Tag: Rock
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Joe Satriani ‘Surfing With The Alien’ (1987)
There’s not many guitarists that can absolutely rip like Joe Satriani and 1987’s Surfing With The Alien is a love letter to all the guitar-heads out there who just want to hear some good ol’ fashioned shredding for the sake of it. It’s bombastic, over the top, and just plain fun as hell. The album…
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Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats ‘Self-Titled’ (2015)
I’ve mentioned before my love for Nathaniel Rateliff and his booming baritone and why it’s made him one of my most beloved contemporary singers. His solo album And It’s Still Alright from 2020 was a pivotal pandemic album for me that helped get through all the wild ass confusion that swallowed us all during that…
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Cartel ‘Chroma’ (2005)
The late 90’s through the mid aughts were a five year period that defined pop punk. You had Blink 182’s Enema of the State, Sum 41’s All Killer No Filler, and Green Day’s Dookie that by and large defined the genre, and then the variety of subsequent offshoots which took that formula and tweaked it…
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Goose ‘Dripfield’ (2022)
It’s rare that a jam band can translate what makes them special throughout the course of an entire studio album. There’s something that is indelible about witnessing a live performance from a band like Goose or Grateful Dead that transcends the experience of listening of music through headphones– the buzz of spontaneity that permeates the…
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Måneskin ‘RUSH!’ (2023)
Måneskin makes me feel old and out of touch. Even more than I usually feel. The best way I can describe them is an Italian glam rock version of Royal Blood whose sole goal is to make songs that sound as massive and as danceable as possible. And since all the band members are in…
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Bruce Springsteen ‘The Rising’ (2002)
Bruce Springsteen’s music has always had this beautiful sense of unease around it, a struggle of finding meaning in mundane circumstances, and explored the difficulty of keeping the flame of hope alive in trying times. It’s what makes him my favorite artist of all-time and one of the definitive musical orators of American history during…
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Billy Joel ‘The Stranger’ (1977)
Leading up to The Stranger Billy Joel’s career was on the rocks. After the massive success of 1973’s Piano Man (whose title track is Joel’s most famous song, and for good reason considering it’s a brilliant piece of storytelling), he was on the verge of being dropped by his record label Columbia Records due to…
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The Teskey Brothers ‘Run Home Slow’ (2019)
If I had to use one word to describe The Teskey Brothers 2019 album Run Home Slow? Timeless. Bringing together soul, Americana, and gospel blues in the style of Otis Redding has been done once over throughout the course of music history, but rarely has it sounded so damn smooth from a contemporary band. Much…
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White Reaper ‘You Deserve Love’ (2019)
I absolutely love garage rock. The fuzziness of the guitars, the boom-boom-pop of the drums, the chuggy bass lines, the overdriven vocals, the upscale lo-fi ness of it all. Crafting a great garage rock song is a whole helluva lot harder than it actually looks— there’s a fine line to walk in both recording and…
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Augustana ‘All The Stars and Boulevards’ (2005)
It’s only fitting we kick off the month of August with a band that bears the month’s namesake. Just putting that out there. Augustana’s 2006 All The Stars and Boulevards was released during my junior year of high school, a period of time in which college selection really ramps up and prospective college students like…
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Jimmy Eat World ‘Bleed American’ (2001)
I love a great album opener. It is a manifesto for an album that not only sets the stage but also defines what comes after it. Bleed American has an incredible opening song. The title track is hands down my favorite Jimmy song of all-time for about a million different reasons, the primary one being…
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Matthew. ‘CAMBRIA: The Lost Sessions’ (2023)
So this is a fun one! Today we’re doing a write up of my newest EP entitled CAMBRIA: The Lost Sessions that just hit streaming services while your wee little heads were asleep. Before we go into each individual track and the meaning behind them, a little history lesson on how this EP came to…
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Pecos & the Rooftops ‘Pecos & the Rooftops’ (2023)
