Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway Resist With Addicted to The Violence

Smart, witty, and on point, Malakian and Scars on Broadway continue the SOAD and RATM tradition of speaking out while rocking out.

When Rage Against the Machine abdicated as leaders of the type of speak truth to power rock that few bands ever engaged in so eloquently, System of a Down appeared primed to take over that role. For a while they succeeded, producing some of the most articulate protest rock albums since the first RATM album. Peaking with Mezmerize and Hypnotize, which seamlessly flowed into a perfect double album, SOAD hefted the torch of thinking man’s alt-metal. Then it all ended. SOAD frontman Serj Tankian carried forth and continued to fight the good fight, but his solo career has been a hit and miss affair. SOAD guitarist, Daron Malakian, also carried forth and on albums with his post-SOAD band, Scars on Broadway, has also put up a good fight. Scars on Broadway is easily the better sounding of the two offshoots of SOAD, even if the lyrics aren’t as strong as Tankian’s, in his solo efforts, have been. Malakian and Scars on Broadway exceed Tankian in the pure adrenalized punch of guitar rock that straddles metal, punk, and central Asian sounds though. Scars’ new album, Addicted to The Violence, is the closest Malakian has gotten to recreating the purposeful punch of sound and lyric that SOAD delivered with every album, and in the process ended up crafting the best alt-metal/hard rock album of the year.

David Letterman, Music, and Me

David Letterman, Music, and Me

My mother is 68 years old. That’s the same age as David Letterman. Now, my mother isn’t as obviously plugged into pop culture as much as the recently retired and 33 year tenured late night talk show host is, but she is the owner of a nice collection of vintage vinyl. She bequeathed the majority of my late father’s collection to me, but only upon promising that I would make her CD copies of the music so she could still listen to it when she wanted. The point being, she was quite up to date on popular music for many decades-and still is in many ways (she insists Lady Gaga has a better voice than Madonna-a point we hotly contest), but now I’m sure she couldn’t tell you the names of the members of Foo Fighters, even if the she doesn’t mind their music. As we all know now, and have been reminded of relentlessly over the past few weeks by a deluge of listicles on the topic, Foo Fighters is David Letterman’s favorite band. The point here being that David Letterman was obviously, all the way up to the end of his tenure as the king of late night (and he WAS the king of late night-nay sayers be damned) a fan of great music. He never lost that teenage-like joy at hearing a band he really enjoyed play live on his show, nor his delight and palpable emotional reaction to a band that he might not have been impressed with at first, but ended up a fan of after hearing live for the first time. The majority of music fans often lose sight of popular music after 40. Letterman never lost sight. In fact, Letterman never grew up in this sense and plenty of MTV deprived youths, such as myself, owe him a great debt because of it. 

CHIMES’ Debut LP Pile of Parts Is Worth the Wait

Mike Magarelli and CHIMES launch an inspired Dark Wave resurrection with debut album PILE OF PARTS. 

Back on September 23, 2023, I was covering Modern English live at the Radio Room in Greenville, SC. I was there to see them primarily and really wasn’t aware of who was opening. I always cover the opening bands in my reviews though, so I definitely was going to check out whomever it was. As Chimes began to play their opening set, a vibe not unlike a cool wind on a late autumn night emanated from the stage and enveloped the crowd in melancholy embrace. It was an embrace that wasn’t sad, or sorrowful, but coolly affecting. It’s the kind of vibe that bands like The Cure, The Twilight Sad, early Jesus and Mary Chain, and other goth and Dark Wave bands of a similar sound are masters of. Chimes’ performance that night won me over, ended too soon, and left me wanting to hear more. Finally after a year and a half, the LP Chimes’ lead singer/guitarist Mike Magarelli promised was coming soon is now here.

