I’ve enjoyed The Sword in the past, but their discography seemed hit or miss; just enough so to keep me from blasting the records over and over again in the car or obsessively suggesting them as the gateway (hipster) metal band to folks who wore tighter pants than me. Warp Riders has changed that.
It sounds like they’ve been trading in their Sleep, Pentagram and Trouble tapes in for some ZZ Top, Motörhead and Thin Lizzy — and that’s not a bad thing in the least. They’ve also taken those broader horizons and stepped up their game on the songwriting front.
Instead of cherry-picking a track here or there, you’re pretty much forced to listen from front to back. Granted, there are some standout tracks, but unlike past releases, every song will keep your attention and get you raging.
And in addition to the top-notch instrumental and vocal performances, the production on the record is just smooth enough to start bringing in the masses without losing its edge. If the final product is any indication, working with producer Matt Bayles may have been the best decision The Sword has made to date.
P.S. Warp Riders also wins my vote as the best album cover of the year.
I had no idea Jukebox the Ghost was scheduled to play Letterman last night. I really like these dudes and all, but I had no clue they were this high up on the food chain. Kudos.
:: If you want to smell like Johnny Rotten, just wait for the Sex Pistols’ fragrance to be released in America on Sept. 10. Or, you know, piss your pants.
:: Nick Cave almost called Grinderman something else, but there was already a band on MySpace with the words Cunt Ox in their name (Captain Cunt Ox, to be specific).
For anyone who was chomping at the bit to go head-to-head with other music nerds in fantasy football (double nerd, amirite???) but missed inclusion into Buzzgrinder’s Ballgrinder fantasy league — here’s your chance.
The seemingly epic, summer-long AV Club Undercover Series recently drew to a close with The Walkmen taking on R.E.M. (and not incredibly well, for that matter), and now all 25 installments are available for your scrutiny. The AV Club is asking, nay begging, you to vote on your favorite video, whether it’s Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump covering The Wedding Present (it probably is, right?), Ted Leo doing Tears for Fears, Ben Folds recalling Elliott Smith or Coheed and Cambria taking a stab at The Smiths.
And to make it a little easier on you, we’ve compiled all 25 videos here in one place. Watching them all at once might be a daunting task, but it’s not like you want to do those TPS reports anyway.
If I wasn’t already a fan of Bobby Bare Jr., I would be now. For his installment in Aquarium Drunkard’s Diversions series, Bare discussed the place of politics in music — or the lack thereof.
According to Bare, musicians who spout off about politics from the stage (and actors who do their thing, too) are no different than dentists who start waxing political after they’ve got you in the chair with the sharp objects in your mouth. And why shouldn’t musicians just assume that their fans want to hear about their politics? Because they might be idiots, for one. Per Bare:
Just because you have the talent to write a song does not mean that you also have an equally special gift for politics or an especially qualified political opinion. THEY JUST DON’T ALWAYS GO TOGETHER. Many talented musician friends of mine are the last mutherfuckers in the room who should be talking about politics, as they mostly only think about girls, free beer, perfectly tattered vintage jeans and music.
Sure, he goes on to explain some of the nuances involved and understands that some musicians can’t avoid political discourse, and he continues to preach on about the importance of action over hollow words. But his message is still loud and clear: Shut up and play some damn music!
It’s one thing for folks who sit idly to debate these issues, but when someone who is on stage night after night lays down the law about something that might irk his peers, it’s a very encouraging breath of fresh air.
I’m still trying to forgive Black Mountain for wronging me all those years back, and Wilderness Heart might be helping. But this Jimmy Fallon appearance isn’t necessarily doing any lazer scar removal for me. Not a bad performance, not a great one, either.
:: Hardy Morris of Dead Confederatehad “toothpick surgery.” Believe it or not, that isn’t as painful as it sounds. All they did was shove a toothpick in his urethra. No big deal at all, right?
:: All those Coast to Coast AM listeners might want to call George and tell him to move that apocalypse clock up from 2012 to Nov. 9 of this year.
It looks like the collaboration between Damien Jurado and Richard Swift is going beyond just one studio album. And from the looks of things, it’ll be going beyond this volume of covers the duo just posted on their new Tumblr.
Other People’s Songs Vol. 1 was recorded on the spot by Jurado and Swift over a weekend, and it includes tracks from sources as disparate as Yes, John Denver, Kraftwerk and Chubby Checker.
Here’s hoping for a lush, dreamy version of Treat Your Mother Right (Treat Her Right) when volume two rolls around sometime this winter.
If you start at this for a minute then close your eyes, you will see an animated GIF of a graphic designer laughing and throwing $100 bills into the air.
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