Anthony Benigno
METHOD MAN, GOSTFACE KILLAH, RAEKWON’S WU-MASSACRE
Def Jam Records
By Anthony Benigno
As hip-hop gets more and more ornery, there’s something refreshingly old-school about three of the greats working their magic over bare-bones beats. “Wu-Massacre” isn’t a proper Wu-Tang record, but it’s almost better that way; the Clan’s troubled ’07 album “8 Diagrams” faltered amongst reports of clashing egos, so having just Method [...]
DROPKICK MURPHYS’ LIVE ON LANSDOWNE, BOSTON, MA
Born & Bred Records
By Anthony Benigno
Like any punk band worth their salt, the Dropkick Murphys live are loud, rude, and crude, which makes for great mosh pit antics but has the unfortunate effect of drowning out their (well-constructed) music in sound and fury. So the most remarkable thing about their live record, “Live on Lansdowne, [...]
I’M WITH THE BAND…KIND OF: THE JOYS OF CULT BANDS
By Anthony Benigno
A couple of weeks ago I saw the Dropkick Murphys in New Jersey. It was my fifth time seeing them in three years, and despite a revamped setlist and an increasingly impressive set design, the experience remained basically the same: everyone in the place knew the words to every single song the boys [...]
GORILLAZ’S PLASTIC BEACH
PARLOPHONE RECORDS, VIRGIN RECORDS
By Anthony Benigno
Three albums into their career and a lot of people still aren’t sure what exactly Gorillaz are. They should just be the guys who wrote “Feel Good, Inc.”…but they’re cartoons and therefore can’t really write anything. It’s possible that they’re just Damon Albarn’s pipe dream-version of a side project, but [...]
ANGELS & AIRWAVES’ LOVE
By Anthony Benigno
Life after fart jokes has been a bit of a rough one for Tom DeLonge; his second band Angels & Airwaves launched in 2007 with lots of fanfare (DeLonge predicted they would change rock n’ roll forever) but mixed results. Despite a minor hit or two, the grandiose-sounding group never found the same [...]
GET YOUR IRISH ON: SONGS TO PARTY, DRINK, AND PASS OUT TO ON ST. PADDY’S DAY
By Anthony Benigno
What?! St. Paddy’s Day already happened? Crap. Well, in any case, here’s a handy guide to creating your 2011 St. Patrick’s soundtrack. I’m Italian you say? I have no reason/right to be writing this? Never you mind that. Just pour yourself a car bomb with your Lucky Charms, pop in the Boondock Saints DVD, [...]
LIL’ WAYNE
By Anthony Benigno
Two years ago, Lil Wayne’s cockamamie plan to make a rock album called Rebirth has raised a lot of eyebrows and a lot of questions. Does Wayne know the first thing about how to make a rock song? And even if he does, would it be any good? And even if it were, [...]
ROB ZOMBIE
By Anthony Benigno
Ready to shock-rock like it’s 1999? The late ‘90s are long gone, but Rob Zombie, one of the patron saints of horror metal, is still hard at work pumping out kitschy, thumping arena-shakers with titles like “Werewolf, Baby!” and “Mars Needs Women.”
As if to illustrate his point, he’s named his latest record Hellbilly [...]
Bruce Springsteen is My Man Crush
So you meet someone new at a bar, let’s say it’s a girl. You hit it off, share a few drinks, and the night is going well. Eventually, the conversation lulls, the drinks are half-empty and you hit that old standby question, “What kind of music do you listen to?”
For me, the answer is usually [...]
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