Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power (Expanded Edition)

Posted on 17 May 2012 | 3:30 pm
The early ’90s were a bleak time for metal, especially thrash. Many bands either conformed to the popularity of grunge and alternative or packed it in. Then, in February 1992, Texas ragers Pantera released their second major label album, Vulgar Display of Power, and almost single-handedly regained the thrash metal reigns. Slower than both Slayer [...]

Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power

Posted on 17 May 2012 | 3:30 pm
The early ’90s were a bleak time for metal, especially thrash. Many bands either conformed to the popularity of grunge and alternative or packed it in. Then, in February 1992, Texas ragers Pantera released their second major label album, Vulgar Display of Power, and almost single-handedly regained the thrash metal reigns. Slower than both Slayer [...]

Jukebox Jury: The Sugarman 3

Posted on 17 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
Neal Sugarman is the co-founder of Daptone Records, the Brooklyn throwback-R&B indie that — thanks to collaborations with Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, the Roots and Al Green — have become known well outside their niche audience. Sugarman began as a jazz saxophonist before switching to funkier stuff more than 20 years ago, when he first [...]

Time Warp: Naxos’ Early/Modern Music Sale

Posted on 17 May 2012 | 10:14 am
Naxos Recordings — one of classical music’s most adventurous, renowned and consistent labels — is celebrating the big 2-5 this year. And we are celebrating right alongside them, with catalog sales on highlighted sections of their vast collection from month to month. This time, we’ve taken a top-shelf selection of early-music titles and paired them with [...]

Discover: Willie Nelson Sale

Posted on 17 May 2012 | 7:32 am
Country music has created its fair share of superstars, icons and tragic figures, from Brooks & Dunn to Hank Williams to Patsy Cline; charlatans and chanteuses; white-hatted good guys like George Strait and black-clad firebrands like Johnny Cash. But it’s also the lone American musical genre to also produce a sage among its ranks: Willie [...]

Interview: Simian Mobile Disco

Posted on 16 May 2012 | 1:04 pm
If you’re making a list of side projects that have gone on to become more successful than their original lineups, save room at the top for Simian Mobile Disco. The duo’s James Ford and Jas Shaw used to play in the British indie quartet Simian, appending the droll “Mobile Disco” as a differentiator for their [...]

New This Week: Killer Mike, Beach House, Best Coast & More

Posted on 16 May 2012 | 11:16 am
A real quick run through this week’s major titles — fill in what I missed in the comments! Beach House, Bloom: Big, bright, dazzling and transfixing, Beach House once again deliver the goods on this radiant guitar-pop record. Guess what? Highly Recommended. Rachael Maddux has more: Alex Scally’s guitar ribbons and diddles over synths that [...]

How (Not) to Make It in Indie Rock

Posted on 15 May 2012 | 3:18 pm
“Smoke and mirrors,” says Beril Guceri with mild exasperation. “Smoke and mirrors.” Guceri, the singer for Philadelphia band East Hundred, is at the end of a long psychoanalysis of the music industry, its games of chance and illusions of choice. Take, for example, East Hundred’s brush with the record business in 2010 — a showcase [...]

Interview: Beach House

Posted on 15 May 2012 | 2:40 pm
On their fourth album Bloom, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand present a stronger picture of the overcast dream-pop aesthetic they’ve maintained since their 2006 debut. And, much like an abstract painting, Teen Dream‘s glossier older sibling offers plenty of mystery. It features some of their most obtuse verses (“You build yourself a myth/ And know [...]

Interview: Beach House

Posted on 15 May 2012 | 2:40 pm
On their fourth album Bloom, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand present a stronger picture of the overcast dream-pop aesthetic they’ve maintained since their 2006 debut. And, much like an abstract painting, Teen Dream‘s glossier older sibling offers plenty of mystery. It features some of their most obtuse verses (“You build yourself a myth/ And know [...]