Pecos & the Rooftops is a throwback to mid-2000’s alternative rock and modern country (think Nickelback meets Dylan Wheeler) and is here to do nothing but keep it simple and straightforward. The band actually shot to prominence off their single “This Damn Song” which was released over four years ago and got incredibly popular during…
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Dire Straits ‘Brothers In Arms’ (1985)
Dire Straits magnum opus’ Brothers In Arms is a landmark achievement in sound that has been one of my favorite albums of since I first heard it as a teenager. To this day I still get chills when I hear the stinging precision of Mark Knopfler’s incredible guitar riff that kicks off “Money For Nothing”…
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Huey Lewis & The News ‘Fore!’ (1986)
Huey Lewis & The News occupy a spot in music history as one of the quintessential 80’s power pop bands. They had this folksy charm that was undeniable– from the classic rhythm & blues and doo wop influences, to the gorgeous soft rock chord progressions, to the full band sound. Everything about Huey Lewis was…
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Derek and the Dominos ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’ (1970)
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is Eric Clapton’s finest career work in my opinion, which is truly saying something for a man who stands as probably the most influential and accomplished guitar player in rock history. Formed after the breakup of his previous supergroup Blind Faith and their excellent self-titled album in 1969, Clapton…
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Robert Palmer ‘Clues’ (1980)
Robert Palmer’s transition from blue-eyed soul singer to New Wave artist was just getting started on Clues, and the album as a whole sits in this distinctly 80’s space of being multiple things all at once. You have the old-school Rolling Stones esque classic rock thump of “Sulky Girl” sandwiched in between the synth pop…
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Melissa Etheridge ‘Yes I Am’ (1993)
Melissa Etheridge and “Come To My Window” in particular was a staple for me and my first girlfriend in 8th grade. It was our record and a fixture in the mixtapes we would trade with one another to help articulate our feelings. For that reason Etheridge will always represent young love and all the naive…
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Bruce Springsteen ‘Tunnel Of Love’ (1987)
On Tunnel Of Love Springsteen traded in arena-rock anthems for an intimate look inward, taking bold proclamations with big ideas drenched in massive soundscapes and turning them into tidy vignettes of the challenges of mature adult relationships. Whereas Springsteen’s career had at that point largely focused on making massive statements about both the promise and…
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Steve Miller Band ‘Greatest Hits 1974-78’ (1978)
When I made the decision at the beginning of this year to listen to one album per day I set up a handful of self-imposed guiding principles to guide the process. The primary one was (and remains) to avoid Greatest Hits compilations– the spirit of this whole experience is to focus on a greater appreciation…
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ‘Damn The Torpedoes’ (1979)
For my money Tom Petty has and always will be the perfect encapsulation of American heartland rock. Throughout his career he showed an innate ability to combine the blues, traditional country, garage rock, British invasion, rock and roll, and folk songwriting sensibilities to create some of the finest works of art found in classic rock.…
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Bruce Hornsby and The Range ‘The Way It Is’ (1986)
Bruce Hornsby is one of my favorite piano players of all-time. Everything he plays has this undeniable quality of sentimentality. It’s in his melancholic chord choices, his delicate phrasing, and the glistening tone of his piano. It’s perfect. Hearing Hornsby play I always get a feeling of homesick longing. It’s a feeling of missing something…
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Black Sabbath ‘Paranoid’ (1970)
Black Sabbath is the most important heavy metal band of all time, hard stop. It’s impossible to overstate just what they did for the genre. The fact a record as heavy as Paranoid came out in 1970 is sort of shocking. You almost don’t blame the parents of yesteryear for losing their shit over kids…
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Oasis ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ (1995)
The 1995 release of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? transformed Oasis from a popular band in the UK into a literal worldwide phenomenon. Their ascent to superstardom checked all the boxes– punk rock attitude, Beatles-esque melodies, and a lead singer with a distinctly British accent that harkened back to the golden-age of rock. All of…
