Archive for August, 2009

Today, Activision has confirmed that a Kurt Cobain character will be playable in Guitar Hero 5 (out September 1st), alongside music legends Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix and the still living Shirley Manson of Garbage and Matt Bellamy of Muse. Two Nirvana tracks, Nevermind’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a live version of “Lithium,” from their 1992 headlining slot at England’s Reading festival, also join the game’s set list, a first for the seminal band that defined the grunge era. “Kurt Cobain is one of the most recognizable frontmen in rock & roll history,” reads a statement released this morning, “and it’s an honor to have two of Nirvana’s masterpieces included in Guitar Hero 5.”

To read the complete article visit ROLLING STONE

A sequel to Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs’ 2007 stroll through the ’60s was perhaps inevitable, at least as inevitable as the decision to devote Under the Covers, Vol. 2 to the super sounds of the ’70s. Sweet and Hoffs tend to pick ’70s songs that are a bit more familiar than their ’60s selections, never digging out a Me Decade equivalent of Marmalade’s “I See the Rain” or the Zombies’ “Care of Cell #44,” but instead punctuating AM pop hits and FM rock staples like “Sugar Magnolia,” “Second Hand News,” “All the Young Dudes,” “You’re So Vain,” “I’ve Seen All Good People,” and “Maggie May” with power pop by the Raspberries (”Go All the Way”), Big Star (”Back of a Car”), and Todd Rundgren, who has no less than two songs from Something/Anything? featured here.

The influence of that 1972 double LP can be heard in the similarly homespun production of Under the Covers, Vol. 2 but where Rundgren was open-ended, Sweet neatly ties up every loose end with the care of a pop fetishist, making sure all the harmonies and guitar licks are in place, never adding any untasteful elements. Sometimes, everything is a little bit too pat and pretty — particularly on “Sugar Magnolia,” whose processed guitars sparkle too brightly — but the duo’s enduring, endearing love for this music is evident, sometimes infectious, and, at its best, throws out some surprises, like Susanna’s soulful reading of “Maggie May.”

Paste (magazine) (p.55) – “Like its predecessor, their new ’70s retrospective uncannily re-creates indelible tracks from primary Sweet inspirations Todd Rundgren, Big Star, Fleetwood Mac and Yes…”

To read complete review and  hear song samples visit NEWBURY COMICS

SON VOLT: Chris Masterson (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, background vocals); Jay Farrar (acoustic guitar, piano); Mark Spencer (acoustic slide guitar, lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Andrew Duplanits (bass guitar, background vocals); Dave Bryson (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Eleanor Whitmore (violin, viola).

Jay Farrar resurrected Son Volt in 2005 after his solo career seemingly ran out of gas, and the two albums that followed–OKEMAH AND THE MELODY OF RIOT and THE SEARCH–were the best and most compelling music he’d made since Son Volt’s masterful debut. AMERICAN CENTRAL DUST (2009), the third set from Son Volt 2.0, was released by the venerable independent roots music label Rounder Records. And while there’s little telling if that decision was dictated by finance or aesthetics, the album sounds austere in a way its immediate predecessors did not. While their previous two outings found Farrar and his new bandmates edging into new musical territory while embracing a bigger studio sound, by comparison, AMERICAN CENTRAL DUST feels more organic and intimate. Farrar still sounds thoroughly engaged as both a songwriter and performer, and his band–Chris Masterson on guitars, Mark Spencer on keyboards and steel guitars, Andrew DuPlantis on bass, and Dave Bryson on drums–is tight and sympathetic, finding just the right angle to approach this material. While the album doesn’t have the feel of a step into new territory the way Son Volt’s past two albums did, it does consolidate the group’s old strengths and confirms Jay Farrar is still an artist worth caring about 20 years after Uncle Tupelo cut their first album.

Spin (p.93) – “[F]or all the vintage touches, this is a deceptively funky band, as the sultry ‘Down to the Wire’ proves.”
Paste (magazine) (p.54) – “[T]he album showcases Farrar’s excellent songwriting, which is comfortingly familiar….He is digging in rich and fertile ground.”

To read complete review and  hear song samples visit NEWBURY COMICS

Wilco: Glenn Kotche, Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Mikael Jorgensen, Nels Cline, Pat Sansone.
Though many fans suspected that Wilco’s self-titled seventh studio album would mark a return to the wild cut-and-paste experimentalism of YANKEE FOXTROT HOTEL, the record was in fact more of a piece with its traditional-sounding 2007 predecessor, SKY BLUE SKY. Heavily influenced by `60s and `70s pop music, songs like “Sunny Feeling” and “You Never Know” sounded as if the band might have been finally attempting to score the elusive hit single.

Beginning with a powerful riff reminiscent of the Kinks’ “Picture Book,” the disc is all strummy guitars, tinkling keyboards, big choruses, George Harrison-style slide guitar, and stacked harmony vocals, conjuring aural images of bands such as Love, Wings, and Badfinger. Throughout, the songwriting is tight and focused, making WILCO one of the most instantly accessible albums in the Chicago-based group’s catalog.

Rolling Stone (p.80) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[A] triumph of determined simplicitiy….What is most striking about the restraint here is the elegance and defiance packed inside.”
Spin (p.79) – “WILCO, the band’s seventh studio effort, treats verse-chorus-verse basics like holy truths….And it’s fantastic.”
Alternative Press (p.115) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Wilco continue to reign in their experimental fuzz, focusing more on pretty melodies, upbeat toe-tappers and sweet acoustic numbers for their seventh full-length.”
Billboard (p.34) – “Windows-down anthemic pop like ‘You Never Know’ sits alongside the tense, textural rocker ‘One Wing’ and the dark, pulsating murder-escape drama ‘Bull Black Nova.’”
Paste (magazine) (p.54) – “The album is full of thoughtful, artfully crafted lyrics wrapped in memorable hooks that should stand the test of time.”
Record Collector (magazine) (p.98) – 3 stars out of 5 — “‘Bull Black Nova,’ something of a ‘Spiders’ retooling, is pleasingly motorik…”

For further information and to hear song samples visit NEWBURY COMICS

Smith had planned on being at the venue hours prior, but Hurricane Bill’s crushing winds kept two planes grounded, forcing him to charter a two-seater (”I got a 70-year-old pilot to fly me, and he was awesome!”) to transport him from his Montauk, Long Island home to tonight’s show.

“I have two hands and two feet,” Smith says, ripping open a bag of beef jerky, “but sometimes I feel like I need three of me to be in all the bands I’m in. Not that I’m complaining.”

To read the complet article visit MUSICRADAR.COM

AEROSMITH drummer Joey Kramer joined MÖTLEY CRÜE on stage on August 19, 2009 at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts to perform the classic ballad “Home Sweet Home”. Quality video footage of his appearance can be viewed below (courtesy of ” TripKore”).

As previously reported, STREET DRUM CORPS drummer Frank Zummo will get behind the kit for MÖTLEY CRÜE tonight (Friday, August 21) in Virginia Beach, Saturday (August 22) in Bristow, Virginia and Sunday (August 23) in Raleigh, North Carolina as Tommy Lee continues recovering from a burn on his hand. Zummo takes over from SEVENDUST drummer Morgan Rose, who replaced Lee on the band’s last five Crüe Fest 2 shows.

To read the complete article and see footage visit BLABBERMOUTH.NET