The Next Last Shadow Puppets Single

In a March interview with NME, The Last Shadow Puppets stated that "Standing Next to Me" would be the next single. So here's the track.

The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next to Me

"Standing Next to Me" is a more mellow track than lead single "The Age of the Understatement." Instead of the massive orchestral movements, "Standing" leans on slimmer construction with more of a rhythmic quality and string heavy arrangement. The whole track exudes a solid ballroom groove.

So go listen to it.

-Garrett Lyons

The Last Shadow Puppets - Age of the Understatement

Rating: 9/10
Best Track: "The Meeting Place"
Worst Track: "Calm Like You"
Label: Domino Records

It’s not often that rock albums get to be compared to Henry Mancini in a good way. Usually comparisons like that draw ire and make the group sound dated.

That isn’t at all what happens to The Last Shadow Puppets. Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys gets together perfectly with Miles Kane of The Rascals and The Little Flames to make an absolutely perfect bit gem of a record in The Age of the Understatement. This is how all side projects should sound.

The album opens with the bombastic title track that takes full advantage of the capabilities of the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Witty lyrics combine with film score-esque sounds to make a brilliant opener. The beat drives through the air at a maddening pace and the whole song feels like an epic dance track that no one can escape from. It’s lush and beautiful in many ways.

The rest of the album doesn’t keep the dynamism of the opener. Don’t take that as a bad thing. Turner and Kane trade the huge orchestral scores for more delicate but still pronounced brass and clarinet arrangements that give the whole vibe of 50’s movie sounds from guys like Henry Mancini combined with the British Invasion sound of The Zombies. Don’t read that as if only your grandparents will like it. The Last Shadow Puppets perfectly meld the old influences with cutting edge indie sounds. The production throughout is delightfully lo-fi and the vocals leave a lingering quality that is missing from most records today.

The Age of the Understatement never goes wrong. Turner and Kane masterfully pull off intricate string and wind arrangements and meld those intricate arrangements with ease into up-tempo British rock. “Standing Next to Me” takes on the feel of a ballroom dance track. “Separate and Ever Deadly” feels like a track culled from the Favourite Worst Nightmare recording sessions. No one has worked this well with an orchestra since Metallica put out S&M.

The real highlight is the refreshingly diminutive “The Meeting Place.” The rhythm is early ballroom swing with a slightly macabre feel to it. The vocals lilt and twist at perfect times. The string orchestra backing adds a hint of forlornness to the aching vocals. It’s perfect in every manner.

The Age of the Understatement pushes rock into a new direction by looking into the deep musical soul of the genre. It’s well-mannered yet still raucous. It’s well composed, yet still rough enough along the edges to please true rock fans. It’s a complex beauty that few bands, let alone side projects, have ever put together.

- Garrett Lyons

Last Shadow Puppets - The Meeting Place

Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead

Fueled By Ramen 2008

6.5/10

Best Track: "Raise the Dead"

Worst Track: "Demon Daughters"

Phantom Planet is better known as “the band that sang the ‘O.C.’ theme song” than a group with legitimate talent. And while the song “California” has earned them multiple spots on teenage girls’ ringtone lists, Phantom Planet’s catalogue of Hives-like, raucous pop-rock is nothing to sneeze at, either. Unfortunately, their newest effort Raise the Dead doesn’t quite live up to their past works.

From the first second of the samely-named first track, Raise the Dead is an evident attempt at a large-scale musical evolution. At first, Phantom Planet succeed, rolling out a more mature, fresher version of their sound. For the first four tracks, Phantom Planet maintain their carefree, surf-like feel but add a once-missing, and welcome, robustness.

The fifth song is another story. “Quarantine” marks the point in Raise the Dead where Phantom Planet’s sound enters a nonsensical experimentation period. It sounds like Thom Yorke dropped by to lend some support, with guitar lines and vocal stylings that will remind many of a Radiohead song. The dismal “Demon Daughters” follows a similar mimicry of the Mars Volta. The song starts out like a normal Phantom Planet track, but goes terribly berserk around the halfway point. It’s as if the band were attempting to imitate a train derailment.

