For a decade or so, guitarist Mike Haliechuk and drummer Jonah Falco have played in the Toronto hardcore outfit F*cked Up, helping the band rise from scrappy undergrounders to critical darlings and Polaris Prize winners. The songs that the duo wrote outside the band have taken shape, with the help of singer Tim Westberg (of […]
I’ll remember 2011 as a year with more good music than I had time to devote to it. Because my primary focus is music emerging from SoCal – and because there was so much of it this year – I found myself taking only passing interest in many hyped albums … and not finding a […]
Kissing in a F*cked Up video? Shows of affection and hardcore punk metal may seem a weird duality, but kudos to the Toronto band for writing an album that also happens to be a four-act rock opera, then finding a way to cleverly translate the story with a punk mentality – and without being grandiose. […]
Most-heard question last week: “So how was your South by Southwest?” Me: “Kind of a blur … I think … I mean …” My assignments for SPIN.com kept me beyond busy, so the week was a parade of bands, sleep deprivation and more bands, and I didn’t get to catch a lot of the buzzy […]
[My main assignment Friday was to cover the SPIN 25 party – all six hours of it – for SPIN.com:] Courtney Love took the stage at Stubb’s on Friday evening wearing an orange sash that said “BEWARE.” As if the capacity crowd at the SPIN 25 party (presented by RockBand and MySpace Music) at the […]
The third day of the South by Southwest Music Festival was a full-on music orgy, including performances by Frightened Rabbit [top, at the Don’t Mess With Texas event], Metric, Billy Bragg and Dead Confederate, among many. Photographer Scott Dudelson tirelessly made the rounds, and submitted these images.
[I was fulfilling a previous obligation on Saturday and was not able to attend downtown’s FYF Fest, which, according to people I’ve spoken with in the past 24 hours, was either an unmitigated disaster or an unqualified success. Funny how experiences can vary on a 100-degree afternoon. I solicited Michael Bauer, frontman of the L.A. […]
As Coachella on Sunday reverted to its familiar (and reliably ticket-selling) fallback position – best-of-the-1980s headliner – it was left to the kids to cut some edges. And in the 100-plus-degree heat of the Mojave Tent, that’s what” Vivian Girls, No Age and F’ked Up set out to do. The verdict? The kids are all […]