A.A. Williams Solstice

 

A student of mine recently asked me, "How do you know about so many bands?!" Besides the fact that I have 3 decades of listening to music on him, I explained that one of the best ways to discover new bands is to pay attention to any smaller, locally and independently run, music venue near you. These locations are where the best new musicians and bands often make their tour debuts. For me, that local venue is The Radio Room. I've discovered many bands that I've taken a serious liking to by either checking them out live there or looking up their music on various streaming platforms. A.A. Williams is one of those artists that I discovered this way. Although I couldn't make the show The Radio Room sponsored due to scheduling conflicts, I looked up her music and listened to her debut album, Forever Blue (2020). Her follow up album, As the Moon Rests (2022) solidified me as a fan of her music, and made me deeply regretful I missed seeing her live. With her 2026 release, Solstice, Williams continues to deepen and expand her sound. A sound that amalgamates alt-rock, goth rock, doom metal, and post-classical and transcends many of her fellow musicians' compositions working with similar post-modern modes and genres. 

A Perfect Circle Return With New Song "Starless"

 

A Perfect Circle returns with their first new music in 8 years, and while it's only a single song, it's like hearing an old comrade pick up the good fight again. 

Maynard James Keenan has never shied away from grand statements as the front man for TOOL, and especially as the leader of Puscifer and the voice of A Perfect Circle. TOOL is often inward looking with its music and philosophy, focusing on the sacred geometry of the body and soul. Puscifer started as a comedy routine basically, but has grown into an outward looking satirical and mind bending trip into what ails society at large. A Perfect Circle started out as a descent into occult imagery and psychological themes. About the time of eMOTVEe though, A Perfect Circle became starkly political in much of their music. While maintaining much of the occult imagery and intricate orchestration, covers of songs like "What's Going On," "Peace Love and Understanding," and "Imagine" bespoke of a certain concern for the politics of the time. Eat The Elephant (2018) continued the socio-political commentary with its lyrics. "Starless," their first new song in 8 years further continues this trend, but a little less directly than many of the songs on Eat The Elephant did.  

Chevelle Continue their Sci-Fi Inspired Crimes On New Album Bright as Blasphemy

 

The Brothers Loeffler continue the evolution of their band, Chevelle's, 1990s alt-rock cum nu-metal sound to one merged just slightly enough with the type of elements that make MUSE the number one sci-fi rock band of the 21st Century, and deliver their best album since they dove head first into sci-fi themes and album artwork with 2009's Sci-Fi Crimes with their new release Bright as Blasphemy (2025). 

Still Fumbling Towards Ecstasy With Sarah McLachlan 30 Years On

Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Toward Ecstasy continues to speak, 30 years on, to those possessed with and still Fumbling after ecstasy. 

Pearl Jam Dark Matter Album Reflections

 

Pearl Jam Dark Matter 

Dark Matter has been out long enough now that official bootlegs of Pearl Jam's 2024 tour are available at pearljam.com/tenclub. Live versions of songs off the album can be heard, dissected, and scrutinized by Pearl Jam's legions of fans, myself being one of them. Some of the songs take on new life live, like "Setting Sun," a song which I didn't really get into upon hearing it on the album. Now it's one of my favorite new PJ songs. Other songs like "Won't Tell" are just as compelling live as they are on the album. Anyway, what is there left to say about the band's most recent album that hasn't already been said? Not much. Still, a 33 year Pearl Jam fan's opinion might be interesting, especially since upon a first listen to the band's 12th studio album, I despised how it sounded. It turns out I wasn't evolved enough yet to understand it. 

