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 [...]
Category: Music
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 [...]
Peter Gabriel at The Palace of Auburn Hills
If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any particular field, then it's safe to say that Peter Gabriel has spent a good deal longer than that performing on stage. There's a reason that the one-time Genesis frontman is renowned in the industry for his onstage theatrics and performance: few, if any, artists [...]
In Defense of…
Let me describe an album to you. It's not really a concept album but most of its tracks are thematically linked. It's divided into two separate sonic halves, the first based around simple, poppy instrumentation and the second around more complex compositions and arrangements. Between the two halves is a segue track that, during its [...]
Places and Numbers – Waking the Dead
A couple of years before fun. decided to light their drums on fire and make the programmed chart-topper that is Some Nights, another indie icon - Bobby Darling of Gatsbys American Dream fame - decided to fire up his laptop and record some songs as he trekked across the globe. In 2010, Darling released two EPs [...]
I the Mighty – Karma Never Sleeps
From the opening moments of Karma Never Sleeps, I the Mighty demands your attention. Album opener, 'The Dreamer,' comes to life as an atmospheric hum fades into a reverse snare hit, soon swallowed into a vacuumesque moment of silence, that is shattered by pounding instrumentals. The following freewheeling vocal line sets the tone for the entire [...]
The Mystery of Mr. Moon
Due presumably to some chemical imbalance or deep-seeded psychosomatic flaw, I have been known to occasionally become obsessed with individual songs. For reasons that are not immediately apparent, I will feel a strange compulsion to listen to the same track over and over and over again. This obsession inevitably burns itself out, but I'm always [...]
Songs & Stories 