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Local band proves Kansas kin no ‘wayward son’
By COLLEEN PETIT | July 30, 2008Being the son of a famous band member has its perks.
The Avenue | Music
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Constructive summer on tap for The Hold Steady
By ROBERT HILSON | July 23, 2008Life isn't fair, and you need not tell this to The Hold Steady. In any justice-esteeming society, 2006's critically adored "Boys and Girls in America," an album crammed with hook-filled sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll throwbacks, would have landed the band the fanatical arena, following its unofficial designation as the scraggly incarnation of The E Street Band. Instead, they got a few nods in year-end polls and a billing on last year's Lollapalooza poster that was only slightly more visible than The Fratellis.
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Avenue CD stash: Watermelons, wizards and dance
By SHAW PATTON | July 23, 2008It is time to once again review some of the albums that have been stacking up and spilling over in the office. In the month since my last rapid-fire review, the CDs have multiplied like gremlins in a swimming pool. Fortunately, the music seems less dismal than in the past endeavor.
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Where Sidewalk Fiction ends, new journeys begin
By BAILEY PARKE | July 16, 2008Bands come and go in Gainesville with the four-year cycle of students filtering through the college town.
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Beck’s latest a guilt trip
By ROBERT HILSON | July 16, 2008For most, 38th birthdays come and go with little cause for contemplation. For Beck - alpha loser, fifth Beatle, fourth Beastie Boy - 38 means finding himself knee-deep in a mid-life crisis, contemplating worldly ills and taking stock in a self-destructing society that's making a beeline for the pit of hell.
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‘Burnouts in love’ go it alone on new Silver Jews album
By ROBERT HILSON | July 9, 2008David Berman, you've got to hide your love away.
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Experimental Noise:Action Research blends music and mayhem
By SHAW PATTON | July 2, 2008All rules are out the window when it comes to experimental music. Primal screams, scratchy dialogue, looping riffs and ambient echoes are just some of the sounds at a typical Action Research show.
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Hippies score on debut
By ROBERT HILSON | July 2, 2008Fleet Foxes isn't your father's Seattle band. The five-piece Puget pioneers avoid flannel, regularly bathe and - here's the real departure - seem genuinely happy to be alive. These guys have aesthetic taste, favoring 16th century cover artwork over naked babies (Nirvana) and mangy farm animals (Pearl Jam). Of greater importance, the group's brand of Brian Wilson-flavored folk lullaby makes more noise in blogs than in stadiums, a telltale sign that they are out of place and time.
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Bonnaroo 2008: Attendees endured show delays, hot weather and rain showers
By LAURA NOVETZKE | June 18, 2008One after another, cars poured out of the Wal-Mart parking lot in the quaint town of Manchester, Tenn. Thursday morning.
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R.E.M. deliver impressive show, prove they can still rock
By ROBERT HILSON | June 18, 2008"We are young despite the years we are concern/ We are hope despite the times." So sings Michael Stipe on R.E.M.'s classic "These Days," the band's statement of purpose and a tune that had been rattling in my head a full week prior to an early summer gig at the University of California, Berkeley campus. The song rocks, no questions asked, but it's also slightly cringe-inducing, should you picture it played by three middle-aged hipsters - one frumpy (Peter Buck), one bald (Stipe) and one timelessly nerdy (Mike Mills). It also begs the question, are these guys full of it? Twenty years on, are once-ballsy claims now as hollow as one of Buck's signature Rickenbackers? In short, does R.E.M. still matter?
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Music for the Masses: Local musician created own record label, will travel on Warped Tour
By BAILEY PARKE | June 18, 2008Joe Loffredo leads a double life. By day, he sports a button-down shirt tucked into khaki slacks. By night, he dons a bandana and high-top sneakers.
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Avenue review: The Early Twenties
By SHAW PATTON | June 18, 2008While you may not run into Soulja Boy on campus, critiquing local musicians can be risky. In the attempt to discover local music and at the suggestion of a fellow writer, below is a local band review.
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Old shtick on ‘Weezer’
By ROBERT HILSON | June 11, 2008Not many guitar heroes make it through their high school years without getting slapped with the dropout tag, so it's even more impressive that Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo gets to flaunt a bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University. A decade-long stint with the Ivy League's finest must afford one all kinds of vital knowledge, and yet Cuomo still can't wrap his horn-rimmed head around the law of diminishing returns.
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Band reunions try to relive past, risk disappointment
By MEGAN HERON | June 4, 2008Rock is not dead. We can thank all of the recent band reunions for attempting to repeat what was once good. A flip through the pages of Rolling Stone magazine reveals more and more bands coming out of retirement.
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A quick look at the Avenue CD stash
By SHAW PATTON | June 4, 2008Collecting dust isn't a CD's purpose. In hopes of finding a worthy album to review, I snagged a stash occupying space in the Alligator office.
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Spiritualized in limbo on “A&E”
By ROBERT HILSON | June 4, 2008British trance-rocker and Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce nearly died in 2005 because of - get this - pneumonia. Go figure. When you've had addiction problems with heroin, landing in the accident and emergency (A&E) ward because of respiratory complications is kind of like tiptoeing through a minefield only to contract tetanus from a rusty nail. Irony aside, the near-death experience yielded "Songs in A&E," a rock 'n' roll record that could very easily be confused for an electric requiem.
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The Music Man: Local’s music Web site a staple in Gainesville
By SHAW PATTON | May 28, 2008His birth name is Shawn Dalton, but even his mother affectionately calls him "Glyph."
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Overexposure, fading novelty define ‘Idol’ decline
By ANA MONTANO | May 21, 2008The show that revived Paula Abdul's career and hooked audiences for six seasons has lost its grip on American viewers. Though the show still tops the ratings list, the success of "American Idol" is fading.
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CD compilations capture memories, show creativity
By MEGAN HERON | May 14, 2008Goodbyes are tough.
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Kanye’s Glow in the Dark Tour takes audience to another world
By ANA MONTANO | May 14, 2008The next few months are the prime time for music lovers to catch a great show. And if you're looking to see one good concert this year, go see Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour. This show was surrounded by a halo of hype from the get-go. It received stellar reviews all around, and when Entertainment Weekly gave the show a B+, it got an earful from Kanye who responded on his blog, "What's a B+ mean? I'm an extremist. It's either pass or fail! A+ or F-!"