Pearl Jam "Dark Matter" (Single)

 

It's a bit cliched to reminisce, out loud at least, about when and where you first heard a certain song and the effect said song had on you. I'm going to do it anyway. I have three songs that I heard, coincidentally all while driving to or from work or school in the early 1990s, that I can distinctly remember the place, time, and circumstances surrounding the first time I heard them. One was "Smells Like Teen Spirit." One was "Cherub Rock," and one was "Even Flow." Each one of these songs stimulated my auditory nerves like I can only imagine that first hit of your drug of choice did. I wouldn't know the ins and outs of how a first hit of heroin or coke might feel. I'm straight edge as far as that stuff is concerned. Nevertheless, I know what it feels like to feel high. My highs are linked explicitly to good music, good books, and good art. All of which have swirled around the bands who produced the music mentioned above. Only one of those bands has continued to give me repeat experiences of the type of "you remember where you were when you heard it first" moments. It's quite an accomplishment for a band, 32 years on from that "Even Flow" moment to recreate, for this listener at least, a similar experience. That's what happened with Pearl Jam's latest single, "Dark Matter." This time though, the urgency and the call to action in the music is tempered with the power of authority that only longevity, and a track record for evoking a change in the consciousness of their listeners, can provide. 

 The Foo Fighters share just where they are, physically, mentally, and spiritually on But Here We Are, and take us along with them on a journey of healing. 

I never say to anyone who is facing a tragedy or significant loss “I know how you feel.” I don’t. Even though I’ve faced tragedy and experienced significant loss. Like Dave Grohl I lost a brother. Taylor Hawkins was Grohl’s brother. I empathize with Grohl. I feel for him, and all of those who were close to Taylor, but I don’t “know” how he feels. Grief and loss are experienced by everyone just a little bit differently. When Grohl sings, “Are you feeling what I’m feeling?” and “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” in “Rescued,” the lead single from The Foo Fighters’ lean new album But Here We Are, I can honestly answer “yes.” But I would never assume to “know” what he’s thinking or feeling. After a listen through the album, it’s pretty easy to understand what Grohl is thinking and feeling in the wake of Taylor Hawkins’ death though. The least of which is that Taylor, like any lost loved one, is irreplaceable. 

Smashing Pumpkins Usher In All Hallows Eve With New Single "Wyttch"

 

It would seem that Smashing Pumpkins, who've been around for more than two decades, would have already endorsed the holiday where pumpkins reign. While the band played a Halloween show with KISS back in 1998 where they performed dressed up as The Beatles, Billy Corgan hasn't directly addressed the holiday or its spooky overtones directly, and rightly so. To do so would walk too dangerously along the line of kitsch that would be hard to recover from. For acts like Rob Zombie or Alice Cooper, for which every day is Halloween, a veneration of all things connected to All Hallows Eve is a part of the production, and product. While much of the Smashing Pumpkins' album art and concert imagery, not to mention guitar rock heaviness, might evoke a sense of "death rock" or "grunge in furs" that is most at home during the spooky season, Corgan and his band's music is more than just a trip down a misty goth rock lane. The latest album from Smashing Pumpkins, CYR, morphs their sound from a heavy "death rock" sound into an early 80s goth rock one that's loaded with synths, throbbing bass, and nary a guitar solo in earshot. The sonic landscape of CYR is more safely conducive to a dabbling in references to Halloween than their previous efforts. 

Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood Get Biblical and Artistic on With Animals

Wayward women, mistakes, something "lonelier than death," feasts, and the obligatory famines work their way through the latest album from Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood, and thematically gel in grand tradition with the music.

Alice In Chains Get Atmospheric With The Grunge on Rainier Fog

Alice In Chains' sixth album, Rainier Fog, delivers more of their inspired signature metallic yet melodic grunge. This time with a twist, even if the riffs feel slightly stale. 

Today Is The Greatest: 25 Years of Listening To Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream

 

Most music fans of my generation can tell you where they were when they heard Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time, especially if they weren't already a denizen of the Pacific Northwest and organically attached to the Puget Sound music scene. I wasn't. So, yeah, I can tell you not only where I was but what I was doing the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I can also tell you where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard "Even Flow." Finally, I can tell you where I was and what I was doing when I first heard "Cherub Rock" by Smashing Pumpkins.

