Posts Tagged ‘beau de lang’

Punk rock has always been a young man’s game, and understandably so.

From the unchecked aggression of its three-chord primitivism to its inherently anti-historical aspirations, the genre as a whole has continuously relied upon a certain wild-eyed ideology that only the raw energy of youth seems to provide.

So it would appear nearly impossible that a band fronted by a guy who holds a considerably closer proximity to senior citizen discounts than the legal drinking age – not to mention the three middle-aged fathers who back him – would be capable of injecting life into a sound that has long since lost its sense of urgency.  But that is exactly what Los Angeles supergroup OFF! managed to do with the release of 2010’s ‘First Four‘ EPs, a compilation of angry, airtight tunes that didn’t so much redefine the belligerent zeal of early-80’s hardcore as it did masterfully re-appropriate it.

When Jack White announced a few months back that he would be releasing a solo album, the declaration didn’t come as much of a shock.

Even at the height of the White Stripes’ success, he seemed to possess the strange mixture of enigmatic persona and obsessive focus that often lends itself to such endeavors, so following the band’s official breakup it appeared to be a foregone conclusion that White would eventually set himself free from the self-imposed restraints that he may have already outgrown anyway.

Fans and critics alike will forever consider Spritualized to be one of those bands whose every release comes off as if it was its own momentous occasion.

Ever since the career-defining latitude he attained with 1997’s epic ‘Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space‘, group mastermind and former Spaceman 3 alum Jason Pierce has continued to chase a decidedly widescreen vision in terms of both sound and ambition. Each record since arrived like a statement of purpose, from the one hundred-plus musicians that contributed to ‘Let It Come Down‘ to Pierce’s near-fatal bout of double pneumonia which helped form the conceptual template behind ‘Songs In A & E‘.

The decision to add a second weekend to this year’s Coachella Music Festival has turned Los Angeles into a virtual hotbed of artistic activity, as a good number of groups performing at the Goldenvoice juggernaut are killing time between desert sessions by setting up one-off shows in nightclubs throughout the city and its surrounding areas.

The end result is a weeklong mini-festival of its own kind, one more suited for those with shorter attention spans and longer fears of being trampled to death on a dirt-caked campground.

Southampton’s Band Of Skulls kicked off the week’s festivities Monday night with a headlining slot at the El Rey Theatre, displaying their usual mixed bag of blues rock bluster and pop-smart balladry. After playing their initial Coachella set just a day earlier, the trio still seemed alert enough to deliver an extended and more introspective version of what was unveiled Sunday evening.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a decade since revered Britpop pioneers Blur released their last studio album, but what seems more inconceivable is that frontman and primary songwriter Damon Albarn has arguably been more productive in the years that followed than in the formidable ones before the group’s eventual flame-out.

The name Unknown Mortal Orchestra is only partially correct at best.

While it has been confirmed that the members of the group are indeed human and therefore subject to death, one could hardly consider them an orchestra given that the entire idea was originally conceived as a solitary bedroom recording project by singer-guitarist Ruban Nielsen.

Then again, taking into account the size of the late night Sunday crowd they drew last week at the Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club in Santa Monica, one wouldn’t really call them unknown anymore either.

It’s not often in this age of endless internet buzz that a band arrives with an ambitiously inventive sound that is as fully-formed as the hype surrounding it, but that is exactly what Sleigh Bells managed to do when they took the indie-sphere by storm in 2010 with the release of their razor sharp debut ‘Treats‘.

The Brooklyn duo of singer Alexis Krauss and guitarist/producer Derek Miller rose a little too rapidly through the ranks following a breakout performance at the CMJ Music showcase, only to back it all up with an album that somehow fused heavy jackhammer riffage, crunked-out breakbeats, and sweetened melodies into a solid cohesive statement.

To say that a good chunk of rock music currently exists within a post-Jack White paradigm could easily be called a case of gross overgeneralization or pretentiously lazy journalism, but one thing it couldn’t be considered is a blind understatement.

The infamous term ‘sophomore slump’ is often seen as sort of an elephant in the room among certain music circles.

Whether you’re an out-of-nowhere act ascending with the wave of success that naturally comes with a blockbuster debut, or simply an up-and-coming group looking to build upon the buzz of a promising start, it’s difficult not to feel the extra burden of expectation the next time around, and yet it’s more difficult to admit that the burden is even there to be felt at all.

While it may be true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, in the realm of rock n’ roll at least, sometimes it’s the first chance at a second impression that ends up being much more important.

2011 was relatively quiet for Southampton-based blues rockers Band Of Skulls, but the rest was not without reason.

Following the launch of their critically-acclaimed 2009 debut ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey‘, the group spent the subsequent years seeing their stock rise rapidly, beginning with iTunes selecting ‘I Know What I Am‘ as their coveted Free Single of the Week and ending with a live album documenting their stellar performance on revered Los Angeles radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic.