When pissed-off concertgoers grapple with overmatched security guards only a few hours into an all-day concert event, you know it’s going to be an eventful day.

Saturday night’s L.A. Rising concert held at USC’s Memorial Coliseum was one of the biggest, flashiest rock spectacles I’ve ever seen, despite heated tension early in the afternoon.

The Goldenvoice-sponsored mega-concert featuring Rage Against the Machine, Muse, Rise Against, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Immortal Technique and El Gran Silencio went down at one of LA’s biggest complexes, the Coliseum. This is the same Coliseum that was denied this year’s Electric Daisy Carnival for security reasons.

Despite ticket prices creeping past the $100 mark and $25 parking fees at nearby USC lots, L.A. Rising definitely brought in quite a crowd. There were, I’d assume, more than 70,000 mostly t-shirted people spread across the stadium for the last three acts of the show.

Due to the traffic nightmare caused by trying to get over to the USC area in time for the show, I (and, judging by the crowd outside the gates, a lot of other people) missed both El Gran Silencio and Immortal Technique. By the time I got in, Lauryn Hill and her band were taking the stage to play for a hugely apathetic crowd. Unlike her performance at Coachella this year, which was received well by the sun-soaked desert revelers, her L.A. Rising gig was met with lethargy and disinterest. Only her Fugees material like Killing Me Softly and Ready or Not really resonated with anybody in the crowd, as most of the sped-up songs played by her large backing band echoed around the cavernous Coliseum to little attention. Perhaps her reggae-tinged soul music was an odd fit for the rock-heavy lineup.

When Chicago rock/punk band Rise Against hit the stage at around 6:20, things got a bit testy. In order to exercise crowd control, the General Admission floor area was divided into three separate sections. Only the fans that showed up ridiculously early in the morning were given the wristband allowing them access to the portion closest to the stage. Everybody else was divided among the last two sections. The part that really angered ticket holders was that the second section, which housed the soundboard area, had a HUGE open space that wasn’t filled. Meanwhile, those who couldn’t sit outside the Coliseum all morning long were herded to the very back of the floor section, almost a football field’s distance away from the stage. That’s probably not what they thought they’d get for their $115 ticket, and for that reason they were mad.

Within thirty seconds of Rise Against beginning their set, vicious fights broke out between the last floor section and the overmatched security guards. Fans rushed past the barricade, spilling out into the second section of the floor. Security battled back, chasing escapees down and dragging them back to their assigned section. It was rough, and went on for almost all of the band’s set. As for the performance, I’m not the biggest Rise Against fan, but guitarist/vocalist Tim McIlrath did a great job revving up the crowd. Living within KROQ’s radio signal, I’ve heard quite a few Rise Against songs, and all of them were played within the 45-minute set.

Help is on the Way was a highlight, its high-energy riffs and steady rhythm eliciting many a fist pump in the crowd. Always known to speak out about their political views, McIlrath spoke at one point about the “new kind of patriotism” going on in the USA, the Iraq Veterans Against the War, before playing the anti-war tune Hero of War on his acoustic guitar. Rise Against’s set was energetic, high-spirited and well-received, despite the sun beating down directly onto the stage.

By the time Muse hit the stage, the Coliseum was mostly packed and ready for the British trio’s quirky brand of arena-prog rock. Curiously, the band began the set with Exogenesis: Symphony, Part One: Overture, a slow orchestral number. The crowd’s anticipation swelled with every thunderous drum hit as the song grew more powerful, leading into mega-hit Uprising. Throughout the course of Muse’s 16-song set, one thing was made more than certain: Matt Bellamy shreds. When not wailing away on his own songs, Bellamy teased the crowd with memorable riffs from songs such as House of the Rising Sun, Heartbreaker, what sounded like Bored by the Deftones, and even the Star-Spangled Banner, an unexpected but impressive treat. He seamlessly transitioned between guitar and piano on Butterflies & Hurricanes, one of the set’s strongest moments. Bellamy, clad in shiny magenta pants and a Captain America t-shirt, had the crowd eating from his hand the entire set.

Visually, the band definitely knows how to make jaws drop. Their honeycomb-shaped lighting backdrop was beautiful, combining with their ethereal, atmospheric space-rock impeccably. They made the expansive, sprawling Coliseum seem like a mid-size arena, filling up the air with colors, lasers, lights, giant inflatable eyeballs and a thunderous, perfectly-mixed live sound. Some reviews of L.A. Rising have said that Muse had the day’s best performance, and they may be right. The band puts on one of the best live shows around today. Muse touched on all their best-known songs, including Hysteria, Time is Running Out, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, and Plug-In Baby, although it would have been nice if they played New Born.

Muse set list:

Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture

Uprising

Map of the Problematique

Supermassive Black Hole

Butterflies & Hurricanes

Hysteria

United StatesOfEurasia

Undisclosed Desires

Resistance

Starlight

Time is Running Out

Stockholm Syndrome

Plug In Baby

Knights of Cydonia

Rage Against the Machine didn’t take the stage until roughly 10:35, fifteen minutes after they were scheduled to start. They had quite a theatrical introduction: a huge red star was illuminated by a spotlight on the top deck of the far side of the Coliseum, while the Olympic Torch atop the huge pillars behind the stage area was set ablaze. Strobe lights whipped around the concourse while a montage of the band’s most memorable moments was broadcast on video screens. It was a huge, epic, slightly out-of-character start for a band always known for minimalism. The frantic energy put forth by the theatrics quickly turned to anger, though, when the sound cut out twice during the set-opening Testify. The issue was resolved after the longest thirty-seconds ever experienced at a concert, satiating the rabid, incessantly moshing crowd.

One of the wildest things to happen during the Rage set was the firepit that broke out in the second GA area. Seemingly 3-foot high flames whipped around during Bulls on Parade and Bombtrack while delirious Rage fans circle-pitted around it. Security kept rushing over and extinguishing the flames, only to have a new fire spring up minutes later. This went on for nearly half an hour.

Musically, Rage was inspired. De la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk had great energy, but the PA system left a bit to be desired. The Coliseum is a big, big place, and sometimes the sound was a bit muffled. Judging by the comments on the event’s Facebook page, it would also appear that those in the back of the stadium had trouble hearing anything clearly, which is unfortunate. After a lengthy speech about how LA is being controlled by the rich (more on that in a bit), Rage went into Wake Up, one of the set’s highlights.

There was a tinge of irony when de la Rocha went on that politically-charged rant. There he was, perched atop a stage at a huge, USC-sponsored football stadium ranting about how the rich own everything, to a crowd in the tens of thousands, tired from spending all day roasting in the sun. The expensive ticket prices, $25 parking fees and $5 bottles of water didn’t really help give things much of a “grassroots” feel. It was weird hearing a band known for its anti-corporate opinions talk about these issues in such a context. Granted, a group like Rage Against the Machine has to play venues like this due to their status in the history of rock music and their small number of post-reunion gigs, but in the end it was slightly awkward.

After Wake Up, the band left the stage to raucous cheers, returning for a vicious encore of Freedom and Killing in the Name. By the time Killing in the Name ended and the house lights came on, a long, exhausting day was finished.

In all, L.A. Rising was a success, judging by the turnout, but in the end the special one-off show did have its issues. Spending more than $100 should not relegate you to obstructed views behind giant speaker poles. If anything, the structure of the seating arrangement should have been made clearer ahead of time. These sorts of issues happen with big huge stadium events like this, so it’s hardly a special circumstance. All things considered, it was definitely an enjoyable day of music.

If this was in fact Rage Against the Machine’s final send-off, they’d have been hard-pressed to do so in a more dramatic fashion.

RATM’s setlist:

Testify

Bombtrack

People of the Sun

Know Your Enemy

Bulls on Parade

Township Rebellion

Bullet in the Head

Down Rodeo

Guerrilla Radio

Calm Like a Bomb

Sleep Now in the Fire

Wake Up

Encore:

Freedom

Killing in the Name

Behind the Hype’s newest member, Ohio took some amazing photos for our collection in the gallery below!

tamea-la-rising-1

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Rage Against the Machine and Goldenvoice have teamed up to present L.A. RISING, the first major rock show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 11 years. Joining Rage Against the Machine are Muse, Rise Against, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Immortal Technique and El Gran Silencio. L.A. RISING is about more than just the music. Each artist participating in this historic event wants to raise awareness about the social issues plaguing Los Angeles. To accomplish this, L.A. RISING has established the “Re-Education Camp.”

The Re-Education Camp is a collection of 30+ local and international nonprofit organizations presenting issues that affect everyone in Los Angeles. L.A. RISING has invited each nonprofit organization to participate at zero cost in an effort to help the organizations promote their causes and raise awareness. The four major areas of concern include: WAR, IMMIGRATION, POVERTY and LABOR.

“We are passionate about ending the wars overseas, immigrant rights, protecting working families, and combating hunger and homelessness in L.A. We want to present our fans the opportunity to get informed and get involved while we rock them senseless,” says Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

L.A. RISING will provide the entire infrastructure at the event, building an efficient paperless system to collect and share information among all participating fans and nonprofits. More information on the organizations invited to attend L.A. RISING is posted on the festival website: http://LARisingfestival.com

L.A. RISING has also launched an online video series entitled, Guerrilla Video. Among the first two videos in this series, Rage Against The Machine’s Timmy C and Rise Against’s Zach & Tim explain their thoughts and excitement about the festival, the participating nonprofits and the overall causes they champion. Each participating nonprofit will be challenged to produce a video outlining their causes. All videos will be uploaded as they are made and can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/guerrillavideo2011.

