I think I can speak for almost all of my close friends in saying that few artists hold a place in our hearts that even come close to Radiohead. Our entire collective experience with music has been centered around discussing which of the band’s many masterpiece albums is our favorite for that day, trying to decipher new interpretations for OK Computer and Kid A, and keeping abreast of all of Thom Yorke’s photobombs.

Having said that, it’s no surprise that each of us were stunned and indescribably elated when we heard that Radiohead would release a new album, The King of Limbs, last week. Our excitement increased exponentially when on Friday each of us learned that the new album was to be released a day early. From that point on, we’ve immersed ourselves in these eight tracks and nothing else. Read More »

High school is kind of a blur now. I’m not saying this as a preface to an account of drunken misadventures or over-glorified (and extremely hyperbolic) romantic experiences, but rather as a reflection that some of the four most formative years of my life are now viewed only as a collective haze. As lesser friends are starting to lose their faces in my memories, I am left with little concrete recollections from the lost days of my pubescence. But of these tangible lines that keep me tied to my youth, few stand out more than the obscure figures and cartoon landscape on the bright orange cover of The Dismemberment Plan’s opus magnum, Emergency & I.

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What was the first song you fell in love with? Is it as tangible in the back of your head as it was the first time you heard it? It may be, but I can bet that the opening snare drum in “Like a Rolling Stone” isn’t nearly as crisp or sharp in the nether regions of your mind as it was the first time you heard it in your uncle’s basement, or when you play it on your headphones. Love Remains, the debut LP from How to Dress Well, teaches us that that’s not the point: music that you hum along to or recreate in your head is just as valid as the kind you blast through your speakers because of the emotions and memories that you associate with it. Read More »

Disclaimer: I have never been, nor probably ever will be, a fan of Snow Patrol. Having said that, I am obligated to tell you that the new album by Gary Lightbody’s latest project, Tired Pony, is one that deserves a listen to – if only to hear what it sounds like when a bunch of people that you’ve kind of heard of get together to make music. Read More »