The Gaslight Anthem have shared their first new music since 2014, and it is as heartfelt, sentimental and grand as you would ever want it to be.
Time and time again, Magnolia Park proves to the music world that they are one of the major players in a new generation of pop-punk. They gave more evidence to that today with the release of two new songs as part of their deluxe edition of their debut album, Baku’s Revenge. “Complicated” and “Dizzy” are the perfect additions to the other tracks previously on the album. They’re full of heartbreak, matched with a catchy beat. “Complicated” starts off with a slow burn that ends up combusting a little over an minute in. The trap beat has elements of hip hop and… Read more »
Chris #2 discusses ‘American Fall’, Donald Trump, and optimism in 2017.
Back in the early 1980s, punk scenes started to develop in California. Bands like the Germs, Black Flag, X, and the Avengers took what they were doing seriously but appeared to be having more fun than punks from other cities. And one of the originals was Geza X.
Even if you’re convinced that a band changing their sound is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, it’s perfectly natural for someone’s music to develop and shift from album to album. But every once in a while, those shifts are so dramatic that the early work ends up sounding like it was released by an entirely different band than the more recent material.
It certainly does not suck to be Four Year Strong right now.
Early in July, Rusty Shaffer, the founder of Optek, a small music company in Reno, Nev., visited Salon’s offices to show me his invention, the Fretlight guitar. Though it looks and feels like a standard, rock ‘n’ roll-ready instrument, the Fretlight contains a set of LEDs invisibly embedded inside its fretboard — connect the guitar to a computer and the lights spark up to indicate where to put your fingers in order to play a chord. Shaffer is certain that his guitar is a great leap forward for the normally tech-averse guitar industry; the Fretlight, he says, will transform guitar… Read more »
Panic! at the Disco went from a group of teenagers who’d written only three songs and never played a live show to the biggest new rock band in America. Their secret: Put together a band the way you’d create a MySpace page and let the kids run wild Ryan Ross bought his C55 Mercedes three months ago, but it’s been parked in his Las Vegas garage ever since. When the Panic! at the Disco guitarist climbs behind the wheel, cues up Tom Waits’ new Orphans collection and starts pushing buttons on the navigation system, he’s still not sure how it… Read more »
No Doubt began as a good-time ska-party band, full of California sunshine. But in the last few years, that’s been obscured by smog: bruised egos within the band, gloomy lyrics and weak record sales for last year’s Return of Saturn. The bad times are all gone on their upcoming album, Rock Steady, reports singer Gwen Stefani. “We’re not taking ourselves so seriously,” she says. “It’s like, get over it. We’re a fucking band and we’re really lucky to be doing what we do.” Rock Steady, out December 18th, is a sweet pop confection, made with arrays of keyboards, a dance-floor… Read more »
It’s the kind of small moment on which rock ‘n’ roll history turns. It was Fall, 1978. The Ramones had just completed their fourth album, “Road to Ruin,” and the band felt certain it had recorded a hit single: the impossibly catchy “I Wanna Be Sedated.” But the band was overruled; label executives opted for another track, “Don’t Come Close.” That single quickly disappeared, along with the Ramones’ hit-making aspirations. “We really wanted ‘I Wanna Be Sedated,”‘ recalls guitarist Johnny Ramone. “But the record company picked the singles.” So the No. 1 hit in November 1978 instead was the fluffy… Read more »
