27.Jan.2012 “The Gravedigger’s Song” by The Mark Lanegan Band
I’m not going to lie. Mark Lanegan could release an album of Katy Perry covers and I’d not only listen to it, but I’d probably put down cash money for it, too. Now, that’s not to say quality doesn’t matter when it comes to the output of the one time Screaming Trees frontman. Rather, his [...]
19.Jan.2012 Moving Pictures: “Bellringer Blues (Nick Zinner Remix)” by Grinderman
Let’s say I didn’t spend the past year collecting all of the 12″ singles released following Grinderman’s 2010 album, Grinderman 2, I’d be all over this upcoming remix collection on Anti- Records featuring collaborations and reinterpretations featuring Robert Fripp, Josh Homme, A Place to Bury Strangers, Cat’s Eyes and Factory Floor. Hell, I’ll still be [...]
10.Nov.2011 “So Far Away” by A Place to Bury Strangers
Short, sweet, loud and to the point, “So Far Away,” the first song released from A Place to Bury Strangers’ forthcoming EP for Dead Oceans isn’t revealing and doesn’t necessarily expand upon what we already know about the New York noisemakers. Rather, it reenforces the trio’s strengths — Working measurable volume and obscure textures into [...]
07.Nov.2011 Moving Pictures: Two Different Ways by Factory Floor
Are Factory Floor a rock band with the groove of a dance act or an electronic act with a nose for noise? Are they goth or post-punk or trance? Should we wait for NME or Pitchfork to chime in with a new sub-genre, or should we dig in? During the Londoner’s late night, attention-grabbing set [...]
13.Oct.2011 “No Nostalgia” by Parts and Labor
NYC’s Parts and Labor are one of the few rock bands on the scene today to successfully and convincingly integrate electronics into their sound (Way haywire electronics, I should add), and have always been a favorite of both I Rock Cleveland and the Cleveland concert audience in general. Now, after ten years, they’re placing themselves [...]
28.Jun.2011 The Rockometer: Black Up by Shabazz Palaces
Shabazz Palaces Black Up Sub Pop Be honest. If I told you there was this great, forward-thinking rap album released on the venerable, American indie label, Sub Pop and that album was by a former member of Diggable Planets, “Cool Like Dat,” Diggable Planets, what would you think? Has Sub Pop lost its mind? Has [...]
06.Jun.2011 Moving Pictures: “I Gotta Rokk” by DJ Shadow
Music videos these days just don’t get much better than the one for DJ Shadow’s latest single, “I Gotta Rokk.” Much like his music, which is decidedly sample-based, the video itself, is a collection of obscure footage recovered from god knows where. And my what footage we have collected here — Cheesy metal men doing [...]
20.May.2011 Top Jam: “Song for Reinier Lucassen’s Sphinx” by Trouble Books and Mark McGuire
Long considered by those in the know as the best band in Northeast, Ohio that no one outside of Northeast, Ohio has ever heard of, the husband and wife duo of Keith Freund and wife Linda Lejsovka are back with a new Trouble Books record and this time they invited a friend to the studio [...]
