SOUND BITES

Being a fan of The Trews hasn't always been easy. Sure, there have been great triumphs over the course of the Toronto by way of Antigonish crew's career; they've racked up hits on all four of their previous albums, but haven't crafted a really good album since 2005's Den of Thieves (in this guy's opinion, at least). Follow up No Time For Later may have spawned a couple of great singles, but marked a stylistic step down overall. Hope And Ruin , despite its stellar title track, tended to plod dangerously close to Nickelbackian waters in terms of musical and lyrical simplicity. In their attempts to dumb it down and appeal to a wider audience, they started seeing the opposite effect as average Joes remained indifferent and diehards lamented diminishing returns. Of course, The Trews are better than this, and they went about the process of making things right with Thank You And I'm Sorry , a 2012 EP that saw them loosen up and concentrate on what brought them

Of all the bands who achieved massive success in the '90s, few are quite as forgotten as Live. Sure, there are plenty who loudly voice their dislike for Creed, Limp Bizkit, Bush, etc., but where those bands have forged legacies of eye rolling and "I can't believe I bought their records", Live seems to have just faded out of public consciousness, with very few vocal supporters or detractors remaining. It's kind of a shame, but it's also kind of their own fault; in the wake of Throwing Copper 's success, their studio output took "diminishing returns" to a whole new level. Eventually, all but the diehards wrote them off; when they parted ways with singer Ed Kowalczyk and started down the ugly path of legal proceedings, it seemed they'd even written themselves off. These days, Kowalczyk is still trying to make a go of his solo career, while the rest of the band is trying to make a go of Live with a new singer. It's really rather ugly a

Over the course of nearly twenty years and eleven studio albums, Eels (aka Mark Oliver Everett) has forged a fairly comfortable career; he's done this by crafting interesting songs that inhabit varying moods and feelings, and while playing a wide array of characters. His songs have told the stories of an impressive cast; loveable losers, dog faced boys, grieving sons, bus stop boxers and star-crossed lovers have all gotten their odes, and there's a little bit of Everett in all of them. With Eels' eleventh album, the stories cut closer to home; Everett puts his name on this one, and the songs play out more as personal reflections than semi-fictionalized embellishments. This is also a bit of a retreat from the bright-side leanings of the last couple of Eels records. Whereas Wonderful, Glorious went for blasts of sunshine, this album returns to the bleaker sounds that paint most of Everett's discography. Pleasingly, as bleak as it is, Cautionary Tales does benefit fr

There's nothing wrong with sticking by a signature sound; if you think there are no dividends to be paid from stubbornly staying in place to avoid fan backlash, just ask AC/DC and Slayer what their take is on the subject. That said, Zakk Wylde's long standing main gig doesn't simply crank out carbon copies of the same album; Wylde's tastes are varied enough that Black Label Society has been able to offer up consistently entertaining studio efforts with minimal slippage save for, arguably, 2006's sort of weak Shot To Hell . Perhaps a result of endless touring and releasing seven studio albums during a stretch of seven years, Shot To Hell sounded subdued and tired, and fans responded to it lukewarmly. Wisely, Wylde let his next album gestate, resulting in 2010's Order Of The Black ; the four year wait seemed to do the trick, and the album was a thorough return to form. Another four years have passed between that album and Catacombs Of The Black Vatican (not

I first reported on Royal Blood way back on January 10 upon my first encounter with their energetic, bombastic debut single Out Of The Black . Now, with the buzz machine humming behind them (along with glowing support from no less than Arctic Monkeys), they're already on the fast track in their native United Kingdom. Word is starting to get around in North America, which is where the Out Of The Black EP comes in (it's only available in EP form here). While four songs isn't necessarily a good enough sample size to base a band on, the four songs on this EP are certainly good enough to drum up interest. Admittedly, the fifteen minutes you get from Royal Blood isn't exactly a cornucopia of ideas; it's all pretty much slight variations on sludgy blues rock. Plus, they do share a certain amount of musical DNA with The White Stripes and The Black Keys, although I suspect a lot of lazy journalists base most of these comparisons on the fact that they're a duo. What se

When you think of Hole's sophomore album (and first on a major label), there are two common memories that come up time and time again, both tragic in their own way. Of course, the proverbial cloud that hangs over Live Through This is the proximity of its release to the death of Kurt Cobain. As his wife, Hole bandleader Courtney Love was the first person you thought of when associating the loss of Cobain with grief stricken friends and family. As such, many people turned to this album for possible clues, a lyric that could unlock understanding for scores of distraught fans looking for answers as to why Cobain would kill himself. There aren't any answers to be found on Live Through This (and why would there be?), but that didn't slow curiosity. The second tragedy surrounding this album is the adamant belief of some that Cobain actually co-wrote the songs on the album. I don't see that many similarities between Nirvana and Hole; any parallels you can find are easi

There have been a lot of articles over the past 48-72 hours about Kurt Cobain; more specifically, articles about how, at about this time twenty years ago, he left this mortal coil. I remember hearing about the sad news of his passing via a MuchMusic special report; the footage of paramedics and crying fans stuck with me, and I can still recall that moment rather vividly. A lot of people point to that moment as "the death of grunge". It's not an easy point to argue against, since there aren't a lot of watershed quote-unquote "grunge" albums from the era that came out after Cobain's death (though, there are definitely some). The truth is, this movement had already reached its zenith; the Seattle scene had so thoroughly infiltrated the mainstream by 1994 that many people were sick of it, already looking for the next trend.

It's easy to diminish the impact that The Offspring's third album had on rock, just as it's easy to forget what a great story they used to be as a band. In the two decades since Smash dropped, they haven't exactly built a legacy of integrity; nowadays seen more as a novelty act than simply a good band that doesn't take themselves too seriously, they manage to underwhelm with every comeback attempt they make no matter how much I root for them. However, in 1994, it seemed everyone rooted for The Offspring. An inspiring tale of grassroots success, Smash was a really good album by The Little Band That Could; signed to (at the time) up-and-coming punk imprint Epitaph, it was a minor coup to see the video for Come Out And Play shown on TV. It's also easy to forget how fresh sounding this was twenty years ago. On Smash , The Offspring melded together punk, surf rock and alt rock into something much bigger. Rather than cater to just the punks, stoners or mall

"Are you up for anything?" is the question Pete Loeffler asks in the opening seconds of La Gárgola ; unfortunately your response is moot because, by the time he asks, the band is already off and running, revving up the old chug-a-chug engine and blasting from the gate with a velocity not often heard on a Chevelle record. It's a jarring, surprising turn from a band previously criticized for being not much more than a Deftones/Tool tribute band. While they've been content to put up with such unnecessary attacks in the past, on this record they're on the offensive early and often. Tempos are up, and the songs are barbarically heavy. Part of this is thanks to the production of "Evil" Joe Barresi, who also helmed 2011's surprisingly spry Hats Off To The Bull ; part of it is due to spirited performances by the group. There is a glaringly detrimental side effect to the increased focus on heaviness, and that's the sound quality. I don't want to sou