Last November: Myspace Music and the Downfall of the Punk Rock Genre
Hailing from Atlanta, Last November is one of the new up and coming bands on Myspace and on college radio stations. Their newest and sophomore effort, an album entitled “Over the Top or Under the Weather,” has received play on over 60 commercial radio stations and over one million plays on myspace. Songs from the album, most notably the new single “The Bumper Sticker Song,” have received air time on MTV shows like “Real World” and “Road Rules” and on Oxygen’s “Bad Girls Club.” And its unlikely that this trend is about to change anytime soon.
You see, Last November is exactly the kind of repetitive, pseudo clever, poppish, punkish, emo-ish, kind of music that makes waves on high school campuses and in indie rock venues across the country. Its not that they aren’t good musicians, or that the lyrics are awful exactly - because they aren’t on either count - but there is very little on “Over the Top…” that is new, particularly creative, or that explores the value of the genre or art form. The album is essentially a regurgitation of common themes from the post-punk, now post emo, music genre. Call it Read the rest of this entry »
Few bands that are currently popular have been quite as polarizing as the British rockers Coldplay. On the one hand, they have sold millions of albums all around the world; however, on the other hand, critics have long claimed that something is missing from each of their three recent popular albums, Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, and X & Y - something truly substantial and truly transcendent. The knock is, sometimes, that their songs are too sentimental, or that lead singer Chris Martin is trying too hard vocally, or that his lyrics are far from poetic, or even good. That their hit songs are soaring and beautiful pop anthems is a truth rarely overlooked by critics, but a fact that seems to have done little in the way of convincing the harshest of critics to actually take them seriously. That the band has become the global sensation they are has not been lost on the indie hipsters who might otherwise appreciate their considerable, though rarely stretched talents. Indeed, despite their sometimes obvious shortcomings, Martin and Co. are talented musicians and it is no small thing that their canon has heretofore attracted such a wide and varying audience. 
Ambiguoso unassumingly forces its way into the room with opener Only Mystery, smirkingly encouraging the listener to take hold for one of the most fantastic musical rides in indie rock today. It glides in like a hovercraft, nestling down in your backyard to the amazement of all your neighbors (and yourself, secretly). Theses parlour steppers know exactly what they’re doing here, folks. 
The first thirty seconds count. I must be grabbed by something in the music in the first thirty seconds if the song crafter wants to hold my attention. When I popped in Ray Tarantino’s Recusant that happened, but not without a totally unexpected surprise (not all sunrises are good ones). Ray has a quality to his voice that says - hey! I am my own, I am worthy of at least one honest listen, so I gave it to him. But after the 30 second point the album’s title track took a wildly unsuspected turn. Some strange bending of time and space occurred and I suddenly found myself listening to what felt and sounded like Coldplay’s Speed for Sound. Hear me people - I never left Tarantino’s song (listen to it 