Review: Soundgarden King Animal

After disbanding 16 years ago, and pursuing their own projects and gigs in other bands, Soundgarden has reunited and released their first album in a long time. It might be easy to cynically write off the reunion of a band whose lead singer swore that a reunion would “tarnish their legacy” as a simple middle aged cash grab. The only problem with that assertion is that unlike the multitudes of bands that break up, retire, reunite, and then go through the whole thing over and over again (a la KISS and Ozzy Osborne), Soundgarden have written and recorded some of the best music of their previous and current careers on King Animal.

David Bowie's Legacy of Brilliant Oddity

Only a few artists have been as influential as David Bowie has been over the decades. The influences might not be directly discernible in each and every case, but they are there. Bowie was a talent that took risks, went in a myriad of different directions sonically and displayed a wildly brilliant oddity throughout his career, but at the core remained not only a rock and roll legend, but a rock and roll fan to the end.

The Killers: Battleborn (Review)

The Killers’ lead singer Brandon Flowers is nothing if not a storyteller. Going all the way back to the songs on The Killers’ first album, Hot Fuss, Flowers’ lyrics have told the stories of guys hustling to get androgynous looking girls’ numbers at the local club, obsessive compulsive (almost stalkerish) lovers on the outside and a girl named Jenny who was a friend of his. On Sam’s Town, the stories kept coming about girls who pine for “beautiful boys” to come and rescue them, even if they “didn’t look like Jesus.” On The Killers’ new album, Battle Born, Flowers keeps up the penchant for storytelling. This time out though, the music that The Killers composed as a band fits his stories more completely than it ever has.

MUSE "Dead Inside" and "Psycho" Singles

The Ear has been a huge fan of MUSE since hearing and seeing "Hysteria" on FUSE (remember when that music station didn't suck?). Yeah, I might have been a little late to the band, but "better late than never" as they say. Over the next few albums, MUSE found international success, in rather large part to a single being included on a Twilight movie soundtrack. Yeah, let's just forget about that and focus on the great music and thematic elements that made MUSE so great in the first place. Absolution, the album "Hysteria" was part of, was a powerful trip down the rock/concept album highway. An album full of songs about about the coming apocalypse (of various origins) that mankind is always rushing headlong towards while desperately attempting to avoid still ranks as the band's most complete, cohesive, and captivating album, thematically and musically. After hearing the first two singles from their new upcoming rock/concept album though, I'm thinking that the glory days of Absolution are once again returning to one of the most interesting rock bands of the last 20 years.  

20 Years of Superunknown

By March 8th 1994, grunge, as a mainstream sensation, had little over a year and a half of commercial success left in its grimy fuel tanks. Kurt was gone, the flannel was fading, and somewhere No Doubt were recording their breakthrough album Tragic Kingdom, the album that would usher in the ska-swing mainstream sensation. It was a sensation that would last a few years and then the record labels would move on to electronica (Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, and The Crystal Method) in search of the next “new rock revolution” that they could get on the ground floor of. When neither of these semi-organic genre explosions panned out, it was decided that the best way to capture the revenues from a new mainstream sensation was to just make one up for the masses, and the national music scene quickly devolved from thoughtful, introspective, and often activism fueled organic rock, to...Britney Spears.

Rockin' Christmas Playlist 2013

Yep, it's Yuletide once again, and Yuletide just isn't Yuletide without the proper Yule Tunes. This year I put together a bit of a different Christmas music playlist. Actually, I put together a few different ones, but my Rockin' Christmas 2013 Playlist has been the one that I've cued up more oft than my Olde World/Alt Christmas 2013 Playlist. I think that this was the case this year because Bad Religion (yes, THAT Bad Religion) released a Christmas album this year. To say the least, it fucking rocked (like all their albums do). Sorry about that F-bomb in a Christmas music blog post...must have been the punk in me sneering to the surface. Blame Bad Religion. Anyway, here we go with A Reasonable Good Ear's Rockin' Christmas 2013 Playlist.