Ohio metal band Lo-Pan loves to tour. “Most of us are very strongly connected to our performance,” said drummer Jesse Bartz. “That’s how we want to earn our fans.” How much does Lo-Pan like touring? So much so that Bartz’s answer to almost every question ended up related to hitting the road: On the story […]
Stephen Carradini
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Def, not dumb
It’s a common storyline: Young, fervent rockers mellow with age and settle into an elder statesman role, complete with less touring. This is not the Deftones’ storyline. “Right now, we’re just hammering it out on the road. We totally enjoy it,” said Frank Delgado, the California-based alt-metal band’s turntablist/keyboardist. “As you get older, you find […]
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Red City Radio — The Dangers of Standing Still
The last song of the Oklahoma City group’s aptly titled album could be the first, as there’s no letup of enthusiasm, speed or snare drum in their pop-punk debut. Highlight “Talk Me to Sleep” features the best lyric (“They’re asking us to die for something / While asking us to live for nothing”) and the […]
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Laura Stevenson and the Cans — Sit Resist
Laura Stevenson and the Cans’ “Sit Resist” does that, too, but on steroids. Genres that are beautifully integrated here include (but are not limited to) folk, pop, rock, indie rock, indie pop, ’50s girl pop, Motown, gospel and waltz. And somehow, she ties it all together into an incredibly coherent album. Wow. The unifying thread […]
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Man-made Objects — EP
Man-Made Objects’ shoegaze and psych tunes rely heavily on songcraft, relegating reverb to an effect on guitar and vocals instead of the featured element. As a result, the band calls to mind a less noisy Stardeath and the White Dwarfs or a darker Flaming Lips. The songs are catchy, but that’s a bonus; the most […]
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Brandi Carlile — Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony
When she decides to really go for it at the high point of a tune, her voice can very nearly knock people over. Pair that with melodies that people want to hear over and over (as in “The Story,” which you probably heard on this commercial or in “Grey’s Anatomy”), and you’ve got songs that, […]
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Roy Orbison — The Monument Singles Collection (1960-1964)
“The Monument Singles Collection (1960-1964)” collects 39 Orbison tunes on two discs (A-sides and B-sides, naturally) and includes a 25-minute DVD of a performance in Holland. Orbison was a master of the 2:20 pop song, as only four of these tunes break the three-minute mark (and “Mama” is 3:01, which barely counts). Many radio staples […]
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MilkDrive — Road from Home
Not good, not great, just there. MilkDrive’s “Road from Home” is an almost totally inoffensive release, but it doesn’t shine that brightly, either. Falling neatly into the newly hip folk/bluegrass genre, the group cranks out tunes that lean more toward the Nickel Creek bluegrass end of the spectrum than the Avett Brothers’ pop side. I […]
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Jimi Hendrix — South Saturn Delta
Still, Jimi Hendrix’s “South Saturn Delta” makes my eyes get big and my mouth drop, and it’s only a collection of cast-offs and B-sides. Yes, I make an exception for Jimi Hendrix. The retrospective covers all the eras of his short but prolific career, from 1967 to 1970. Some of these tracks have been issued […]
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BOK to donate land for Oklahoma pop culture museum
One of the biggest question marks was replaced with a period yesterday when Bank of Oklahoma announced that it intends to donate land in that city’s Brady District to the Oklahoma Historical Society for the proposed Oklahoma Museum of Music and Pop Culture, or OK Pop. “It’s a culture in our community to give back,” […]