The lineup for this year’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago was announced this morning.

Headlining the weekend of August 5-7 will be Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay and Muse.

Other notable additions (among many) include A Perfect Circle, My Morning  Jacket, Deadmau5, Ween, The Cars (!), Arctic Monkeys, Death from Above 1979, Explosions in the Sky, Deftones (who are listed MUCH MUCH TOO LOW on the bill), Manchester Orchestra, Cage the Elephant, and Damian Marley & Nas.

Of course there are a ton of other acts on the bill. Click here to check out the full lineup.

My comments on the lineup: a bit heavy in the “bands that played both Coachella and Outside Lands” department, but there are also enough notable artists who avoided the other festivals to make Lollapalooza worth the money.

Ticket information and event details are available here on Lolla’s official site.

The lineup for this year’s installment of the Outside Lands Festival was released this morning.

There are A LOT of music festivals in the US: Coachella (which happens this weekend for those of you lucky enough to have a ticket/pass/friends/luck), Bonnaroo, Sasquatch, South by Southwest, and so on. Many of the bands overlap on multiple festivals, which makes it pretty hard for one to stand out over the others sometimes.

Yes, Coachella has arguably the most eclectic lineup out there year in and year out, but this year’s Outside Lands isn’t any slouch itself.

Headlining the affair, which will go down at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA on August 12-14, are Muse, Phish (playing two sets) and The Arcade Fire.

Also on the lengthy bill are the Black Keys, The Decemberists, the Roots, Deadmau5, MGMT, Arctic Monkeys, Big Audio Dynamite, and John Fogerty.

Just look at the poster atop this article to view the entire lineup.

As you should be well aware if you’ve been paying any attention to what I write here, I love The Stone Foxes. The San Francisco band will grace the side stage at Outside Lands this year, having caused a stir for a couple years now in the Bay Area, at Noise Pop and SXSW. As a fan and friend of the band, I’m beyond stoked for them, as this is a tremendous opportunity for them to get massive exposure.

Congrats, dudes.

Tickets for the weekend go onsale this Thursday 4/14 at a discounted price, so act fast if you want in on the festivities. It should be fun, and I’m trying my hardest to make sure I finally get to my first Outside Lands.

Read all the fine print and other details about the festival and all the other fun stuff going on at the festival’s official site.

The nominees for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards have been announced. Eminem leads all artists with ten nominations, while Bruno Mars follows closely with seven, and Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and Lady Antebellum each clinched six. Other BTH favorites to receive nods include The Roots, Alice in Chains, Them Crooked Vultures, Janelle Monáe, and Cee-Lo’s Fuck You(!).

The nominees:

Album of the Year:
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Eminem – Recovery
Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster
Katy Perry – Teenage Dream

Record of the Year:
B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars - Nothin’ On You
Eminem featuring Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie
Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Best New Artist:
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence & the Machine
Mumford & Sons
Esperanza Spalding

Song of the Year:
Ray LaMontagne, songwriter (Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs) – Beg Steal or Borrow
Cee Lo Green, Philip Lawrence & Bruno Mars, songwriters (Cee-Lo Green) – Fuck You
Tom Douglas & Allen Shamblin, songwriters (Miranda Lambert) – The House That Built Me
Alexander Grant, Skylar Grey & Marshall Mathers, songwriters (Eminem featuring Rihanna) – Love The Way You Lie
Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum) – Need You Now

Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals:
“Glee” Cast – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Regionals Version)
Maroon 5 – Misery
Paramore – The Only Exception
Sade – Babyfather
Train – Hey, Soul Sister (Live)

Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals:
B.o.B, Eminem & Hayley Williams – Airplanes II
Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No. 1, Jeff Beck & Oumou Sangare – Imagine
Elton John & Leon Russell – If It Wasn’t for Bad
Lady Gaga & Beyoncé – Telephone
Katy Perry & Snoop Dogg – California Gurls

Best Dance Recording:
Goldfrapp – Rocket
La Roux – In for the Kill
Lady Gaga – Dance in the Dark
Rihanna – Only Girl (In the World)
Robyn – Dancing On My Own

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals:
Arcade Fire – Ready to Start
Jeff Beck & Joss Stone – I Put a Spell on You
The Black Keys – Tighten Up
Kings of Leon – Radioactive
Muse – Resistance

