Four-piece indie rock band Murder By Death released its fourth studio album "Red of Tooth and Claw" last Tuesday on its new label, Vagrant Records. The band, which is named after a Peter Sellers whodunit mystery movie, is known for its wide range of musical styles, including fast-paced punk rock, alternative indie and a little bit of country.
To say that Flogging Molly's songs all sound the same is essentially correct, for better or worse. But is that same-ness necessarily a bad thing? On their latest album, "Float," the Celtic punk rockers try something slightly new, but their call for change goes unanswered.
The Black Crowes, a name that is strangely familiar to nearly everyone these days, have been one of the biggest names in post-Allman Brothers Southern rock for some time now, having released seven albums (and seven live albums) over their 20-year career. The band's future was in serious jeopardy in 2001 when lead singer Chris Robinson and his guitarist brother Rich Robinson butted heads (? la the Gallagher brothers of Oasis) and, for the sake of their sanity, decided to take a break.
Erykah Badu has always defied conventions. From her eye-catching hairstyles, which shift between various tying and dying patterns, to her ability to cross genres, Badu has created quite the niche for herself as a writer and producer, but it is her talent as a vocalist that has earned her fame. Her Billie Holiday-esque voice first reached listeners in 1997 on her triple platinum debut album, "Baduizm," followed the same year by "Live," a compilation of her concert performances that currently holds double platinum status.
Walking into the new exhibit at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), visitors are immediately confronted with an enormous, canary-yellow structure. Large loops of fiberglass support rows of arena seating that extend to a few inches below the gallery's ceiling. People sit among the first three rows of these oversized bleachers, watching individuals and being watched in return. Rita McBride's "Arena" (1997) is a fitting opening to "The World as a Stage," on view at the ICA until April 27.
In our busy lives, there is almost no time to sit back and watch the trees blossom. We are continually rushing to and fro between classes, errands and if there's time, our social lives. Every piece of technology produced helps to hurry time, so one can cram even more activities into a short 24-hour block. Sometimes, it is just necessary to step back from the melee of life and observe the rush.
"Lust Lust Lust," the newest album by the Raveonettes, stays true to the "noise pop" genre but provides the listener with a complex sound and enough emotion-filled static to make your speakers cry.
A cupcake-eating bulldog and a father's surgical scars are only two of the topics on display at the Photographic Resource Center's 2008 Student Exhibition. Eighteen schools and institutions are participating in this show at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University.
Michigan's "happy" pop-punkers Every Avenue released their first major studio album last week, entitled "Shh. Just Go With It." It has only been five months since the group released their EP "Ah!" on Fearless Records to much praise and comparisons to bands like The Ataris and The Starting Line. The band wants to be known as a group that just makes music to have fun. This approach just may be the reason they will be able to find their place in the mess of other hopeless pop-punk imitators.
The Used are back, and they've got something to prove. Unfortunately, the only message that comes across from their newest EP, "Shallow Believer," is just how much a band can change from its old style to a smoothed-over, effects-laden mess.
"British Prints: Rhythms of Modern Life" collects a selection of prints from a specific era, 1914 to 1939, and a specific country, Great Britain. This simple statement is an easy one to take for granted: The medium of the print is often overlooked in museum exhibitions.
In viewing conceptual art, it is often difficult to separate awe at the sheer meticulousness of the execution from an overall assessment of artistic merit. One can get swept away by the sheer force of precision such that it overpowers any inherent originality, leaving one with, say, a stack of incredibly detailed miniature Brillo pad boxes that add up to a whole bunch of derivative drivel.
It has become far too easy these days to jump all over Simple Plan for being too poppy, or too mainstream and therefore utterly unlikable (at least in most social situations). The pensive music aficionado, before listening to Simple Plan's latest self-titled release, should take time to distance himself from the social stigma that has unfortunately been branded upon these pop-punk princesses and try to listen like he'd never heard of them before.
The room is barely lit with unadorned light bulbs. Rows of beds are lined up in a crowded, spartan room. Cheap foam pads showcase the weighty voids of sleeping figures, yet the occupants themselves are disconcertingly missing. This is hardly the typical dorm room. You had better believe that this is high art.
For Matt Savage, this album was a big test. The 15-year-old jazz piano phenom, who has overcome the barriers of autism to become a renowned child musician, told the Daily last fall that he was ready to move beyond prodigy status.
State Radio will not write its audience a love song. With that little disclaimer out of the way, let it be known that the power trio composed of Chad Stokes Urmston (formerly of Dispatch) on guitar and vocals, Chuck Fay on bass and vocals, and Mike "Mad Dog" Najarian on drums has brought forth a subtle, yet scathing, third full-length studio album.
Nada Surf has long been overlooked in the genre of alternative rock. The band has never truly broken in the pop-charts sense of the word, but over the years they it has certainly accrued a devoted following of people who are unashamed to demand something catchier than run-of-the-mill indie rock.
Allston Skirt Gallery's new show, "Strangefolks," features the works of three artists: Logan Grider, John Copeland and Elizabeth Huey. It is an ambitious undertaking for such a small space.
Some artists are so great that they come to represent their entire era. Think of the opulent Tudor court of Hans Holbein or Man Ray's jazz-baby femme fatales. In the 1980s, Robert Mapplethorpe helped define the athletic, pseudo-neoclassicist aesthetic that would rule the decade.
Anyone who has ever viewed even a small sampling of Asian art knows that bird and floral imagery is quite prevalent in it. What most people may not know, however, is that the use of birds and flowers as artistic subjects in Asian art is deeply rooted in the historical and religious traditions of Asian countries.
