Sufjan Stevens @ BAM, Thursday, Nov. 1
It was difficult to walk into the world-premiere of Sufjan Stevens’ “symphonic and cinematic exploration” of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway without feeling the foreboding sense that something musically important was going to happen. Lofty expectations would be the death of nearly any other modern indie performer, but Stevens – who’s previously announced such infamous knee-buckling goals...
New Hello, Blue Roses: “Shadow Falls” and “Hello, Blue Roses”
There are about half a dozen other things I should be writing about in order to preserve one of the key elements of journalism: timeliness – however, I’ve become mildly obsessed with Dan Bejar since last year, so I can’t keep myself from jumping all over this. Hello, Blue Roses is the pairing of Dan...
Quick Impressions: The Rocktober Concerts Edition
October gets nick-named “Rocktober” for reason – ’tis the season for concerts. I attended at least two a week, making it hard to find time to write about all them as soon as I would have liked to. Here are quick rundowns of the latest happenings. Fog, Torche & Jesu @ Blender Theater, Saturday, Oct....
New Saul Williams: The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
At this EXACT moment in time, I’m listening to the new Saul Williams album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, out today (which is fortuitous timing when you consider this). Williams collaborated with Trent Reznor of NIN on this release and they’re releasing it Radiohead/Public Enemy-style: you can either download the album for...
Bruce Springsteen @ Madison Square Garden, October 17th
A couple years ago, I made a list of the top three old-school rock acts that I wanted to see while they were still around and touring – The Eagles, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen. This was before the Eagles had a new album, before The Rolling Stones had A Bigger Bang, so I...
In The Inbox: House of Brothers & Bear in Heaven
House of Brothers: “Deadman” (download) There’s something easy to like about “Deadman” – particularly the falling piano, the flutes, the violins, the maracas, the hand claps. It’s very complete, very well thought out, very whole. Nothing is missing. This is a nice little gem of a tune for fall. His self-titled debut EP is out...
Two Gallants: Daytrotter Session #2
T-Sides favorites Two Gallants stopped by the Daytrotter studio for a second time, this time to record “The Deader,” “Despite What You’ve Been Told,” “The Hand That Held Me Down” and “Trembling of the Rose.” All available for listening and downloading here, and Daytrotter’s Sean Moeller wrote a rather odd but very good piece on...
In The Inbox: Cass McCombs
As stated before, T-Sides doesn’t generally look to PR e-mails for inspiration. Some might call it stubborn, some might call it foolish, some might call it a plain ol’ jerk move – we call it the T-Sides way. There are always exceptions, however, so welcome to a new feature for said exceptions: In The Inbox....
Sean Nelson on Harvey Danger
Last summer, I wrote an entry stating a case for Harvey Danger – a sorely under-appreciated band, and one of my favorites. You can read it here. Now, Harvey Danger front-man Sean Nelson has been writing his own entries about their albums on his blog, and they’re definitely worth reading, whether you’re a Harvey Danger...
Quick Impressions: Bat For Lashes, “Fur And Gold”
The songs. 1. “Horse and I”: Please tell me that’s a Theremin! Good sign. Military drum beat? Another good sign. Layered backing vocals? This just gets better and better. 2. “Trophy”: “Heaven is a feeling I get in your arms” might sound a little trite/contrived on paper, but sung by Ms. Khan with the Nick...
Kanye vs. 50
I’m rather certain that this Kanye West vs. 50 Cent “battle” is a big marketing stint, especially with all the articles over the past six months about how mainstream rap is stale and its sales are going down. I normally pride myself in my ability to avoid such schemes, both in terms of economic support...
Soapbox