Best Rock Album
Jeff Beck – Emotion & Commotion
Muse – The Resistance
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Mojo
Neil Young – Le Noise

Best Hard Rock Performance:
Alice in Chains – A Looking in View
Ozzy Osbourne – Let Me Hear You Scream
Soundgarden – Black Rain
Stone Temple Pilots – Between the Lines
Them Crooked Vultures – New Fang

Best Rock Song:
Neil Young, songwriter (Neil Young) – Angry World
Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford & Country Winston, songwriters (Mumford & Sons) – Little Lion Man
Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill & Nathan Followill, songwriters (Kings of Leon) – Radioactive
Matthew Bellamy, songwriter (Muse) – Resistance
Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney, songwriter (The Black Keys) – Tighten Up

Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Jeff Beck – Hammerhead
The Black Keys – Black Mud
Los Lobos – Do the Murray
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Kundalini Bonfire
Dweezil Zappa – The Deathless Horsie

Best Alternative Music Album
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
The Black Keys – Brothers
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Vampire Weekend – Contra

Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals:
Chris Brown & Tank – Take My Time
Chuck Brown, Jill Scott & Marcus Miller – Love
Ronald Isley & Aretha Franklin – You’ve Got a Friend
John Legend & The Roots – Shine
Sade – Soldier of Love

Best Contemporary R&B Album:
Chris Brown – Graffiti
R. Kelly – Untitled
Ryan Leslie – Transition
Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid
Usher – Raymond V. Raymond

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration:
B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars – Nothin’ on You
Chris Brown, Tyga & Kevin McCall – Deuces
Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
John Legend, The Roots, Melanie Fiona & Common – Wake Up! Everybody

Best Rap Song:
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie
Eminem – Not Afraid
B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars – Nothin’ on You
Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz – On to the Next One

Best Rap Album:
B.o.B – The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Drake – Thank Me Later
Eminem – Recovery
Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3
The Roots – How I Got Over

Best Country Collaboration with Vocals:
Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert & Jamey Johnson – Bad Angel
Dierks Bentley, Del McCoury & The Punch Brothers – Pride (In the Name of Love)
Zac Brown Band & Alan Jackson – As She’s Walking Away
Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins – Hillbilly Bone
Marty Stuart & Connie Smith - I Run to You

Best Country Song:
Casey Beathard, Dean Dillon & Jessie Jo Dillon, songwriters (George Strait) – The Breath You Take
Zac Brown, songwriter (Zac Brown Band) – Free
Tom Douglas & Allen Shamblin, songwriters (Miranda Lambert) – The House That Built Me
Rivers Rutherford, Annie Tate & Sam Tate, songwriters (Gretchen Wilson) – I’d Love to Be Your Last
Kimberly Perry, songwriter (The Band Perry) – If I Die Young
Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum) – Need You Now

Best Country Album:
Dierks Bentley – Up On The Ridge
Zac Brown Band – You Get What You Give
Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song
Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
Miranda Lambert – Revolution

Best Americana Album:
Rosanne Cash – The List
Los Lobos – Tin Can Trust
Willie Nelson – Country Music
Robert Plant – Band of Joy
Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone

Best Traditional Blues Album:
James Cotton – Giant
Cyndi Lauper – Memphis Blues
Charlie Musselwhite – The Well
Pinetop Perkins & Willie “Big Eyes” Smith – Joined at the Hip
Jimmie Vaughan – Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites

Best Metal Performance
Iron Maiden – El Dorado
Korn – Let the Guilt Go
Lamb of God – In Your Words
Megadeth – Sudden Death
Slayer – World Painted Blood

For a full list of the nominees, have a look here.

English alternative rockers Muse have released the official music video for their chart topping single “Resistance.” The video gives fans a glimpse of their energetic and extravagant live performances for which they are known. The single comes from the band’s fifth studio album titled, The Resistance, which has topped the charts in 19 countries and reached number three on the American album chart thanks to the lead single “Uprising.” The best selling CD fuses a number of musical genres, including progressive rock, clasical music, and electronica. Head on over to iTunes and pick up the bands new iPhone app and self-produced album, The Resistance.

Muse is currently on tour with Silversun Pickups.

