Tag: Indie

  • interview by Michael McCarthy I first became aware of Kele Okereke when I read about Bloc Party, the band he’s fronted for roughly a dozen years now, in the British magazine Q in 2005. Immediately after reading about them, I hunted down their debut album, Silent Alarm, and knew I liked it before Kele even…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy Today I am pleased to present you with part two of my interview with Justin Masters.  As I said in my intro to part one, Justin and I were friends back in the mid-’90s but lost touch when I was in the thick of publishing my heavy metal music zine Ant,…

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  • It’s always fulfilling when an artist you thought was brilliant turns around and releases something new a year or two later and they’re still just as impressive.  In other words, there’s nothing worse than saying someone is as refreshing as a cool, sudden rainfall on a 100-degree day only for them to put out their…

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  • I’m only labeling this new Garbage video as a red hot video instead of a song of the day because “No Horses” already was a song of the day when they debuted the audio a week or so ago.  Anyway, this is the apocalypse as seen by Garbage and director Scott Stuckey and, well, everything that…

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  • “No turning back…”  Our latest song of the day is Alvvays’ new tune, “In Undertow,” a mix of synth pop, shoegaze and alternative rock that is ripe for rejoicing because, well, it’s totally awesome!  If you’re in the middle of winter right now, listen to this and it’ll thaw you out.  It’s so sunshiny it…

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  • Book of Shadows Volume 2: Rising will be out on its scheduled release date of August 10th, 2017 and is now available to pre-order here: http://amzn.to/2uQq6gg. Be sure to pre-order it today so that your Kindle gets its fix as soon as it’s available. Like magick! Of course, I’ve enrolled Book of Shadows 2 in Kindle…

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  • “This is the apocalypse,” sings Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson as their new single “No Horses” comes to its chilling conclusion.  It starts off sounding like it’s going to be a synth pop song, albeit a dark one, with Shirley singing, “They’ll love you,

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy When Sam Levin’s album Frame of Mind was sent to me by his publicist it was recommended if you like The Head and the Heart, Kings of Leon, The Lumineers, Imagine Dragons, Bon Iver, Bahamas and Jose Gonzales. Naturally, with an impressive list like that, I had to give it a…

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  • After a couple of mainstream pop radio hits with their previous and self-titled album, anyone could have predicted that Paramore’s first single from their new album After Laughter would be tailored for radio. Well, that’s exactly what we’ve got here: Paramore with a lovely pop melody, especially catchy beats, and an infectious chorus that you…

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  • “I cannot breathe,” sings Maximo Park’s frontman Paul Smith on their just released new single “Risk to Exist,” but the song is actually a breath of fresh air. I haven’t been doing many song of the day posts lately, less they take the focus off of our interviews, but after I listened to this one…

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  • by Michael McCarthy If St. Vincent ditched the electronics and simply made her music with live instruments, she would probably sound a lot like Lily Virginia, who’s an equally talented singer/songwriter/guitarist. Other artists Lily reminds me of are Ben Folds – she’s like a female Ben, just using guitar instead of piano – and Rilo…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy On October 21st folk rockers Streets of Laredo will release their sophomore album, WILD, via Dine Alone Records. The album is a spectacular set of tunes rich in kaleidoscopic color with lyrics that are inspiring as they inspired. With several different percussive instruments, horns, bass, electric and acoustic guitars and both…

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  • Garbage has all sorts of sci-fi and horror-esque things happening in this new red hot video for “Magnetized” from their latest album, Strange Little Birds. I don’t know what the budget for this one was, but it looks like it cost a couple million bucks with everything that’s going on and the insane lab setting…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy Wild Beasts, one of today’s most popular bands out of the United Kingdom, released their fifth album, Boy King, back in August and it’s one of the best records I’ve heard this year, packed with songs that are equal parts catchy, pop-minded affairs and intellectual, artistic statements. It’s also one of…

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  • interview by Michael McCarthy It’s funny how everything is connected. Earlier this year, I was listening to a random artist on Soundcloud – I can’t remember who – and the next thing that came on was a song by Brandyn Burnette, who I wound up interviewing. During that interview, he mentioned that he was doing…

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