gloomchen

Link: Us3 The Inside Pulse: Remember “Cantaloop” from the early ’90s? Maybe not by name, but the “biddy-biddy bop” and infectious trumpet wormed this little jazz-flavored dance gem into the hearts of many once upon a time. Still, like all one-hit wonders, Us3 could only hope to once again grace the top 40 charts. Unfortunately, [...]

PRIVATE EYES!!! THEY’RE WATCHING YOU!!! THEY SEE YOUR EVERY MOVE!!!!! This is a story of mediocrity. Of averageness, of blandness, and complacency. Hall & Oates have over 14 albums released. Why are there so many Hall & Oates albums? How do they continue to sustain themselves? Hell, how did they even have so many hits [...]

Link: Dope The Inside Pulse: Welcome to 2005, where angst lives on and is front and center with Dope’s latest offering American Apathy. And honestly, there’s absolutely no mistaking this angst for anything but; song titles like “No Way Out,” “Fuck the World,” and “Fuck tha Police” leave little to the imagination. Layers upon layers [...]

Link: Merit The Inside Pulse: For a tiny little band on a tiny little indie label, one wouldn’t expect much from Merit. Straight out of New York, this alterna-rock quartet embodies the aesthetic of the area’s music scene: the emo punk indie look, the emo punk indie feel. However, the music breaks out of this [...]

YOU DO NOT PLAY CRUNK AT TOP VOLUME AND THEN ASK ME IF YOU CAN PUT SOME OF MY QUALITY MUSIC ON YOUR PSP. YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT PRE-CRUNK.

Meanwhile, at Curves tonight, a CD was spinning that I haven’t heard in ages: the Curves Rock Mix disc I made last year. It never gets played because it’s too “rock,” basically, for all the old biddies working out. Well Friday evenings are typically just the die-hards there after work, mostly women in their ’30s [...]

Link: The White Stripes The Inside Pulse: One can only imagine the pressure of following up Elephant, one of the highest critically acclaimed albums of the new millennium; add that this was only the second album released after the White Stripes achieved a national spotlight, and there’s a recipe for Dave Chappelle-quality breakdown. But instead, [...]

What song best describes you? Add lyrics if you want. While “Space-Dye Vest” was my creed during my darkest of days and got me through a lot of troubling times, I’ve risen above it. And I’ve changed so much in the last three years that I haven’t pegged a proper accompaniment yet. If you could [...]

Link: Alice Cooper The Inside Pulse: This isn’t your “Poison” years, and it’s definitely not your “School’s Out” years, either. Thank goodness for us all, it’s not the “Lost In America” years. But 2005 brings us an Alice that is getting back to his roots, never mind that this sort of sound is all the [...]

Link: Dream Theater The Inside Pulse: Dream Theater’s not-so-randomly titled eighth full-length effort, Octavarium, comes at a time when the band has been at their strongest in regards to lineup stability and frenetic fan support. However, their last disc, Train of Thought, was too metal for their prog fans, and the previous disc, Six Degrees [...]