Feb 27 Gwinnett Center Atlanta, GA

Mar 1 Patriot Center Fairfax, VA

Mar 2 Wachovia Center Philadelphia, PA

Mar 3 1st Mariner Arena Baltimore, MD

Mar 5 Madison Square Garden New York, NY

Mar 6 TD Banknorth Garden Boston, MA

Mar 8 Air Canada Center Toronto

Mar 10 Bell Centre Montreal

Mar 12 United Center Chicago, IL

Mar 13 Palace of Auburn Hills Detroit, MI

Mar 15 Sommet Center Nashville, TN

Mar 17 Ft Worth Convention Center Dallas, TX

Mar 18 Toyota Center Houston, TX

Mar 29 Rexall Place Edmonton

Mar 30 Pengrowth Saddledome Calgary

Apr 1 Pacific Coliseum Vancouver

Apr 2 Key Arena Seattle, WA

Apr 3 Rose Garden Arena Portland, OR

Apr 5 The E Center Salt Lake City, UT

Apr 6 Odeum Colorado Denver, CO

Apr 9 US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ

Apr 10 Mandalay Bay Events Center Las Vegas, NV

Apr 11 Pima County Fairgrounds Tuscon, AZ

Apr 14 Oracle Arena San Francisco, CA

Apr 17 Coachella Festival Indio, CA

feel it, bro

Tom DeLonge has a lot of love in his heart. Why else would he release Angels & Airwaves’ new album Love for free? Thankfully for him, the album doesn’t set itself up for “good thing it was free, it’s not worth any money anyway”-type jokes that would otherwise plague some of its reviews.

Angels & Airwaves has always been DeLonge’s “serious” project, quite the opposite from his days in Blink-182. Trading in poop and sex jokes and tongue-in-cheek pop punk tunes for lush orchestrations and over-the-top guitar effects, DeLonge has had to endure some criticisms of this sweeping, creatively excessive project. It doesn’t help that he built up hype for the band by repeatedly saying it’s the best thing ever or that he described Love as a mix of U2, Radiohead and Pink Floyd. Yes, it sounds ham-fisted at times and DeLonge has never really been known to have a ‘good’ singing voice, but Angels & Airwaves compensates for that with some rich melodies and a powerful overall atmospheric style.

I’ve always assumed DeLonge created this project in an attempt to make the total opposite of Blink-182. The result is a style that isn’t entirely original, relying on pomposity and a musical self-importance that veers closely to the same style employed by bands like U2, 30 Seconds to Mars and Muse. I’ve joked a few times that AVA, 30 Seconds to Mars and Muse should go on one massive tour together to see who can be more ‘epic’ and ‘life-changing’ than the other. I’m sure that tour would be quite the spectacle.

As for this album: it’s actually pretty good. After an instrumental kicks off the record (Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce, named in Latin because it’s so deep or something), The Flight of Apollo charges forth with a bouncy, energetic guitar riff (something AVA has missed in the past), but not before a minute and a half of DeLonge’s voice muffled by effects and space noises, of course. His voice, as mentioned earlier, has an out-of-breath, over-enunciated sound to it on these songs that was probably intended to sound more dramatic and powerful but instead re-affirms that his voice isn’t one of his best assets.

After the six-minute emotional burst of Apollo ends, Young London picks up out of its wake and bursts with epic-sounding guitar and drums, with Tom singing about “I’m not the one to admit it’s helpless. I have a sense that we will be alright…I wish for peace with electric silence to keep our hearts beating on our minds. And we will see that we’re all connected when we awake to the tunnel’s light”, appropriately puffed-up lyrics about life and existence and peace and war set to such puffed-up, self-indulgent music.

yeah, this is Tom's project

The rest of the songs are more of the same, but that’s not necessarily a dig against the album. Angels & Airwaves, to me, has always been about style over substance, and it shows on Love. Tom, of course, intends for it to resonate with the listener and be the best music ever, but anything that regards itself that important rarely is. Instead, the songs on this album reflect his desire to craft something that isn’t offensive or abrasive, but rather enjoyable to listen to.

Epic Holiday is another highlight, with a good hook and a little more of a rhythmic energy that doesn’t just rely on effects and space noises. Hallucinations, the album’s first single, was a fitting choice, as it’s also a standout on the album.

Overall, Love is a pretty decent album; I’ve never really cared much for Angels & Airwaves, but this time around Tom and friends managed to create an album that I can listen to all the way through without getting excessively bored. I understand why people hate on the band, as everything has a heavy self-importance that borders on arrogance (especially with Tom comparing it to Pink Floyd and Radiohead). It isn’t as good as anything by those bands, of course, but it isn’t totally boring either.

I’m impressed that Love was released totally for free, in the same style that Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done previously. This will be re-released in a deluxe physical copy too at some point, but I like to see bands release albums for free like this. Granted, everyone can’t do this, and Tom has enough money to hand out music for free, but it’s still a nice gesture.

There is a companion movie also coming out soon, apparently…I can only imagine how grandiose and sprawling that will be, considering it’s based on AVA songs and the message behind them all, of hope and love and all that. Wow.

While this isn’t one of my favorite records of recent memory, it should appeal to anyone who likes atmospheric alternative rock, and especially anyone who enjoyed AVA’s previous albums.

