Q101 The Alternative
Q101 (formerly on Chicago radio @ 101.1 FM) The Alternative - Chicago's New Rock Alternative - Everything Alternative - Chicago's Alternative - Gen X - Generation X
EVERY TIME I DIE – EX LIVES (March, 6, 2012) 8.5/10
Rock is dead.
Okay, maybe not entirely, but let’s be serious – mainstream, popular music does NOT lean towards hard rock anymore. We live in a world of bleeps & bloops (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but rock somehow became a niche. Alternative radio got the boot in several major cities last year, the Grammys were as pop-driven as ever – and MTV doesn’t even pretend to acknowledge anything outside of the top 20.
But then there’s Every Time I Die. For the uninitiated, the Buffalo-based band has been releasing an anti-establishment, anti-mainstream blend of hard rock, metal, southern-tinged math-blues for almost 15 years now. They’ve encapsulated a sort of “post” sound to everything they’ve touched, comfortably fitting into many genres while defying almost all of them. Formed in the late nineties, ETID has perfected riffy guitars behind intelligent, deeply sardonic lyrics. During the early-naughts, it was easy to lose them in the veritable sea of metalcore.
But not now. For a year rumored to be our last, this album sounds like the “looming apocalypse” everyone’s talking about. The “descriptor-core” trend is long dead. That’s why “Ex Lives” shines.
Dropping majority of the “party” aesthetic to their music (you know, what sounds like Jack Daniels, flannel shirts & trashed hotel rooms) and adding much more visceral anger to this record turned me off the first minute I listened. Then, I understood. It’s a strange time to be alive. The war, an economic cluster-fuck, extremely polarized political spectrums – there’s much to be miffed at. We’re not living in a party anymore – things are tense. We’re all tense. This record is tense. It all makes tense-sense.
No one is making music like this anymore – sure, there’s plenty of bands playing a similar genre, but nothing is quite as honest as this. The lyrics alone (sung by dry-throated lead singer / former English teacher Keith Buckley) are crafty beyond just pun-play. He’s stylized pessimism by being cynical without condescending. Although his unique style has graced all of their previous 5 efforts, it’s never seemed so immediate and appropriate. Alternating between angered barking and an instantly recognizable singing voice, there’s real substance to these words – and they’ll scare the hell out of you.
Behind the vocals, bandmates Jordan Buckley (guitar), Andy Williams (guitar) & newcomer Ryan Leger (replacing Mike Novak on drums) deliver mile-a-minute spectrum riffing, covering sounds that range from almost-death-metal (“Holy Book of Dilemma”) to the use of a banjo (“Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow”) and even wandering down Danzig lane (“Revival Mode”). These songs are reminiscent of their early days, but I disagree with the notion that it’s a ‘return’ to sound for them. These songs are much more self-aware than their early work.
Without knowing their previous releases, these songs can’t be as realized as they could be. In other words, I wouldn’t start a first-time listener here. ETID has always been a bit tongue-in-cheek, but you can’t point out their overarching sarcasm on this album alone without hearing them have a little fun first. In my opinion, they started to really know who they were as a band on 2005′s “Gutter Phenomenon”.
While “Ex Lives” definitely doesn’t have an easy single like “The New Black” or “We’rewolf”, you get the sense they’re still having fun – they’re just not making it so clear this time around. “Ex Lives” takes you on a tour of their entire career while introducing a new, more poignant message: “This is what America sounds like in a bad fucking mood”.
Every Time I Die is on tour now, including: March 04 @ ACM UCO PERFORMANCE LAB, Oklahoma City, OK March 05 @ NEWBYS, Memphis, TN March 06 @ ALABAMA MUSIC BOX, Mobile, AL March 07 @ THE VALARIUM, Knoxville, TN March 08 @ V CLUB LIVE, Huntington, WV March 09 @ THE CASTLE THEATER, Bloomington, IL March 10 @ THE INTERSECTION, Grand Rapids, MI (Which I will be attending & reviewing here on Q101.com)
- Kyle
Chicago natives and rock superstars Madina Lake rocked Mojoes of Joliet this past Friday. Madina Lake, who is currently on the Wake Up! tour with Me Talk Pretty, delivered a solid-ass show according to eyewitness accounts. What? Don’t believe us? Q101′s pals snuck in some HD Cams to capture some of the sights and sounds of one of Chicago’s brightest bands. See for yourself:
Q101′s friends at www.HaveYouSceneUs.com also sat down with the night’s headliners, Me Talk Pretty , as well as supporting act Still Standing. Both interviews will be posted soon on their site. Head over to HaveYouSceneUs to check out the full story and review of the event. Thanks for the footage guys!
