Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood “Black Pudding”

Coming pretty quickly on the heels of last year’s The Mark Lanegan Band’s Blues Funeral, Lanegan’s collaboration with English minimalist bluesman Duke Garwood, Black Pudding, completely deflates the wall of sound atmosphere that Blues Funeral wholeheartedly embraced. Blues Funeral, which featured Alain Johannes, Jack Irons, Josh Homme, as well as Duke Garwood (on a few tracks), thrived on leaving no sonic space unfilled. Black Pudding is comprised of almost nothing but space. That isn’t to say that the album is full of dead air. Rather, Garwood’s minimal playing, which still manages to say a great deal thematically, keeps the album’s sound simple. Lanegan’s Americana drenched voice scratches and scrapes nicely over top of Garwood’s threadbare arrangements creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a sultry, and slightly spooky, Faulknerian Deep South gothic. One can almost envision the floating dust motes highlighted by the yellow light seeping through the yellowed blinds of Miss Coldfield’s office as described in the opening paragraph of Absalom, Absalom! in tracks like “Death Rides a White Horse.” 

Alice In Chains "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" (Review)

Some said grunge died when Mudhoney released an album on Reprise Records. Some said grunge died with Kurt Cobain (or Layne Staley, or Andrew Wood). Still some others said grunge died when Chris Cornell cut his hair, and then Soundgarden broke up. It’s a good thing that grunge is already dead now that Jerry Cantrell has cut his hair, eh? Regardless of when “grunge died,” somebody forgot to tell the aforementioned Jerry Cantrell about the news. Reunited, reinvigorated, and most of all re-validated, Alice In Chains (with new member and co-singer William DuVall, and returning bassist MIke Inez and drummer Sean Kinney) are continuing the sludgy/grungy tradition of detuned guitar riffs, heavy bass and drums, and that overall melancholy saturated music that brought a smile to the face of many AIC fans, and is now doing so once again.  

Nine Inch Nails “Came Back Haunted”

During a relatively short sabbatical from his main musical project, upon which he scored two major films, won an Oscar, and released a full album and a half of material with his wife Mariqueen Maandig under the name How To Destroy Angels, Trent Reznor has resurrected Nine Inch Nails. A new single, a new full length album (due Sept. 3rd), and a planned North American Fall Tour all comprise the Industrial King of Darkness’ return. The first single off the new album, titled Hesitation Marks has debuted, and it’s everything long term NIN fans have come to expect and want from Reznor.

The 80s: "All Through the Night"

This past New Year's Eve, just before my wife and I headed out to partake in some New Year's Eve festivities, I caught part of the Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2013 special that was going through a list of the top 30 or so music performances hosted by Clark over the years on his signature program American Bandstand and others. From Jefferson Airplane to INXS there were many performers featured. One performance in particular started me on an enlightening trip down memory lane that I still haven't completely recovered from yet. That performance was of Cyndi Lauper singing "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" on Clark's American Bandstand.

Garbage on The Tonight Show 12-7-12

Seems like the 90s music revival is continuing. Not only did Soundgarden get back together and release one of the best albums of the year this year, but Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage also dropped some fantastic new work on us. With bands like Silversun Pickups, Joy Formidable, and Tribes leading the 90s rock revivalism it's only fitting that these bands start showing up on the late night circuit.

Soundgarden: Been Away Too Long (Review)

"I've got nowhere to go since I got back," wails Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell on "Been Away Too Long," the lead single off of Soundgarden's first new album since 1996's Down on The Upside, but it appears that (finally) Soundgarden found somewhere to go. For the band, it's full steam ahead into the battle to reclaim hard rock from the awful likes of Nickleback and Three Days Grace. "Been Away Too Long" embodies everything that is good about Soundgarden's sonic stylings and makes the most of Kim Thayil's droning guitar sludge, Cornell's powerful vocals, Matt Cameron's inspired drumming (I'm still convinced he's the best drummer to emerge from the whole Seattle scene), and longtime bassist Ben Shepherd's thick bass lines. Finally, a high profile rock song worth listening to in the vein of 90s grunge has arrived. 

Muse: Madness (Review)

Muse's new album, The 2nd Law is due to drop on October 2nd this year, but three songs have already been released/teased off the new album. "Survival" was the official song of the London 2012 Olympic Games, "Unsustainable," a brilliant dub-step like song created through traditional drum, bass, and guitar is visible and audible all over the web, and "Maddness," the album's latest single is now available through iTunes as part of the new album's pre-order. Like nearly everything that Muse does, it will perennially be compared to whatever Radiohead does, but at this point Muse is light years ahead of Radiohead sonically.