Even on their debut, These New Puritans had an impressive sound that seemed too complex to be performed by four people. The indie sound armed with vast, eclectic instrumentation made 2008′s Beat Pyramid a particularly promising debut, but it was hardly expected that they would make such a leap forward. Their sophomore effort, Hidden, recalls the progression Silverchair made from a more guitar based rock band to a more low key, experimental one, except instead of over the course of three albums, it happened with one. The guitar fueled moments of Pyramid are gone here, with brass, woodwinds, and piano taking the forefront. Despite this radical change, These New Puritans still sound like themselves, their trademark dark melodies still in tact. Hidden shows These New Puritans as somehow both far more epic and far less pretentious than even the last few Muse records.

Vat iz ze hidden image?

Lead songwriter and vocalist Jack Barnett and co. juxtapose organic and electronic sounds so well all across Hidden that you hardly even notice the first time you hear it. The atmosphere is looming and seductive, but is never overwhelming, much like The XX’s self titled debut last year. Unlike it, however, Hidden seems to have the undercurrent of a noir film score, which is divided into songs that are re-cut and formatted into a more rock-friendly structure. Songs like We Want War, which makes seven minutes fly by way too quickly, displays this all too well, with cleverly placed breaks and random sound effects, and makes the song itself feel as if it’s barely keeping afloat in the massive score.

One of the great things about Hidden is that with the wide array of instruments used, there are so many moments where you can’t quite put your finger on what instrument you’re hearing. “Is that.. a bassoon? A harpischord? ….a triangle?” George Barnett’s percussion in particular is remarkable, on Attack Music he’s keeping a beat while clattering on whatever the hell he wants, as warped synths, a choir, and a sharpening blade (one of the random sound effects mentioned earlier, a lot of them repeat themselves throughout the album) lead the bizarrely followable carnival-like melody. His clever drumming also backs  the choir as they take the lead in Orion‘s multiple sinister hooks.

Sometimes the business in the music almost resembles a sound collage; Both Fire-Power and Drum Courts – Where Corals Lie‘s peaks boast somehow melodic cacophonies with everything hitting its stride at once, before each element falls away one by one, and all that’s left is a fading single sound before the next kicks in. The brief instrumentals, Canticle, and opener Time Xone, are pure score and serve as a breather (or in Time Xone‘s case, the proverbial calm before the storm) in the midst of These New Puritan’s unique brand of intensity.

Careful, the two on the left are totally checking out your junk

Hidden is a deep, atmospheric album that has quite a lot to reveal over repeated listens. It’s also quick and with a good enough flow to encourage repeated listening, making the already fascinatingly sharp instrumentation even more inviting for analysis. These New Puritans have taken chamber pop to the next level, much like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Arcade Fire did before them. All in all, it’s an incredibly impressive and original effort that deserves all the praise it gets.

Yes, even the “first masterpiece of the 2010s” that have been spreading like wildfire this month.

Last night I finally attended my first KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show. I’m not sure why they call it that, because no one plays acoustic. I guess it’s a clever joke in the minds of the KROQ people, but whatever. Despite the fact that the station didn’t give me any tickets for free, even though I called in a few times, I secured tickets in the Loge section and had a pretty decent view for the show. The pictures below were taken from my seat, so excuse the lack of up-close-ness.

Overall opinion: the show was a lot of fun, with some great performances. I really liked the Gibson Ampitheater, as the sound was incredible (with one exception I’ll cover later). The crowd, though, was super lame. They seemed like they were only there to see Muse, yet when Muse played, the people in the pit just stood around or danced lightly, without any sense of excitement other than cheering after the songs. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I generally go nuts when a band I am really excited for is playing. I don’t just stand there and Tweet or sip my 13 dollar beer. Meh.

White Rabbits – They opened the show and were really impressive. The band has a cool, percussion-heavy sound, with frequently more than one band member playing some form of drums. The main singer guy plays piano and sings, but he trades off that duty with one of the guitarists as well. They played songs from both of their records Fort Nightly and It’s Frightening, and sounded great. It’s a shame the place was pretty empty when they played, because they were a highlight. Such is the fate of opening bands, I guess.

White Rabbits

Metric – Lead singer/guitarist Emily Haines boppedaround the stage with undying energy in her shiny black pants.  From their newest album Fantasies, Metric played Stadium Love, Gimme Sympathy (one of my favorites) and the single Help, I’m Alive. I’m not really familiar with their other three records as much, so I didn’t know the rest of the tunes that they played, but they were also impressive. They should receive more credit than they do, as Haines is a much more engaging and enjoyable female vocalist/focal point of her band than Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (ugh) is with her cat screeches and annoyingness. Unlike the No No No’s, Metric actually has some great songs.

