The Daily Vault – Page 11

09 Oct

Tom Petty: Making Magic

dvadminEssay

It’s a mark of respect, this business of obsessively listening to our musical idols’ songs in the days after they pass, but also a ritual of mourning. We listen to remember—mourning the artist through their creations—but also to remind ourselves of the inescapable march of time—mourning not just the loss of the artist’s voice, but of the years that have brought us, too, that many steps closer to the great beyond.Tom Petty was a dozen years older than me, but the gap never seemed wide, maybe because I have a brother born the same year as TP (1950), but also…

18 Sep

Measuring The Weight Of Sound

dvadminFeature

People write stories for a lot of reasons: to share an idea they think is important with the world; to explore places they’ve never been but always imagined going; to interpret their own experiences in a way that both disguises and closely examines the most wrenching, difficult parts of them. (Never underestimate the therapeutic power of taking control over something happening in your own life by writing about it.) But another reason people write stories is more prosaic, even selfish: because we want to create more of the kind of stories we most enjoy reading. The latter was one of…

30 Aug

Getting To Yes: Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman Live

dvadminFeature

Ah, the curse of high expectations. On Monday night I saw a very good band play a diverse set-list, delivering enthusiastic and well-received performances at an attractive venue. A good time appeared to be had by audience and performers alike. It should be that simple, shouldn’t it? But as with nearly anything connected to the almost 50-year-old progressive rock band Yes, the truth is more complicated. The complications begin with the fact that there are currently two bands calling themselves Yes on tour: the official Yes led by longtime guitarist Steve Howe and longtime drummer Alan White, and this upstart…

25 Aug

Say Hello To Heaven

Pete CriglerEssay

When Chris Cornell, legendary singer of Soundgarden, took his own life after a sold-out show in Detroit, MI in May, the music world was stunned. Nobody saw this coming. Some of the signs were there—a shambling performance and slurred speech—but no one expected anything like this. Then, nine weeks later, a week before the start of a North American tour, Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington hung himself in a home he had just purchased a month or so prior. Friends say he’d been drinking again, something he’d struggled with for years, and he was said to have been deeply upset…

01 May

Pete Mancini of Butchers Blind: The Daily Vault Interview

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The word that comes up again and again both when talking about and when talking with Pete Mancini is craft. Mancini’s work as a singer-songwriter is all about craft, whether within the context of indie-rock/Americana quartet Butchers Blind or on his newest venture, a debut solo album that leans more to the country-folk side of the broad Americana equation. Mancini himself prefers to describe the music he makes in both contexts as “American music”—a rich mélange of blues, country, folk and the bastard child the three produced together: rock and roll (thank you, Chuck Berry).Mancini applies his considerable craft to…

02 Apr

The Lemmy & Zimmy Show

dvadminAnnouncement

One rose out of New York City’s Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene after relocating from his Minnesota roots. The other cut his teeth playing Manchester rock clubs at the height of Beatlemania and was briefly a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. One wrote lyrically dense and ambitious songs that became American standards like “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Blowin’ In The Wind,” and “Chimes Of Freedom.” The other wrote “Go To Hell,” “Eat The Rich,” and “Orgasmatron.” One toured until he literally couldn’t stand up at the mike any more, and soon passed away; the other is alive and well…

14 Mar

The Ten Commandments of Pitching the Daily Vault

dvadminEssay

In an average week, publicists, labels, and artists send about 800 pitches to the Daily Vault—and we publish somewhere between five and ten reviews. Let those numbers sink in for a minute. The weekly dive into the pitch pile is an exercise in ruthless culling. There is no spite or malice involved; it’s just basic survival for a site that’s lightly staffed and all-volunteer. Naturally, over the years we’ve identified some patterns and rules observed by successful pitches—which is to say, pitches that make it through the culling process and are referred to the writing staff. There is a limited…

13 Jan

Reflections On Writing For The Daily Vault

Michael BroylesFeature

As I walked on with a heavy heartThen a stone danced on the tideAnd the song went onThough the lights were goneAnd the North wind gently sighed --The Pogues, “Lullaby Of London,” written by Shane MacGowan Out of all the reviews I wrote for the Daily Vault, my favorite was my last one: La Roux’s self-titled album. It contained, of course, the shortcomings and failures evident in all my writing at the time, and the album deserved a much higher grade than I gave it. But, to my surprise some time later, it expressed a premonition of sorts for my…

13 Jan

Here’s To Another 20!

Mark KadzielawaFeature

To me, the Daily Vault was another window that allowed me to be creative. I was able to share my passion for the bands and records I was writing about. Also, it gave me an opportunity to write about bands that I couldn't write about in any other publication. Where other publications were restricted to a certain style, the Daily Vault was wide open to any musical type and trend. Being a music lover, I found it very fitting. I completely admire the people behind the Daily Vault for their perseverance and belief. Two decades of music reviews – that's very…

13 Jan

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

Christopher ThelenFeature

Have you ever left a job that you really liked, and occasionally gone back to where you worked? Chances are, you felt a mixture of happiness to be back, sadness that you're no longer part of it, and confusion as to why you left in the first place. Every time I type in the URL of this little website that I founded and launched 20 years ago, I have some of those feelings myself. Over a decade ago, when I was married and my twins were babies, I made the decision that I had to refocus my time towards my…