I've been listening to dark wave for a long time now, but truth be told I had never actually been to a show by a dark wave band. I had gone to industrial shows, but industrial and dark wave are not the same thing (an essay to write for another time). So, how fitting that the first one I go to is fronted by one of the foremost groups associated with the genre, VNV Nation.
So on a cold December night, I headed to Club Soda...
I’m a “metal” (used in quotes here because I sometimes deviate from playing metal on my show because of my short attention span and my belief that - OH LOOK A SHINY THING!) DJ at a college/community station in Canada. This means I have a wide range of material that I can play. The only real guideline I have to meet is that a percentage of the music I play needs to be Canadian. Also, CJLO tells me that some of my show needs to be new music. Now I’m a person that likes efficiency, so if I can find something that is both Canadian and new, well, I just get “pleased as punch.”...
A lot of people have a problem when bands, songs or even genres sound similar to one another. This problem can be especially pervasive in punk music, where simplicity is often toted as an integral part of the music. When punk bands start to get more complex, a group of the fan base are quick to start yelling "sell out" as fast and as loud as their lungs are able to. So, here's Rise Against, who sit comfortably within the label of punk, who have now released their sixth studio album, Endgame, and who have been accused...
It should be no surprise to anyone that I sometimes like things that are a bit on the absurd side. I'll break out albums by Mindless Self Indulgence or even reach back and pull out a classic like Weird Al, but one of my staples in what I like to call “Records of the Absurd” has to be Electric Six's Fire. Not only are all of the lyrics ridiculous, to say the least, but the album just has a dancey feel good quality that is...
Alright, so like most people I first got a taste of Finger Eleven in the mid 90s. I heard "Above" off of Tip and I was sold, and after The Greyest of Blue Skies came out I really started to follow them heavily. I managed to catch them for a whopping one dollar and five cents at a show in my home town that was put on by a local radio station. The show was fantastic, and after that I even made a trek three hours away to catch them in Pittsburgh.
Those days seem like a million years ago as they've released one great album since then...