Metric

Next up was Cage the Elephant. I saw them at Coachella last year and was blown away. Their set last night, while not received very excitedly from the lame crowd, was just as great. Besides playing Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked and Back Against the Wall, they played what I assume were new songs. The last song sounded like In Utero- era Nirvana, with fuzzy guitars and singer Mathew Shultz doing Kurt-esque screams and spazzing around onstage with relentless fury. If it is a sign of where their next album will go, I’m already looking forward to it. The crowd, though, mostly stood around. At the end of the set Shultz stage dove and crowd surfed around for a bit, which got the pit people a bit excited.

Cage the Elephant

Phoenix – These French dudes really impressed me too. I still can’t get into their album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the one that everyone rants and raves about, but their live show made up for it. They were also the first band that the crowd seemed really enthused about, standing up and cheering the whole time. Phoenix came off like a more full-sounding the Strokes, with a lead singer in Thomas Mars who actually moves around and is engaging. By the time they played the big radio hit 1901, the crowd was very lively. Mars ended the song by going into the crowd and singing the refrain from the pit, which always gets people excited. Mars knew what he was doing. Now if only their album kept my attention as much…

Phoenix

Vampire Weekend – Meh. Their songs are quirky, yes, but to me they are basically the indie version of Panic! At the Disco (If this statement offends your indie hipster point of view, readjust your scarf and calm down). They sounded fine, but I just can’t get all excited and worked up about them. Judging by the crowd their set was a big bathroom/snack/smoke break, too. I just don’t subscribe to the hipster hype machine that lauds them with so much acclaim.

Vampire Weekend

Slightly Stoopid –I knew back when the lineup was first announced that Stoopid wouldn’t really fit the bill very well. I’ve seen them quite a few times, and they have a ton of albums, but all KROQ plays of theirs is 2AM from Chronchitis. Because of that, the crowd seemed bored and stood around listlessly until that song.

Stoopid did play a good selection of tunes for the radio show, such as Officer and Running with a Gun from the album Everything You Need, but for the most part they seemed just as out of place as I had expected them to. Sandwiching them around a bunch of hip indie bands probably didn’t help.

Slightly Stoopid

The Bravery – Breaking up the reggae/rock mix of 311 and Slightly Stoopid were the Bravery, NYC’s synth/new-wave pop band led by Sam Endicott and his silly hat and Robert Smith-ian croon. They’re not a bad band by any stretch, but some of their songs are a bit draggy and anti-climactic. They did play a new song called Hatefuck that wasn’t as Trent Reznor-ian as its name would imply; it was instead rather dance-y, as expected, but it did come with this weird video on the jumbo screen that looked like some old version of 1950s soft-core porn that was a bit distracting and funny. Ending with An Honest Mistake, the Bravery’s performance was basically just as I had expected it would be. It was just odd how highly they were listed in the bill, and playing between Slightly Stoopid and 311 added to the confusion.

The Bravery and Sam Endicott's hat

311 – I’ve seen 311 more than 20 times, as they are my favorite band. They NEVER have any technical issues at their shows. Despite that, they were the ONLY band at this show that had problems, which was a weird buzzing feedback-y sound that marred some of the songs. They opened with Beautiful Disaster and played a set that I almost predicted with total accuracy (superfan? 311 nerd? Yup), throwing in the hits All Mixed Up, Down, Flowing, and recent single Hey You, a song I wish they never wrote with some other tunes from their new record Uplifter; they also played concert staple Applied Science, complete with its full-band drum solo. All told, it was another great show by the band, but the mysterious technical issues were a bit frustrating and out of character.

in 311, everybody's a drummer!

Muse – OMG YES THE BAND WE WERE ALL HERE TO SEE! Or at least it sounded like that when they emerged amid thunderous applause and screaming to slam into Uprising, the single from their new album The Resistance. They played for roughly an hour, touching on the big hits Supermassive Black Hole, Hysteria, Time is Running Out, and Knights of Cydonia, which ended the set, but they skipped over New Born (one of my favs) and Feeling Good in favor of a handful of Resistance tracks like United States of Eurasia, Guiding Light, Resistance, and Unnatural Selection.

Muse and Matt Bellamy's ever-present passion face

I wasn’t surprised by this, as it was a radio show and they have a new album to push, but it was still a bit of a let down. Matt Bellamy’s guitar was all glittery and red, though, and he wore shiny pink pants, so that made up for it. They also sounded incredible, as Bellamy is able to replicate the soaring operatic vocals from the studio recordings to the live setting impeccably. Their performance was masterful, if a bit heavy on Resistance songs. I hope their Coachella set has more old stuff thrown in too.

