"There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself." What is it that gives a song its sense of movement? How does a song move from beginning to end without becoming boring? The quote above, taken from - of all places - Herman Melville's Moby [...]
Author: Brennan
Hi, I'm Brennan. Thanks for reading.
The Honesty of Hares and Bears
After the splintering of my beloved Gatsbys American Dream, its members went off to participate in a variety of diverse projects - Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, Search/Rescue and Places and Numbers, to name a few - but only a handful of those acts ever released any actual albums, and only one of those releases prominently featured Gatsbys' [...]
Owel – Owel
Only a few short weeks ago, I offered up Gates' You Are All You Have Left to Fear and Owel's I've Seen Colors (released under Owel's former band name, Old Nick) as the best albums that 2012 had to offer. I also promised that we'd be revisiting Owel soon, for their upcoming full length record. Well, that time has come. This [...]
In Defense of…In Reverie
Coming off of what is widely - and rightly - considered to be their finest achievement, 2001's Stay What You Are, Saves the Day was in a difficult position. How do you follow something that magnificent without seeming second rate or derivative? It's a difficult question to answer and one that a great multitude of bands have [...]
Brennan’s Best of 2012: New Jersey Rising
It is news to approximately zero people that music is not made in a vacuum. What may actually be news to a few people is the important role that community can potentially play in fostering a band's sound. There's a reason that we associate Seattle with grunge, St. Louis with the blues, and Detroit with that Motown [...]
Top 5 Non-Traditional Holiday Songs
My girlfriend likes to claim that I only listen to depressing music, which is crazy. Case in point: I love Christmas music, which is unilaterally positive. In fact, one of the great things about the holiday season is the festive music that can be heard everywhere, from your nearest shopping center, to the park near my house [...]
Ben Folds Five – The Sound of the Life of the Mind
After a hiatus that spanned a dozen years, Ben Folds Five is back. Of course, Ben Folds himself never really went away - starting with the brilliant Rockin' the Suburbs in 2001, he released a series of solo records and side-projects that, beginning from that lofty point, seemed to offer increasingly diminishing returns1 while his public profile managed to [...]
Paper Route – The Peace of Wild Things
Paper Route is in an interesting place. After releasing a smattering of brilliant EPs1 that introduced their novel, beautifully melodic take on electronica, Paper Route released Absence, their début full-length in 2009. The album was well received, both critically and commercially, and while I agree that it is a strong album,2 it also seemed to present a movement away from those [...]
Coheed & Cambria – The Afterman: Ascension
While many of their contemporaries have disbanded completely, splintered off into various side projects, or - all too often - broken up only to reunite a few years later in what might lovingly be called a nostalgic tribute (and cynically, a cash-grab)1, Coheed and Cambria have simply kept at it. With a few lineup changes here and [...]
What It’s Like To Be A Kid
For the last two-plus years I lived in a very, very small town at the literal edge of America. Living in such a small town, I saw primarily the same people day in and day out with little variation: my girlfriend, my co-workers, my neighbors. This repetitive familiarity has a way of shrinking the world [...]
Songs & Stories 