Awwww yeah. I remember when I was actually scared of Ice Cube. N.W.A was pretty successful at painting a picture of some serious hard-asses that had no tolerance for middle class white boys like myself. They were about as successful as King Diamond or Deicide was in convincing me that they had ties to the [...]
Ha ha – Not really, I just thought that would be a funny headline, but the seventh track on The King of Limbs, “Give Up the Ghost” draws the “Grizzly Bear is the American Radiohead” comparison full circle. It starts with birdsong and builds a haunting layered vocal call and a stripped down percussion that [...]
I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. First I can’t get this song out of my head, then when I finally get around to listening to Kid Cudi’s new album, Man on the Moon 2: Legend of Mr. Rager, it’s his anthemic song with Kanye – “Erase Me” that won’t escape me. [...]
The Coolest Song Ever! … Right Now is basically a recurring feature of Kisses & Noise that allows me to highlight a song. Sometimes these songs are yet-to-be-released, brand new, a few months old, or from a completely different decade, but all are deserving of attention. Some may be new to you or an old [...]
As a sucker for sad and mopey shoegaze SOARS grabbed my attention several months ago while breezing through the outstanding Shuffler website. The dark, ambient tones of the music seem to carry the distant and forlorn vocals of Briana Edwards on a dreary and mystifying fog. “Throw Yourself Apart” haunted me with the dark intro, [...]
Greg “Girl Talk” Gillis released his latest album (mix tape), All Day, as a free download. It is meant to be listened to as one continuous track, but you have the option of downloading it parsed into individual songs. He brings the party as usual. I was actually listening to this at work and nearly [...]
Billy Corgan and Company are slowly but surely delivering on a promise made. That promise is the epic Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, a 44+ song collection released one at a time for free via the Smashing Pumpkins website. Every 4 songs a new collector’s edition EP is released. Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Volume II: The Solstice Bare [...]
As I anxiously await the next golden nug from the boys in My Morning Jacket I find myself digging deeper into their old stuff. “Tyrone” is originally an Erykah Badu number, I think, but Jim James adds his haunting take on the vocals while the band builds a stripped down (for MMJ) and straightforward rock [...]
Swedish shoegazers, The Radio Department, released an album a few months back. Clinging to a Scheme is their third full-length release and features a spacey, relaxed, low-fi feel something like Wilco meets Saint Etienne at a chill wave concert. “Heaven’s on Fire” – not to be confused with the awesome single from KISS‘ 1984 album [...]
Massive Attack is back with a lush and powerful new album in Heigoland and Thievery Corporation is on the heels of their first retrospective release, It Takes a Thief, and debut of the Eric Hilton produced, conspiracy tinged, attack-on-the-establishment film, Babylon Central. My guess is Massive is headlining, but Thievery is sure to steal [...]