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Electric Light Orchestra ‘Out of the Blue’ (1977)
When Electric Light Orchestra first formed in 1970 they stated the mission of the band was to “pick up where The Beatles left off with ‘I Am The Walrus’”. That’s an incredibly ambitious statement for more reasons than one, but it’s safe to say ELO pretty much nailed what they said they were gonna do.…
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The Darkness ‘Permission to Land’ (2003)
All The Darkness do is write bangers. This is one of my favorite hard rock albums of all-time for the simple reason that it is fun as hell and has no interest in pretending to be anything otherwise. Modern rock music in general has the unfortunate malaise of sometimes being a little too self-important, and…
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Get Back Loretta ‘Over The Wall’ (2006)
Get Back Loretta is a deep cut. I can’t recall the first time I heard this album, who introduced it to me, or even the timespan in which I listened to it. Their Wikipedia and social media pages are quite bare. Best I can tell it looks like they were active in San Diego during…
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U2 ‘The Joshua Tree’ (1987)
The Joshua Tree is one of the best-selling albums of all-time. You can read all about the cultural impact it had here. That’s not what we’re here for. What we are here for is to talk about the impact The Edge (aka David Howell Evans) has had on popular music. Specifically, we’re here to analyze…
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The Honorary Title ‘Anything Else but the Truth’ (2006)
Once upon a time The Honorary Title served as a transformational musical intersection for me, blending teenage love for emo music and burgeoning adulthood love for indie/folk into one clean experience. At one point in my life they may have been my favorite band, and at the same point in my life I’m confident one…
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Grateful Dead ‘Cornell 5/8/77’ (1977)
As probably the greatest jam band of all-time, doing a live album listen of Grateful Dead (and nearly a three-hour experience at that) is pretty much a requirement if you’re listening to a full album each day for an entire year. The band is legendary for its extended live sets and Cornell 5/8/77 is no…
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Eric Church ‘Chief’ (2011)
Blending together traditional country music arrangements with a dash of rock and roll, Eric Church’s Chief is an adequately solid country album. In my mid-20’s this album meant a lot to me, speaking to my long-lasting love for rock as well as my ever-growing appreciation for country music. As the years have gone by I…
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Alexisonfire ‘Otherness’ (2022)
Alexisonfire is the band that best encapsulates what I love most about melodic post-hardcore sound. The drop-D tunings, heavy riffs, and distorted screams interspersed with gorgeous clean vocals and euphonic guitar melodies. It’s a recipe that is pretty much irresistible for me. 13 years on since their last studio album, Otherness is an emphatic statement…
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Audioslave ‘Audioslave’ (2002)
With all due respect to Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott, Chris Cornell is the GOAT of pure rock-and-roll vocalists. In fact, I would argue it’s not even very close. Along with his incredible four-octave range, Cornell’s ability to hit that distorted gravel scream in an explosive chorus after an intimate verse delivered in…
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Avril Lavigne ‘Let Go’ (2002)
Somewhere in the pantheon of pop punk’s meteoric rise to the mainstream lies a statue of Avril Lavigne, transfixed with a deadpan stare, clad in a black t-shirt and frayed jeans. It’s hard to overstate just how much Lavigne changed the game for punk in the early aughts, especially for female artists whose role in…
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Incubus ‘A Crow Left of the Murder…’ (2004)
Incubus means a lot to many people who mean a lot to me. This was a special album to get under the belt early in the year. The album kicks off with an absolute howitzer in “Megalomaniac”, which still stands as one of the best album openers in rock history. This is Incubus at their…
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Gang of Youths ‘Go Farther In Lightness’ (2017)
Heartfelt and sincere, big and epic, soft and intimate. This 2017 sophomore release from Australian rockers Gang of Youths captures the vast complexities of the human experience in a way not many albums have. A crooning baritone and introspective lyrics from vocalist David Le’aupepe place themselves perfectly in between an exemplary musical performance from the…
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