The first portion of Raise the Dead, along with a select few songs toward the end, is a wonderful listen. Unfortunately, the experimentation takes a wrong turn, which drags Raise the Dead down a couple of notches. Memo to Phantom Planet: less is more.

- Amanda Renko

Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead

Wednesday Six Pack - Covers

We all have musical guilty pleasures. Mine happens to be cover songs.

Yes, there are some absolutely awful cover tracks out there. But, every once in a while there is a total gem.

So kick back and enjoy some time with your covers.

Billy Bragg - That's Entertainment (The Jam cover)

Rock Plaza Central - SexyBack (Justin Timberlake cover)

The Strokes - Mercy Mercy Me (Marvin Gaye cover)

The Arcade Fire - Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover)

The Robocop Kraus - Filler (Minor Threat cover)

The Shins - Breathe (Pink Floyd cover)

Enjoy.

- Garrett Lyons

Upcoming Artist - Marié Digby

With the recent rise of female singer-songwriters like Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles, it’s no wonder that more and more women are trying their luck at breaking out into the quickly saturating field. But don’t let that stop you from giving Marié Digby a second listen.

Marié (pronounced mar-ee-ay) Digby started writing songs at the age of 15 and dropped out of the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a music career. Despite winning the 2004 Pantene Pro-Voice Music Competition for songwriting and signing to Hollywood Records in 2005, Digby’s career remained stagnant.

Frustrated with a lack of promotion, Digby decided to do the dirty work herself. She posted a series of performance videos on YouTube, including an acoustic cover of Rihanna’s oft-redone hit “Umbrella.” That interpretation received over 2 million plays and earned Digby an entry on Los Angeles radio and even on the Billboard charts.

In a matter of months, Digby’s music has popped up on The Hills, Smallville, various made-for-TV movies and a Gap commercial. Now, after releasing an official single “Say It Again,” her acoustic pop debut Unfold was released on April 8. Unfold features eleven original songs, plus the cover that made Digby famous. Will it garner the same buzz as her soft rendition of “Umbrella?” Only time will tell, but the amount of success she’s received points to a warm reception.

- Amanda Renko

Marie Digby - Miss Invisible

Marie Digby - Umbrella

Anti-Flag - The Bright Lights Of America

RCA Records 2008

5.5/10

Best Track: "No Warning"

Worst Track: "Modern Rome is Burning"

The finest example of modern anarchist pop-punk is back making their standard anti-fascist noise. Once again, Anti-Flag lift the banner of left-wing ideology with their latest album The Bright Lights of America. Bright Lights is the group’s eighth full-length studio release and their second on RCA, with 2006’s For Blood and Empire marking their debut.

Musically, this album sounds like…well…it sounds like Anti-Flag. It’s the same fist-pumping and mosh-inspiring pop-punk that the group has been playing since 1988. That’s right, all you Warped Tour kiddies. This band has been around at least as long as you. Deal with it.

There is no true musical expansion on here. The music is the same as their past three releases. Not that there’s any incentive to change. The same three chords played over the same vocals always worked for them. Besides, punk rock fans have a hard time dealing with change. Sure, producer Tony Visconti tries to push the group into a mainstream direction, but it just isn’t there for them. Anti-Flag push the songs into the four-minute range, but the added length just dilutes the experience. The music loses its sense of urgency and sometimes falls flat.

Instead of devoting themselves to screaming about Bush and the Iraq War, Anti-Flag made a push to be lyrical visionaries again. Sure, there are still the standard doom-and-gloom tracks like “The Modern Rome is Burning.” But, generally speaking, Anti-Flag sets its lyrical sights on religious zealots and neo-conservatism in general. It’s refreshing. A band can only scream “Stop the War!” for so long before it becomes nothing more than a T-shirt slogan.

