative De...
Mikey Erg Announces New Album Love at Leeds, Shares “Almost Like Judee Sill”: Stream
Mikey Erg has a new album on the way. The punk veteran’s latest solo record, Love at Leeds, arrives June 24th via Don Giovanni Records, and first single “Almost Like Judee Sill” is out now. From his time as drummer and principal songwriter in The Ergs! to his current solo venture, Erg (born Mike Yannich) has been invested in DIY culture for two decades. Still, only recently was the musician able to work with a staple of the genre, producer (nay, recorder) Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey). Fulfilling a lifelong dream of his, Erg traveled up to Albini’s famous Electrical Audio in Chicago to record and mix Love at Leeds in just five days. Jeff Rosenstock, Alex Clute, and Lou Hanman, the team of musicians who helped Erg record his first solo album, Tentative De...
The Who Kick Off 2022 North American Tour in Florida: Recap + Setlist
When it comes to playing guitar, Pete Townshend makes it look easy. Noodling up and down the frets and whipping his right arm about for a round of his signature windmills, he still looks every bit the rock star who once dramatically smashed his instrument onstage in a bid to outperform Jimi Hendrix at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. “This is what I do,” boasted The Who’s mastermind at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on Friday night (April 22nd), as he kicked into the recognizable guitar groove of the band’s “Who Are You.” It was the ninth song from a cathartic 24-song set on the first night of “The Who Hits Back!” tour (grab tickets via Ticketmaster), and the band’s first proper concert in more than two years. The setlist mirrored that of 2019’s “Moving On!” tour, and for good rea...
Weezer Perform “All the Good Ones” on Fallon: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-11T14:36:10+00:00“>May 11, 2021 | 10:36am ET Weezer were the musical guest on Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Fallon, in promotion of their new album, Van Weezer. During their appearance, the rock veterans performed “All the Good Ones”. The track is a melodic ballad that wouldn’t be too out of place with Rivers Cuomo and company’s previous catalog, except for the heavier ’80s hard rock-inspired guitar riffs. “Rock and roll sounds better in the car,” he sang passionately on Fallon. “I just love the way she plays guitar/ When she dives down on the whammy bar/ She’ll be stuck on repeat, repeat in my head.” Van Weezer was released last week and was previewed by singles like...
Weezer’s Van Weezer Is All Big Riffs with Little Payoff: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-06T22:09:22+00:00“>May 6, 2021 | 6:09pm ET The Lowdown: We’ve spent the first months of 2021 wrestling with some truly difficult questions. How will the pandemic end? Can America recover from its increasingly violent political polarization? Is Weezer actually good again? While the answers to those first two are still forthcoming, the last one seemed more straightforward — upon its surprise arrival in January, the band’s 14th studio album, OK Human, delivered some of Weezer’s most lyrically confessional and musically adventurous songs in recent memory. That record largely succeeded thanks to its grounded relatability, two words which seem unlikely to describe the followup to OK Hu...
Weezer Share New Music Video for “Grapes of Wrath”: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-14T22:06:45+00:00“>April 14, 2021 | 6:06pm ET Today is the 82nd anniversary of John Steinbeck’s classic Dust Bowl epic The Grapes of Wrath. To honor the occasion, Weezer have shared a new music video for their OK Human ode to literary excellence, “Grapes of Wrath”. The song doesn’t just shout-out Steinbeck, it also finds time for some of the most famous creations by Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Joseph Heller, Herman Melville, J.R.R. Tolkien, and more. But the music video, which was directed by Brendan Walter and Jasper Graham, is less concerned with exploring these fictional worlds than the real-world problem of finding time to read. The video begins with Ri...
R.I.P. Tony Lewis, Singer of The Outfield’s “Your Love”, Dies at 62
Tony Lewis, the lead singer and bassist of UK pop rock band The Outfield, has died at the age of 62. According to a statement from his publicist, Lewis died “suddenly and unexpectedly” on Monday (Oct. 19th) near London. A cause of death was not immediately made available. The Outfield’s origins date back to the early 1980s, when Lewis and guitarist John Spinks formed a prog rock band called Sirius B. The duo later recruited drummer Alan Jackman and reinvented themselves as a power-pop group under the moniker of The Outfield. The band experienced almost immediate success with the release of their debut, 1985’s Play Deep, which climbed to No. 9 on the album charts and was certified three-times platinum in the US. Much of the album’s success is owed to its massive single, “Your Love”, wh...
R.I.P. Emitt Rhodes, Power Pop Icon and Home Recording Pioneer Dies at 70
Emitt Rhodes, power pop icon and home recording pioneer, has died at the age of 70. News of Rhodes’ death was confirmed by Omnivore Recordings, which released his final album in 2016. He is said to have passed away in his sleep, but the cause of death was not immediately clear. Rhodes got his start as a drummer in garage rock band The Palace Guard (which also briefly featured My Three Sons actor Don Grady). However, he had his first breakthrough with his next band, The Merry-Go-Round, which had minor hits with the psychedelic “Live” and the melancholic ballad “You’re a Very Lovely Woman”. It is most likely for his 1970 self-titled solo album, though, that he will best be remembered. The album, released on Dunhill Records, was recorded on an Ampex 4-track recorder in his pare...
- 1
- 2
