Concert Review: Electric Six at Musica
Published on November 7th, 2014 in: Concert Reviews, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |By Julie Finley
October 4, 2014
Akron, OH
Northeast Ohio has been devoid of some good shows for a while now, and Akron rarely has any concerts whatsoever. The venue Musica (located in downtown Akron) is a small one, but has been slowly gaining some momentum, and some have have taken notice. Thankfully, Electric Six did, and performed there in early October.
This show really couldn’t have come at a better time (for me at least), as I was having a really awful week, and I truly needed to get out and do something that was fun. I have seen Electric 6 at least four times in Cleveland, so I pretty much knew what to expect, but that’s just it: I know I am going to be entertained, no matter how shitty the week has been! Electric Six are consistently amusing, and this show was no exception (in fact, I probably had even more fun at this show than previous ones!)
Music Review: Ronnie Fauss, Built To Break
Published on November 7th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |
Ronnie Fauss’s Built To Break is the kind of album that musicians strive throughout their whole careers to make. Lyrically honest, with distinctive vocals and excellent musicianship, it’s the kind of lovely surprise that makes me love writing about music. It’s all the better to know that Ronnie Fauss isn’t the kind of musician who yearned to make records his whole life; in fact, he only began writing seriously after his first child was born, and even then it took years for him to share his songs, taking up singing once he realized he would need to to get his songs heard.
Music Review: Suzi Quatro, The Girl From Detroit City Box Set
Published on October 31st, 2014 in: Current Faves, Feminism, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |By Hanna
With Lynsey de Paul having passed away and Noosha Fox now running a restaurant, we only have Suzi Quatro to keep the flame of female Anglo glamrock alive, and I can think of no one who deserves to be its queen more than her. For all the acknowledgement that mainstream music criticism has given her, acknowledgement which is so often denied to female artists, she barely seems to care that she has it. In Performing Glam Rock, Philip Auslander’s analysis of her subversion of the authenticity and masculinity of rock in both her gender performance and musical performance seemed almost too good to be true to me the first time I read it, and difficult to parse based on the German TV performances I knew of her. Only now, after hearing The Girl From Detroit City, do I realize that she’s really even beyond what he describes.
Movie Review: Super Duper Alice Cooper
Published on October 31st, 2014 in: Documentaries, Movie Reviews, Movies, Music, Reviews |By Tyler Hodg
Not only is school out, but so is the latest offering from director and massive metal head Sam Dunn (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Global Metal). His new film, Super Duper Alice Cooper documents the rise to fame of Vincent Furnier—better known as Alice Cooper—and the fall from grace that saw him hitting absolute rock bottom. Unapologetic and honest, Super Duper Alice Cooper painfully recollects the trials and tribulations of one of the most notorious bad boys in rock’n’roll, as well as the band that helped transform him into the character that everyone came to know.
Keepin’ Halloween Alive with Alice Cooper
Published on October 31st, 2014 in: Halloween, Holidays, Horror, Music |By Tyler Hodg
Unless you’ve lived under a rock your entire life, you know that Alice Cooper makes a living out of shocking and scaring audiences. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the King of Hallowe’en’s spooktacular single “Keepin’ Halloween Alive,” and it’s only fitting that the song sees a revision. Released digitally and on glow in the dark vinyl, “Keepin’ Halloween Alive” is definitely not a trick, but a high energy, extremely fun treat. You know, brand name, none of that generic crap.
I can’t fathom the fact that it took Alice Cooper 40 years to make an official Halloween song. Nonetheless, “Keepin’ Halloween Alive” not only rocks, it’s scary good. It’s up-tempo and is the perfect way to get into the spirit for the day of the dead.
Buying the digital version of the song is great and all, but the seven-inch glow in the dark vinyl is definitely the way to go. Side A features the song “Keepin’ Halloween Alive” and if you flip the vinyl over, side C (very clever, Alice!) is a live version of the fan favorite “I Love the Dead.”
I don’t know where Alice Cooper has been hiding, but Halloween is alive and well. His song hasn’t exactly become a mainstream Halloween hit, which is a shame seeing as it’s the perfect song for the occasion. Just as we’re keeping Halloween alive, we should be keeping this song alive as well. Long live Alice Cooper and may everyone’s Halloween be a thriller of a night.
Boo!
Music Review: Ben Ottewell, Rattlebag
Published on October 31st, 2014 in: Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |
Former Gomez singer and guitarist Ben Ottewell has the kind of voice that one struggles to find descriptors of. It’s like an old blues singer sitting on a front porch, like a drunken businessman wearing a suit made of sandpaper, like the honk of a deranged goose (but in a good way). His voice is distinctive and unusual and quite fantastic. As a guitarist, he is solid and makes interesting choices. He’s got a way with melody, too.
Concert Review: Lower and Merchandise at Wrongbar
Published on October 24th, 2014 in: Canadian Content, Concert Reviews, Music, Reviews |
Toronto, ON
October 15, 2014
Two of my favorite albums of this year are Merchandises’s After The End and Lower’s Seek Warmer Climes, so my attendance at this concert was guaranteed. Not only did both bands exceed my expectations, I discovered two more bands that are also compelling.
Music Review: Iceage, Plowing Into The Field Of Love
Published on October 24th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |I don’t care whose house is on fire
As long as I can warm myself at the blaze.
—Iceage, “On My Fingers”
Anyone who is surprised by the evolution of Iceage on their new album Plowing Into The Field Of Love hasn’t been paying attention. The seeds of the band’s sound were sowed early on, in songs like “New Brigade” and “You’re Blessed,” a seemingly haphazard collision of styles and sounds hinting that something far greater was in their future. That something has arrived and it’s one of the best things you’ll hear this year, if not for a long while, or at least until Iceage makes another album.
Music Review: Electric Six, Human Zoo
Published on October 24th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |
The first Electric Six album I heard was I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master. As if that title wasn’t strange and unwieldy enough, I literally could not process what I was hearing. What the fuck was I listening to exactly?
After seven years and several albums, I’ve figured out more about Electric Six. But it doesn’t mean that every new album from the band doesn’t make me ask that same question again. Human Zoo, their tenth (!!), is perhaps weirder than most E6 albums, but is also possibly their most cohesive since Heartbeats and Brainwaves, which was itself a bit of an anomaly in the canon.
Music Review: Bear In Heaven, Time Is Over One Day Old
Published on October 24th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |By Tyler Hodg
This past August, Brooklyn’s Bear in Heaven released their fourth album, Time Is Over One Day Old. Their signature electro-pop sound is prevalent, but it’s clear a natural growth has occurred since their last record. Although Bear in Heaven’s sound might be “in” right now, their creative songwriting has placed them in a genre of their own.