There is one musical variance on here from the typical Anti-Flag sound. It’s on the closing “Tar and Sagebrush,” which is sonically brutal, but is the funniest country parody song you’ll ever hear.

In life there are only three certainties: death, taxes and Anti-Flag singing about something wrong with the world with the same three chords. Bright Lights is a good piece of political punk, but Anti-Flag is sonically treading water.

- Garrett Lyons

Anti-Flag - No Warning

Here's a bonus track:

Anti-Flag with The Donots - Protest Song

Panic At the Disco - Pretty. Odd.

Warner Bros. Records 2008

7/10

Best Track: "That Green Gentleman"

Worst Track: "Folkin' Around"

Back in 2005, 1.7 million tweens went crazy for Panic! At The Disco’s freakshow-glam-emo debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. The band spent the next three years doing exactly what any breakout success shouldn’t do: hibernate, record a second concept album only to scrap it and completely re-invent their sound.

The result is Pretty. Odd., an unexpected throwback to less complicated times. Shockingly, it works not only as a solid connection to their former selves, but a promising glimpse at a fruitful future for the Vegas-based quartet.

Panic’s aesthetic changes are notable right off the bat. The silly, pointless exclamation point from their name has disappeared along with the dramatic costumes and eyeliner. Song titles like “London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines” and “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage” have been reduced to “Pas de Cheval” and “Mad as Rabbits.”

The most refreshing part about Panic’s change of heart is the maturity they’ve developed over the past three years. On Pretty. Odd., showmanship has given way to simplicity and distracting “young emo band” antics have been cleared out in favor of – gasp! – legitimate musical talent. Each of the fifteen diverse tracks evokes an influence more like the Beatles and their retro-pop contemporaries than Queen and Fall Out Boy.

Of course, Panic At The Disco still have some silliness left in them, as demonstrated in the bizarrely country-like “Folkin’ Around” and the goofy intro “We’re So Starving.” These tracks are short and relatively harmless, albeit annoying to the casual listener.

Hidden behind the theatrics that saturated their debut, Panic At The Disco have always had musical talent, an inspired vision and songwriting skills. This time around, they shine while still maintaining their debut’s catchy hooks and aural beauty. All around, Pretty. Odd. is a pleasant evolution.

- Amanda Renko

Panic at the Disco - That Green Gentleman

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple

Atlantic Records 2008

8/10

Best Track: "Run"

Worst Track: "Open Book"

One of the most eclectic groups in the industry returns as Gnarls Barkley enters the spotlight with their latest release The Odd Couple. For those of you unaware, Gnarls is comprised of former Goody Mob vocalist Cee-Lo and world-renowned mixologist DJ Danger Mouse and their crazy style physically and musically have set them apart since their first release St. Elsewhere.

This album is a much less hectic collection, but is still surprisingly solid despite what sounds like such a drastic departure. The Odd Couple kicks off with a modern soul twist “Blind Mary,” which is a relaxing listen that seems to characterize the entire CD for St. Elsewhere fans- we’ll make it good, but get ready for something different. In fact, the album has a lot of references to gospel music in its samples, beats and lyrical delivery.

There are few mainstream-friendly tracks on the album, but it seems as if there are very few songs that contain any weaknesses. Danger Mouse continues to blaze a bold new path in popular sampling and beat production and while Cee-Lo may not have the prettiest voice in the land but he definitely commands your attention.

Track by track, The Odd Couple holds its own against any release this year. The album peaks at the very end with the highlight of the album “Run,” which will be sure to hold its own against “Crazy,” “Gone Daddy Gone,” or any other single around. “Run” is frenetic and makes you want to move around. Literally, there’s a good chance you’ll at the very least be tapping your toes or drumming your fingers on your desk. That’s a personal guarantee.

While we’re making guarantees, here’s another one. If you go into The Odd Couple expecting to hear everything from St. Elsewhere, beware. But if you look for growth and interesting new sounds, then The Odd Couple is a must.

