For five years now, the Mars Volta has colored the alternative rock scene with their hardcore-prog-jazz hybrid. They’ve represented the point where hippies, metalheads and avant-garde fans could meet in…
Taylor Long
104 Articles
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
A Joanna Newsom album has never sounded as good as she did when she played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last Thursday. Even the most middling of fans, the…
Jeff Vrabel
1 Min Read
We’ve been having a lot of fun here at Songs for the Dumped, but let us not forget that these are stories of heartache, woe, ache and heartwoe, and that…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Among the many reasons why I love Two Gallants, one of the most prominent is the way their songs feel alive, as if they posses minds of their own. Guitarist/vocalist…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Coming into their first full-length, Vampire Weekend are in the precarious position of having a reputation that precedes them. Before their self-titled debut can be properly digested and enjoyed, let’s…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) makes two ballsy moves with her new album, Jukebox, largely considered her second covers album, though it contains two originals. She leads off with the…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Dear Chris Walla, As a longtime Death Cab for Cutie fan, I was pretty excited to hear about your solo album. By “longtime fan,” I mean longtime fan. We’re talking…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
If there’s one major aspect of the rise of hipster irony (the only rule of which seems to be, basically, “so bad/ridiculous/awkward it’s good”) that I appreciate, it’s what it’s…
Taylor Long
2 Min Read
Quirk is a risky thing to play with. If it’s not done in the right way or if it’s taken too far, it can seem insincere, gimmicky, or severely limit…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Not since the Riot Grrl movement has there likely been a better time for alternative female singer-songwriters. With the likes of Feist, M.I.A., Lily Allen, and (on a smaller scale…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
The two biggest criticisms that Black Mountain’s In the Future is likely to receive are the following: 1. STONERS 2. They’re not doing anything “new” These points do hold weight….
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
There’s something so beautifully painful about “Gonna Take a Miracle.” In a way, she sounds almost happy about the hurt that her lover’s leaving has caused her. It’s a jubilant,…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
At first, Finian McKean’s Monsters of the Deep Woods seems deceptively simple, with its sparse acoustics and oblique lyrics. Each successive listen, though, reveals a new layer of meaning and…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, rapper Lupe Fiasco mixes sentimentality with harsh attacks on the hand that feeds him in his sophomore effort, The Cool. He attempts to do…
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