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Frank De Blase on November 18th, 2009
"They" are everywhere. "They" say a lot. "They" are illusive and wily. Who do "they" think "they" are, anyway?" And now "they" are all talking about Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, a super-traditional, ultra-suave, funk-soul sensation straight out of Brooklyn.
"They" have got Jones singing duets, "they" have the Dap
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 18th, 2009
God, that Meryl Streep is such a bitch.... Of all the screaming insanity found in the heavy music scene today, The Devil Wears Prada expertly rides the grunge-inspired tension-release format. There's melodic passages that flow in spite of the mayhem that punctuates the arrangements with bloody conviction. Singer Jeremy Depoyster
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 18th, 2009
It makes sense that a band known not only for the quantity (500 in the last three years) but the quality of its shows would sound best on record if it's live. Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad's new "Live Up" is a collection of 11 songs mined from five live
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 18th, 2009
When Detroit's Sponge hit the scene in 1994, singer Vinnie Dombroski reminded me a lot of The Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler: bluesy, apocalyptic, and cool. Put together from the remnants of Loudhouse in 1991, Sponge exploded in 1995 with its Columbia album "Rotting Pinata," which included the hits "Plowed"
Music Articles
Frank De Blase on November 11th, 2009
Close your eyes and Ballbreaker sounds just like AC/DC. And for years, that's pretty much what the band was trying to achieve: it covered AC/DC's music with alarming accuracy.
Call it redemption if you want, but on record Ballbreaker finds its own voice within the genre that it used to emulate,
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 11th, 2009
Sometimes my hunches are actually right, goddammit. I've been rooting for The Sunstreak since the boys in the band were flipping burgers backstage at The Warped Tour. The Rochester-based band has worked its collective ass off, made the Billboard charts without a label, and crashed a van or too on
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 11th, 2009
Whether or not its purveyors want to admit it or not, gospel is as responsible for rock 'n' roll as blues or country. In fact, those that traffic in the once-accused "devil's music" do a better job when they stay closer to the path of righteousness. Listen to The Voices
Music Articles
Frank De Blase on November 4th, 2009
The last time Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine and I talked was between mouthfuls of late-night breakfast. Maroon 5 had played a show at Water Street Music Hall, and we somehow found ourselves crowded in the corner booth at Mark's Texas Hots in the wee hours of the morning.
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 4th, 2009
My wife Deb and I have this get-out-of-jail free policy for affairs outside the marriage; each is permitted a celebrity dalliance, as remote is it may be. If the famed object of lust is available, well then, it's OK. So in my wife's case, if David Bowie or Johnny Depp
Choice Concerts
Frank De Blase on November 4th, 2009
We've gotten so caught up in hit-single culture that focus has been taken off the album, the LP, as a whole body of work. Whether or not there's an intentional musical theme or lyrical narrative by an artist on any given record, that's how it's listened to - front
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Frank De Blase on November 18th, 2009
Much in the way hair metal briefly blinded us with Aqua Net and eclipsed heavy metal, New Wave in its androgynous fervor shanghai'd the spotlight from a period and style of music that never really got classified. Sure, it's all rock 'n' roll in the whole grand scheme of things,
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Frank De Blase on November 8th, 2009
The Cult's show Saturday at the Armory had me torqued with nervous anticipation. This was a band I loved -- yet a few red flags had me a little nervous. Ticket sales were slow initially. and the band was not doing any press. No photographers were even allowed in the
Music Blog
Frank De Blase on November 4th, 2009
Tranquilatwist tranquilatwisted the dressed-up-to-get-messed-up crowd for the Devil's Night Fetish Masquerade at Water Street Music Hall Friday. Singer Karlie Cary Lanni seduced and we succumbed as she wailed bitter and sweet beneath a pillbox hat and fire-engine red tresses. She was a captivating chanteuse within the band's potent swirl.
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Frank De Blase on October 30th, 2009
Good jazz often hits me like a cool blast of eucalyptus: it gets the flow flowing, the go going, and the going gone. Drummer Harris Eisenstadt and Canada Day served up a slinky, sultry groove in the Bop Shop Atrium last night. It was just the right mix of exploratory
Music Blog
Frank De Blase on October 26th, 2009
Arrived at the Main Street Armory Friday night as Aussie duo An Horse pumped out a big sound a la Sleater-Kinney. Cage The Elephant followed with a frenetic strain of Kentucky-fried indie rock set to a kind of accelerated funk groove. Singer Matt Shultz raved about the stage, shaking his
Music Blog
Frank De Blase on October 22nd, 2009
Emmylou Harris' name was written in the big letters on the marquee, but it was Buddy Miller's show Wednesday night at The Auditorium Theatre. It isn't just the fact that I root for the underdog, spin the B-side, constantly look below the radar, and thrive on music traveling the airways
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Frank De Blase on October 21st, 2009
Pushing a mix of cuts off the new "Crash Love" CD and older stuff, AFI rocked Water Street Music Hall Friday night with a full-throttle set and a lightshow that would give the planetarium penis envy.
Singer Davey Havok has changed since I saw him rock Darien Lake two
Music Blog
Frank De Blase on October 14th, 2009
Playing straight-up, straight-ahead, straightened-out garage rock, Phoenix quartet The Love Me Nots knocked out a super-catchy set to a modest but super enthusiastic crowd Thursday night at the Bug Jar. The two-guy, two-gal line-up was tight with its relentless 4/4 beat, choppy guitar, all just dripping with greasy Farfisa goodness.
Music Blog
Frank De Blase on October 7th, 2009
Let me just begin by saying, "Holy shit." I've seen the Israeli rock trio Monotonix before, I've interviewed them, I think I know what they're about. But last night's show at the Bug Jar was a cross between Caligula and the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese, and one of
Music Blog
Frank De Blase on October 5th, 2009
Over the rest of the weekend-long fest I caught more primo sounds. I'd heard some of Dan Eaton's stuff before, and my wife always comes running to the TV for new recipes whenever he's on, but I'd always pegged him as a mellow rocker. That's not the case at all.
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