- Joe Kepler

Gnarls Barkley - Run

R.E.M. - Accelerate

Warner Bros. Records 2008

8/10

Best Track: "Horse to Water"

Worst Track: "I'm Gonna DJ"

Just in case you opened your favorite music publication and caught some of the massive wave of hype surrounding R.E.M.’s album Accelerate: the issue date is right. It’s not the early 1990s. It’s 2008, and R.E.M. is generating more press than they have in the entire last decade.

At R.E.M.’s peak, most of the students at this university still wore diapers. After experiencing cult success in the mid-80s, R.E.M. became famous with singles like “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts.” Then, a series of commercial flops and the departure of original drummer Bill Berry in 1997 drove the band off the face of the earth. Perhaps this is why Accelerate has garnered so much buildup. It’s been hailed as a comeback album and the one record that will bring R.E.M. to the forefront of the rock world once more.

It’s hard to say whether Accelerate will rise to the top of the U.S. rock pack commercially when the members, who range between 48 and 52 years of age, could be mistaken for the fathers of most of the people running today’s rock scene. However, their experience and rejuvenated vision have helped R.E.M. to create their most cohesive, inspired music in years.

Accelerate is technically a great album. Singer Michael Stipe’s voice is as young and yearning as ever, conveying gritty emotion in tracks like the speedy “Horse To Water” and “Houston,” the band’s version of the requisite Katrina-aftermath commentary.

With the exception of the first and last tracks, “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” and “I’m Gonna DJ” respectively, Accelerate is a fluid collection. However, each song is distinct enough to warrant its own recognition, from the thrilling paces of “Man-Sized Wreath” and “Supernatural Superserious” to the moody political ballad “Until The Day Is Done.” The album doesn’t drag, nor does it move along too quickly.

It’s safe to say that R.E.M. reached their peak a long time ago. However, Accelerate brings the band a lot closer to the high esteem in which their music was once held. With this album, R.E.M. will win back frustrated diehards while reining in new fans and, hopefully, continue to dazzle them all.

R.E.M. - Horse to Water

- Amanda Renko

Crystal Castles - self-titled

Last Gang Records 2008

9/10

Best Track: "Black Panther"

Worst Track: "Good Time"

Crystal Castles was a 1983 arcade game by Atari. The object of the game was to collect these gems in a somewhat 3D (it’s Atari) environment consisting of various, you called it, castles. The game might have been popular in the 80s, but it has been long forgotten until a Toronto-based duo band took on their name and pioneered some of the most original electro-house music out today.

Crystal Castles is a new and upcoming band that takes the dance beats of modern marvels like Hot Chip and Klaxons and throws them head-first into a wall of retrogaming sounds attributed to Atari and Nintendo. The way they do this is actually pretty interesting. They place an Atari 5200 sound chip inside one of their keyboards in order to produce the trippiest glitching sound-byte beats ever heard. Surprisingly, it sounds extremely catchy and danceable.

Of course, anyone can make lukewarm songs with a glitchy keyboard; however, Crystal Castles showcase their dance prowess by sampling Death From Above 1979’s track “Dead Womb,” and turning it into an aura of synth and no-wave that any skeptic would find energetic and well-remixed.

Their self-titled album juggles with many influences throughout its playtime. “XXZXCUZX Me” illustrates their tenacity to purge their emotions into an aggressive rollercoaster of intertwined scales mixed with a devastating beat guaranteed to make listeners stomp their feet to the fast paced and driving drums. They quickly shift gears into a smooth but ever-increasingly industrious “Courtship Date” that eerily sounds like a timberland song roughened by the abrasive byte clips emanated from their keyboard.

Unarguably, the best track on the album is “Black Panther.” Although singer Alice Glass’s voice is hardly distinguishable in the wave of in-your-face drumbeats coupled with harmonizing electronic sound bytes, her voice carries a sense of urgency that’s rather majestic.