Hubert Sumlin was a blues guitarist with Chicago roots, that helped give Howlin’ Wolf his “Wang Dang Doodle”, and set the bar for a lot of musicians that you see and hear today. Passing from heart failure on December 4th, the waves of his death were felt as far as England.
Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1931, and then moved to and raised in Hughes, Arkansas, Sumlin taught himself guitar. When the 1950’s came around, he came to Chicago, and came across a man named Howlin’ Wolf, and began a collaboration of music that shaped many artists, and genres that you hear today.
Even with music that made people stand up and pay attention, there were still issues. Once, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Hubert came to a show after it was already over. Getting in the car as if nothing happened, Wolf and Sumlin got into a tussle, resulting in Wolf tossing Sumlin down a hill, with Sumlin losing 2 of his front teeth. So is the nature of the beast. But, payback was in the forecast for Hubert’s lost teeth.
A Chicago blues club, named Silvios is where it happened, hitting Wolf square in the mouth, knocking some of his teeth out. After what Sumlin said was “feeling really bad about it”, an apology was made, and they both went back to what they did best, and that was music. Sumlin shaped the desires and styles of a lot of musicians, including Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, both of them throwing their hat in the ring to be part of Sumlin’s grammy-nominated 2005 album “About Them Shoes”.
When word came of his passing on December 4th, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones came forward to pay for Hubert Sumlin’s funeral services. December 12th was a public service at Festa Memorial Funeral Home in Totowa, New Jersey. A private service was held on December 13th in Homewood, IL. It was not specified what part, or if all of Sumlin’s services were paid for by Jagger and Richards, but it’s great to think they were only a “stone’s throw” from Q101 fans.
Hubert Sumlin was an amazing man with a guitar in his hands. His skill and style has been adapted and looked up to by many. It’s always a tragedy when we lose someone bearing this importance on the world of music, but you can learn more about his legacy, and spread the word by going Here, and Here
The partnership between these 3 tech giants: Google, Samsung, and Verizon Wireless has produced a much anticipated and high-powered device: The Samsung Galaxy Nexus. A powerhouse mobile device, exclusively on Verizon’s 4G LTE network, which is available in 190 United States markets, and covers 200 million people (claimed).
This phone comes out of the box ready to do almost everything except wash your car and help you travel through time. The operating system, care of Google, is Android 4.0, also known as “Ice Cream Sandwich”, as all of Androids operating systems have quaint food-related nicknames. 4.0 brings the Galaxy Nexus a complete overhaul to the look and feel of Android, touting a new UI (user interface), a better multi-tasking capability, and HTML5 total web experience.
Note – this phone is one of the devices that are part of the brutal patent battle between Samsung and Apple. To see more about the battle you can go here.
The Nexus holds a very impressive spec sheet, one that could give some of the low-end PCs and laptops a run for the money. A 1.2 GHz dual core processor with 1 GB of ram, and 32 GB of internal storage. A 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, and rear camera of 5 megapixels, with panoramic shot capabilities, no shutter lag for those quick, off the cuff photos of your cat flying through the air after a laser pointer, or a good prank shot of your buddy taking a dump. A small suite of built-in photo editing effects guarantee you can give grandma a biker beard just in time for holiday photos.
Bluetooth 3.0 for clear sound and talking on wireless headsets, speakers, and PC communication, the ability to become a mobile hotspot, which when signed up for the service through the provider, will allow you to tether up to 10 Wi-Fi devices. (Man, she really can take a lot at once, can’t she?). 9.47 mm thin, with a 4.65 in Super Amoled HD screen, giving you one the biggest screen on the market for typing, taking photos, or viewing and recording videos.
A very interesting, and new feature being discussed with this device, is facial recognition software that utilizes the phone’s camera to lock/unlock your phone. Along with Android Beam, which is what you can use to share videos, apps, contact info, etc. just by literally tapping the two compatible phones together. Google Music and Google Cloud play a big part in the Galaxy Nexus, too, letting you choose the data that’s stored on your phone to sync with your cloud, along with using Google Music to be able to save up to 20,000 songs to the cloud.
Are you excited? Are you Sweaty, or maybe a little tight in the pants? Before you jump in your’ 91 Toyota, or charge your Segway, these are the rules that Verizon will impose on you:
The phone is available for $299.99 with a 2 year contract or upgrade, and you will have to have a voice plan higher than $39.99 a month, along with a minimum of their 2GB data plan. If you think that’s a raw deal, you can always stream your Netflix account, and furry porn on your home Wi-Fi connection.
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