Sean McCarthy – Page 2 – The Daily Vault

24 Dec

2007, You Had A Lot To Live Up To…

Sean McCarthyBest Of

Starting at 1967, rock music has had an amazing year when the year ends with ‘7.’ Look at the track record: 1967: The Beatles’ Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Velvet Underground’s Velvet Underground and Nico, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced?, Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn. 1977: The year punk broke -- The Clash’s self-titled, Talking Heads’ Talking Heads: 77, Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True, Telveision’s Marquee Moon, The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. 1987: U2’s The Joshua Tree, Prince’s Sign ‘O’ The Times, Bruce Springsteen’s…

30 May

The Great Chicago (Arcade) Fire

Sean McCarthyFeature

In three scant years, The Arcade Fire has gone from playing in bars to headlining music festivals and selling out venues like The Chicago Theatre in a matter of minutes. They are the band of the moment, drawing celebrity sightings at their shows (murmurs of Tim Robbins and Vince Vaughn sightings were heard from some of the crowdgoers for the Friday show). Opening for The Arcade Fire was St. Vincent, led by singer/songwriter Annie Clark. Appearing solo onstage for a few songs, Clark performed with a blues-heavy swagger. Sadly, as her supporting band came out, St. Vincent’s sound became more one-dimensional…

13 Jan

Ten Years Gone

Sean McCarthyEssay

Thanks to the Internet (and a few hours of boredom), I stumbled across The Daily Vault in 1997. I put in a request to review Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville and founder and then-editor Christopher Thelen obliged. The Daily Vault prides itself on a quick response to reader requests as well as the massive variety of the reviews. It wasn't always this way -- then, it was one classic album per day, but now it's evolved into covering all genres, all ratings, all eras.As The Daily Vault turns 10, it’s natural to reminisce about how much has changed. After all,…

30 Dec

2006: The Year Of…?

Sean McCarthyBest Of

Ghostface Killah proved that rap is not exclusively a young players' game. The weirder Tom Waits gets, the more popular he becomes. And Cee-Lo, a person whose career was as commercially dead as K-Fed (but for all the wrong reasons), is now set for a long time with “Crazy,” perhaps the only shoo-in for “Top Ten Songs of the Decade” in a year that saw virtually no shoo-ins for “Best Albums of the Decade” – even though there was a ton of great stuff out there. Bob Dylan achieved “instant classic” status again with Modern Times, though some fans began…

12 Jul

2005: A Year In Review

Sean McCarthyBest Ofbest_05-sm

Well, we have crossed the halfway point of this decade. Usually, the middle of a decade comes around the same time popular music experiences an identity crisis. In the '70s, it was nearing the end of Led Zeppelin's reign and punk and disco were emerging from the underground. 1985 wasn't a particularly good year for music, as I can remember. And in 1995, we saw grunge die and alternative/college rock beginning to give way to stuff like Hootie and the Blowfish and, eventually, boy bands. But for 2005, we really didn't see any genre 'die.' The popular indie bands of…

14 Jun

A Springsteen-Seeger Shindig

Sean McCarthyFeaturebruce-seeger

In one of the better moments of a Family Guy episode, two rednecks started debating whether a spirited concert was a hoedown or a hootenanny. The argument eventually led to thrown fists. While I didn't see any fist throwing at Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band's performance at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines the other night, I was sizing up whether a hoedown or a hootenanny was breaking out. Like most shows of this summer tour, the environment is being kept intimate -- the upper levels of the arena were quartered off, even though they could have…

03 Jun

A Green Day At The Qwest Center

Sean McCarthyFeature

Midway through opening act My Chemical Romance's set, lead singer Gerard Way asked the audience to scream or raise their hands if this show was their first concert. A large number of kids screamed, my 14-year-old nephew among them. Way asked all first-time concertgoers to thank their uncles, fathers, mothers, big brothers and big sisters for being such cool (expletive withheld). I didn't consider myself to be that cool -- I just wanted my nephew to experience the performance of one of his favorite albums live, and loud. For first-time concertgoers, Green Day rolled out almost every tired concert cliché…

27 Jun

Wilco & The Roots Rendezvous At Red Rocks

Sean McCarthyFeature

The pairing sounded mismatched and totally perfect at the same time -- The Roots and Wilco. One represents a glowing beacon for hip-hop; one represents a glowing beacon for alt-country. Both are known for their live shows and their willingness to turn a simple song into an extended jam session. Each band reached headline status about five years ago. The prospect of seeing Wilco live almost made me throw down the cash to see them at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The inclusion of the Roots made the show one of those shows that you had to see, regardless of the funds,…

27 Jun

Neko Case Goes Underground

Sean McCarthyFeature

The cool basement of Sokol auditorium in Omaha -- known as the Underground -- was a haven from the wall of humidity that had settled in for the past week. My roommate let out a few sneezes on the way to the show "12 hours into my f*$&ing 24-hour Claritin." Both he and my co-concertgoer grumbled about the 9 p.m. show (with all due credit, all of us had to work early). Still, Neko Case is one artist that you gladly sacrifice sleep for - without question. The crowd initially was made up of a lot of aging hippies and…

06 Dec

2004: A Year In Review

Sean McCarthyBest Of

This10. Maroon 5 -- Songs about JaneGee, the first album and I'm already off to a bad start. Technically Songs About Jane came out in 2003, but this year led to the band being recognized. It's a great, funky pop album with a bit of an edge to it. I have high expectations for their next CD. 9. Elton John -- Peachtree RoadThis is an indulgence on my part. Elton John is one of my favorite artists, so I was naturally delighted when I heard Peachtree was going to be a country/gospel/rock type album reminiscent of his early 70's work.…