The News Review:
- Franz Ferdinand’s new album isn’t up to par
- Boston country-punk band spreads its tough-guy love around the globe
- Back to the soul of Chicago this weekend at Yacht Club
- What’s the best part about having a music column?
- Burning ambition: Teen punk wannabes Friendly Fires now heading …
Franz Ferdinand’s new album isn’t up to par
Daily 49er CA
Franz Ferdinand just cannot rock as hard as the other disco-punk bands anymore. They certainly were not able make a smooth transition to electronics as the post-punk band Bloc Party did with their blazing fast electronic-laden third album "Intimacy. " Bloc Party and Arctic Monkeys quickly became the future of disco-punk music with their latest albums while Franz Ferdinand sat on their hands. Franz Ferdinand should have stuck to their instincts and played lovely acoustic songs and slamming dance songs but they didn’t. This is a mediocre effort from what used to be a great disco-rock band. If anything people should pay attention to better bands such as the Arctic Monkeys or Bloc Party. function clearField(el) {if (el.
Boston country-punk band spreads its tough-guy love around the globe
Boston Globe United States
Those gigs two of the nearly 100 the band played in 2008 came about the way most things have for the group: by knocking on a lot of doors. “Basically put your name on the Internet and people will find you” says Byrnes who nonetheless was surprised by the call from the Pentagon offering the Soto Cano gig. “I definitely thought ‘What the hell did I do wrong?’ “Tomorrow night the band which has won a clutch of accolades including three Boston Music Awards during its 10-year career will be back on much more familiar ground at Rodfest 7 at the Paradise. It will be the ninth time Three Day Threshold has headlined the big room three of them for this memorial benefit for Byrnes’s cousin Greg “Rodney” Moynahan who passed away in 2004. This year the first recipient of a scholarship to Stonehill College in Moynahan’s name will be announced. Also on the bill are Rodfest regulars Girls Guns and Glory a country act whose members like many young roots-oriented bands in Boston view the guys in Three Day Threshold especially Byrnes as role models. “When we first came to the city we literally didn’t even know how to get going” says Girls singer Ward Hayden who played with Moynahan in a Scituate high school band.
Back to the soul of Chicago this weekend at Yacht Club
UI The Daily Iowan IA
Bringing dancing shoes won’t be a bad idea either. The experimental sound created by fusing soul and punk music may be risky but even the untrained ear will notice that Brooks and the Sound is on to something. Brooks’ powerfully smooth voice sprays out over tight and twangy guitar riffs on the track “Baltimore is the New Brooklyn” but the band can also tone it down in pace creating a sound similar to its Chicago forefathers on “Hold You Back. “”I love Radiohead just as much as the next guy” Bungeroth said. “But I have always wanted to groove at shows so we wanted a sound that people could dance to as opposed to just standing with their arms folded. “The band’s sound is not the band’s only unique aspect – seeing the group perform on the web is like watching a video from the 1970s.
Related from Talloonne: Mystery deepens over missing yachtsman
What’s the best part about having a music column?
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Another fallen musician being honored this week is John Spalding. Spalding a local died of cancer last year and there has been a flurry of shows held in his honor. n Saturday Bremerton punks MxPx headline a benefit for Spalding at El Corazon with Amber Pacific n the Last Day and Angel Ibarra from Aiden (7 p. Proceeds from the show go to the John D. Spalding Medical Fund which was set up to help Spalding’s family pay for cancer treatment bills.
Burning ambition: Teen punk wannabes Friendly Fires now heading …
Mirror.co.uk UK
The St Albans trio fronted by singer Ed MacFarlane first bonded over a mutual love of US punk a decade ago. “There wasn’t a helluva lot to do” recalls Ed 24 “so we started the band out of pure childish excitement really. It was 10 years of jamming playing lots of cheesy punk music like Green Day. That’s because when we were 14 we probably weren’t very cool. We hadn’t heard Talking Heads back then!“The older we got we started exploring different more interesting music. At 16 we went into a massive Mogwai phase listening to nothing but them and post-rock. Then we got into electronica and lots of stuff on the Warp label.