Muse

In all, KROQ Acoustic Christmas Day 2 was great. The band selection was a bit strange in there was absolutely no cohesion to the lineup; it started out all indie pop then threw in some surf reggae, and the result was a bit scattered and all over the place. Still, I enjoyed most of the performances, and it was evident that the crowd did as well (or at least they did once Muse hit the stage). KROQ knows how to put on good shows, and pick a great venue for their annual holiday fest. I just wish they would have fixed the technical issues that messed up 311’s set, but that’s just me talking as a fanboy.

And to all, a good night.

Holy crap, this new 30 Seconds to Mars record is, like, so epic. And not epic in the way Tom Delonge thinks Angels & Airwaves is epic.

Let’s get one thing straight before you read the rest of this review: I fully acknowledge that 30 Seconds to Mars does NOT know how to tone things down. Singer/actor/guyliner-wearing focal point Jared Leto sure knows how to do the “breathy-vocals-exploding-into-a-powerful-yell” thing, as he’s done it that way for the majority of the band’s career. And yes, pretty much every song on This is War has a chorus of (what sounds like) children’s voices in the background swooning and echoing amidst all the percussion or chanting monk choirs (L490)  and, well, emotional, “epic”-sounding songs. 30STM just doesn’t know how strip things down and go simple…but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

30 Seconds to Mars is pompous. I’d say they’re in the same league as Muse and Angels & Airwaves as far as being self-important and having to make each and every song as epic and sprawling as possible. Yet somehow, someway, This is War impresses me the way Muse’s most recent album did not. (I know I gave that record a positive review, but it hasn’t held up as well through repeat listens).

I like this album, however, because everything sounds so big and fleshed out. There aren’t really any songs on This is War that are anything close to The Kill or I’ll Attack, from the band’s 2005 album A Beautiful Lie (the album that made the Hot Topic kids take notice). The only tunes on This is War that have that hard-rocking edge would be Night of the Hunter and the title track, which both have strong hooks and Leto crooning in varying pitches, using words like ‘messiah’ ‘war’, ‘we will fight to the death’ and so on. Just as the lyrics of Muse’s album were ridiculous and about some vague ‘uprising’, the songs on This is War are of the same lyrical themes, often having that silly choir accentuating Leto’s calls to action. I was corrected by a commenter that the choir is in fact a large group of the band’s fans, rather than a choir of children, for what it’s worth.

Yet the lyrics don’t bother me as much with this album as they did with Muse’s. Leto isn’t really saying anything substantial, and using a children’s choir doesn’t really help make things seem any more violent or irreverent (which would be characteristic of a war or uprising), but the music holds up well enough for me to overlook the nonsense. Every song has cool electronic percussion twinges and lush atmospheric arrangements. There are times I forget that the band has a guitarist, as everything gets thrown together and overwhelmed by the overall sound rather than a particular guitar riff.

I read an interview that stated that the band intended this record to sound more like their debut album than A Beautiful Lie, and I can see how that is the case. The shortest real song on This is War is 4:26 long, which means you have to really invest your time to listening to the whole record.

One of the disc’s highlights is Hurricane, which starts with a stirring piano melody. This is the song that was to have Kanye West do guest vocals, but for whatever reason (probably because everyone laughs at Kanye now??) the band cut his verse from the final version of the album. I prefer the version WITH Kanye instead, as he doesn’t overwhelm the song with his Auto-Tune robot voice, but whatever. You can find the Kanye version on YouTube or some other such site, if you’re interested to compare. The final version replaced Kanye with a vocal bridge by Leto, which works, but in my mind it was a more complete song with Kanye. Oh, and Brandon Flowers (ugh) of the Killers (double ugh) plays keyboard on this song. Despite all that, the song is a gem, and Leto does more passionate yell-screaming.

Another key track is Stranger in a Strange Land, which opens with some industrial sounding noises for a minute and a half, when Leto delivers the romantic line ‘Enemy of mine…I’ll fuck you like the devil’, which makes no sense but sounds creepy. The song plods on for a few minutes and has some of the coolest effects of any song on the album. It’s pretty effective in sounding like a Nine Inch Nails-inspired industrial techno jam.

This is War demonstrates that 30 Seconds to Mars is THE FARTHEST thing from an ‘organic’ band. Everything is syncopated beats, computer noises and studio effects, but they’re all done so well that it doesn’t matter. I’m not sure which songs on here will be big hit singles…the first single Kings and Queens is a fitting choice, but everything else is a bit more challenging than From Yesterday or The Kill. This album is also one that works as one piece of work much better than as individual songs.

Take a listen to This is War if you’re in the mood for something highly studio-effect-laden, melodic, and atmospheric. It’s not your average actor-turned musician album. It’s actually music, and it’s pretty good.