Crystal Castles’ debut is a testament to their brilliant mixing talent. They manage to craft entire songs out of simple sound bytes, which reveals originality unheard of in their genre.

- Michael Ghassibi

Crystal Castles - Black Panther

Here's a bonus track:

Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone (Crystal Castles remix)

The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

Warner Bros. Records 2008

6/10

Best Track: "Rich Kid Blues"

Worst Track" "The Switch and the Spur"

So the Raconteurs inexplicably rushed the release of Consolers of the Lonely by a few weeks. That was big enough news. The even bigger news is that Jack White and Brendan Benson would have been better off working on it in the studio a bit more. Sometimes, good things come to those who wait. Sadly, Consolers is not one of those good things. Mediocre thing maybe, but certainly not a good thing.

Consolers of the Lonely reaches for a bluesy-rock bliss of melding song construction genius with solid guitars. It shouldn’t be a stretch. Brendan Benson is a multi-talented musician and Jack White is the closest thing this generation has to a musical genius. Sadly though, the only thing that needs consoling is the disappointed legion of Raconteurs fans.

The raw material on the album is, for the most part, the same inspired genius that led The Raconteurs’ debut Broken Boy Soldiers to become a hit record. The problem is, that genius gets obscured by rushed vocal mastering in songs, particularly the earlier tracks with “Salute Your Solution” as the worst offender. Add to the fact that Jack White’s already weak singing ability when he’s not half-screaming is spotlighted and the vocals throughout this album lead to a slight nail on a chalkboard feeling.

What saves this album is the classic rock influences that run in veins deeper than a simple name check. “Rich Kid Blues” takes the sound style of Led Zeppelin and merges it with the prog-rock sound of groups like Rush. Yes, The Raconteurs were just compared to two legendary rock bands. But, don’t worry. Those comparisons are few.

Usually, the sound just comes across flat and even sounding more like Dispatch than any other act. The jam band sound is nice at points, but when most songs particularly “The Switch and the Spur” and “You Don’t Understand Me” inexplicably fall into a jam band groove then things are going wrong. Jack White sounds like he’s auditioning for Widespread Panic and Benson is just chilling somewhere in the back of the van.

By the time Consolers of the Lonely closes, the flaws of this album start to look like mos rock albums of the past few years. They fall into a groove early with the sound of the last album showing through and the band trying to expand their sound. The sonic expansion is agonizingly slow and leaves the band sounding fatigued by the end with minimal accomplishment.

It’s not that Consolers of the Lonely is a bad album. There are some real bright spots on it, especially in the back half of the disc. But the rushed feeling of the production hurt the record and with only a month or so between recording and final packaging, there just wasn’t enough time to polish this into any sort of coherence. It’s just frustrating to see such talented men put out an album beneath what they are capable of achieving.

The Raconteurs - "Rich Kid Blues"

- Garrett Lyons

FEATURE: The Seven Deadly Sins Of Music

In the 6^th Century, Pope Gregory the Great essentially codified a list of Seven Deadly Sins. These sins are guaranteed to send a mortal soul to Hell in a hurry. So, which musicians have their ticket stub ripped for the great gig in the underworld? Let’s find out.

Lust: Prince - Remember the saying “sex, drugs and rock & roll”? Well, this would mean that just about every musician is going to Hell. But the worst offender is Prince. After all, he is the man who popularized the phrase “23 positions in a one night stand.” He played a mildly phallic looking guitar on stage at the Super Bowl. He’s posed naked on his own album covers. This artist clearly has sex on the brain more often than not, and has probably thought of a way to actually have sex on the brain.

Gluttony: Fat Joe – Yes, this man is a glutton. He’s larger than life. Literally. His one hit “Lean Back” spawned an array of jokes that usually went along the lines of “Fat Joe is so fat, if he actually leaned back, he’d fall over.” But don’t worry. He’ll be joining Big Pun, Biggie Smalls and NOFX’s lead hooligan Fat Mike down there.

