Skating Polly hits hard with its latest video debut, “Van Gogh.”
videos
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‘Vital’ signs
Eleven years in, and few alternative bands can claim the sort of consistent success and stability that Anberlin has. With six successful studio albums and tours with 30 Seconds to Mars and Taking Back Sunday under its belt, the group has enjoyed a smooth ride. “A lot of bands can’t keep together a year, let […]
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Smith Westerns — Soft Will
Traditionally, bands aren’t really supposed to hit rock ’n’ roll puberty until they approach their 30s. And you’re definitely not supposed to sound as primed and polished as Smith Westerns do on Soft Will — their third studio album — when you’re barely into your 20s. Admittedly, the act’s youth and the notion of trad-rock […]
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New frontier
Lord Huron Photo: Ben Schneider One gets the feeling that as inspired by Bob Dylan as Lord Huron ringleader Ben Schneider probably is, John Wayne might be just as influential. The cinematic compositions harken back to the golden era of Westerns, and even with a dash of Bollywood and stroke of lush, Northern landscapes (a […]
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Kanye West — Yeezus
Ego alone isn’t what makes Mr. West such a fascinating figure; any other schmo with a head his size would be scoffed and discarded as parody. There’s actually a certain degree of legitimacy that keeps his maniacal sense of self-importance from devolving into full-scale megalomania: that Kanye’s vision and production chops are currently unmatched in […]
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The Aquabats! Super Show! Season One! 2012
A surf-rock band I recall running across in the mid-1990s, The Aquabats have been reborn as superheroes in these utterly insane adventures, drawing more influence from ’70s-era Asian monster matinees à la Infra-Man than anything else. In each half-hour, our costumed quintet fights some rubber-suited creature (Manant and the Floating Eye of Death among them), […]
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Puttin’ on the Ritts
Madonna — True Blue Profile (Hollywood, 1986) Photo: Herb Ritts Foundation Herb Ritts was a celebrity photographer in both senses of the term: a photographer of celebrities and, rarer still, a photographer who became a celebrity. His status was built upon his shots of fashion models and entertainment icons in stark black and white — […]
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Clip art
“If you really want to make something happen for yourself, you can’t wait around thinking,” said Nik Harper. “Just go out and make what you want. That’s literally all we did. We’re really lucky that people liked what we were doing.” Their video for Philadelphia rapper Lushlife’s “Magnolia” (see below), selected to be showcased at […]
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Boldly going …
A dedicated band of die-hard Star Trek fans has crafted an exact replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise (from the original TV series, in case you were wondering) for a work-in-progress web series inspired by the sci-fi classic. The impressive circular set is resplendent with its blinking read-outs; its dazzling array of switches, […]