Dave Matthews, Some Devil, September 23 (RCA)
Choosing to leave the band out of his name and album, Dave Matthews embarks on the tricky path of creating a solo album.
For the music snob, the first concert occupies a sacred space. Whether awful or amazing, we remember that first show, be it grooving to New Kids on the Block or sitting with your parents, suffering through a James Taylor set.
Every advertisement was billing it as the Dismemberment Plan's last show ever but when lead singer Travis Morrison walked on stage after Engine Down's serviceable opening set, he set the record straight on the "big fat lie." Turns out that the Plan had one more show, in their hometown of Washington, D.C.
I knew little to nothing about The Used before writing this review. I knew lead singer Bert McCracken dated Kelly Osborne and throws up on stage, or something like that.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Fuck Nirvana.
Credit where credit is due, the real impetus for the alt-rock revolution of the early 1990's wasn't Seattle and Nirvana.
Hip-Hop musicians have never felt a particular tie to the album format. Some purists might have a problem with that, but in some cases, it can work out quite well.
I used to write song lyrics in the love letters I would write to my girlfriend senior year of high school.
The lyrics were never anything really important, they were from something like Blink 182's "Going Away To College," but I thought I was poet laureate of Northeast Philadelphia.
I miss doing that.
During a short hiatus from the Dave Matthews Band, famed violinist Boyd Tinsley has put together an evocative new solo album, True Reflections. Surprisingly, Tinsley's skills as a violinist take second place to his raw, emotive vocals, as he demonstrates a new side of his musicality to audiences.
If you've ever been to a packed, standing-room-only concert, you've felt the nauseating swell of excitement and terror one can encounter while being pressed up against the body in front of you as the entire crowd sways from one direction to the next, independent of your own control.
Any mention of The Eels conjures up thoughts of quirky, playful, and oftentimes beautiful music. With songs appearing in the movies Shrek and Anniversary Party and their hit single "Novocaine for the Soul," The Eels show their pop influences but with a dark twist.
Their latest release, Shootenanny!, is a venture into heavy blues territory, done according to the old Eels formula.