Greed: Radiohead – Radiohead is going to hell. They are a fantastic bunch of musicians, although I doubt anyone can name a soul in that band after Thom Yorke. Anyway, the group’s release of In Rainbows on a solid disc seals the group’s fate. At first they had the novel idea to release an album online independently for whatever the people wanted to pay for it just to keep the money away from record labels. Then they realized that maybe they’d make more money by a conventional release. So they did, on XL Recordings.

Sloth: Michael Stipe of R.E.M. – Anyone who writes a song with every other line being “Yeah yeah yeah yeah” is a lazy, lazy man. Anyone who writes the lyric “Leaving was never my proud” is far too lazy to use proper grammar. Anyhow, he’ll join the entire Crash Test Dummies down there because not only did they record a chorus consisting only of “mmm mmm mmm mmm,” but they also named the song that.

Wrath: Scott Weiland - First he leaves Stone Temple Pilots to join up with the now Rose-less Guns N’ Roses to become Velvet Revolver. Then he has an acrimonious break-up with Velvet Revolver, which involved him using high-school styled insults toward Slash, and rejoins Stone Temple Pilots. Sounds petulant, but when Weiland gets angry, bands die.

Envy: Eric Clapton – Forget his musical talent for a bit. He stole George Harrison’s wife. Enough said.

Pride: Axl Rose – It’s been how long that Chinese Democracy has been in production now? Apparently 13 years and over $13 million isn’t enough time to make the perfect record. How much pride does one man have that he simply can’t release an album without constant retweaking and arguing over the disc? At this rate, we’ll actually see democracy in China before the album comes out. But don’t worry – this album is scheduled for release some time in 2008, which is sort of like saying St. Bonaventure University will reform Clare College. In other words, don’t grow old waiting for that to happen.

- Garrett Lyons

Last Shadow Puppets – “The Age of the Understatement” – Single Review

What happens when you take former The Little Flames member Miles Kane from Liverpool rock outfit The Rascals and add Alex Turner from some band called Arctic Monkeys? The Last Shadow Puppets, an absurdly titled band who’ll be putting the year’s most dynamic album since Vampire Weekend came calling. The Last Shadow Puppets drop The Age of the Understatement on April 21 on Domino Records.

The lead single and title track sounds like what would happen if you put together a couple of bright sparks of indie rock with the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Actually, this is precisely what it is. The end result is a dance track of epic proportions with orchestral and choral arrangements more befitting of a movie score than a rock album. Even Morrissey couldn’t work with an orchestra as well as these two lads have. The percussion drives like thunder. The production lends itself to the feel of a fine concert hall. It all falls together and resembles a bombastic orchestral version of almost any track from Favourite Worst Nightmare.

The groove may be Arctic Monkeys, but the feel is much different. It’s lusher and richer in texture than anything either Kane or Turner have put out with any band. It’s just an auditory nugget of goodness.

- Garrett Lyons

The Last Shadow Puppets - "The Age of the Understatement"

New Issue Out Now

That's right everybody. The Modern Age is back in print. Look for a copy on the St. Bonaventure University campus around the Hickey Dining Hall, Francis Cafe, Cafe La Verna and the RC Cafe. There might even be a few floating around Murphy. So go get some.

Charlton Heston is Dead

That's right folks. The scion of all that was gun control died at the age of...well...he was really really old. So here's a trio of songs designed to remember Moses...I mean Ben-Hur...I mean the leader of the NRA...I mean Hollywood acting legend who will finally have that gun pried from his cold dead hands.

Life Sentence - Gun Control - Anti-gun hardcore from some true legends.

Half Man Half Biscuit - God Gave Us Life - British indie puts out a modern hymn with a sing-a-long chorus.

Pressure Drop - Daddy Buy Me a Rifle - Rhytmic punk from Liverpool. Great track. Great lyrics. Too bad this was the only passable song Pressure Drop put out.

Enjoy.

- Garrett Lyons