Blog Post

13 Sep

A Live Concert Triptych

Melanie LoveFeature
From June to August, instead of traveling or working or just being productive in general, I’ve been trying to jam as many concerts as I can into the spare time I have before being forced back into SAT prep and the perils of U.S. history and trigonometry. And so, I’ve braved pot smoke (seriously, what is it about concerts that equals being blazed anyway?) and rampaging crowds and some, let’s just say, interesting opening bands just to bring you a few of the best acts from the past couple of months.Keane – Henry Fonda Theater – June 21st, 2006 I…
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05 Sep

Moving In Stereo

Darren PaltrowitzMoving in Stereo
Since Moving In Stereo: Volume 28 hit browsers, shelves, and tables around the world, a lot of worthwhile and attention-worthy releases have reached the office CD player, including: ·  Matt Kurz One If You Can't Join 'Em, Beat 'Em -- http://www.quoteunquoterecords.com/ ·  Soul Asylum The Silver Lining -- http://www.soulasylum.com/·  The Hush Sound Like Vines -- http://www.thehushsound.com/ ·  Paul Gilbert Get Out Of My Yard -- http://www.paulgilbert.com/·  DragonForce Inhuman Rampage -- http://www.dragonforce.com/ …From The StageFresh off of his stint as a morning talk show host in New York, David Lee Roth returned to the road with a gig at Manhattan’s Nokia Theatre.  Playing in support of…
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04 Sep

Hip-Hop Retrospective

Shane M. LieblerAnnouncement
 Hip-hop has come quite a ways since the days of sampling “Funky Drummer” and rockin’ Adidas shoes. The styles are as varied as the record crates they come from: Brooklyn, Queens, Detroit, Atlanta, L.A. We at the Vault are not the experts, so it’s a good thing the voices of these exceptional artists and entertainers speak for themselves. It is, after all, music of recognition, self-expression and cultural identity. And it's the genre we have chosen to honor this September (2006).For nearly three decades, hip-hop has seeped its way into American culture, and for those who don't consider it as…
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15 Aug

Chris Cubeta: The Interview

dvadminFeature
 The struggle in finding adjectives to describe Chris Cubeta's talent involves balancing obvious choices like "exceptional" and "brilliant" with the desire not to put too much on the shoulders of a guy who is just beginning to find his audience.  Composer of heartfelt, sharp-eyed roots-rock songs that somehow also retain a dreamlike universality, he is the author with his good friend Danny Lanzetta of two CDs’ worth of absolutely terrific music, 2003’s Sugar Sky and more recently the July 2006 release Faithful.  An admirer of artists like Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams, Cubeta keeps it real in his lyrics, his music and his interviews.  Our discussion…
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12 Jul

2005: A Year In Review

Sean McCarthyBest Of
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…
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12 Jul

Cream Of The Crop And Cream Of The Slop 2005

Chris HarlowBest Of
2005 was the year of the unexpected. Generally speaking, it was the new artists I discovered and found myself listening to that genuinely impressed me, while some of the old guard are finding themselves perilously close to being replaced. Nevertheless, these tales contribute to what is known as the magical world of rock. The top five releases of 2005, in my opinion, were:   5. Backyard Babies -- Live Live in Paris By reinventing the overproduced studio hits from the Backyard Babies two previous albums into a sound more signature and representative of them, the BMG label gives true meaning…
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04 Jul

My Argument With Lester Bangs

dvadminEssay
This writing-about-music business has ushered all sorts of intriguing new experiences into my life over the past eight years. One that I'm hoping not to make a habit of, though, is the most recent -- picking a fight in my head with the fictionalized version of a real dead person. In Cameron Crowe's autobiographical movie Almost Famous, noted '70s music writer Lester Bangs warns fifteen-year-old Crowe doppelganger William Miller that "you CANNOT make friends with the rock stars!" Bangs' warning is based on his firm belief that making friends with the musicians will corrupt a writer's objectivity and make it…
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23 Jun

Poison in the Water

Paul HansonFeature
Poison returned to Des Moines, Iowa, to headline the Lazer 103.3 Water Stock Rock Show on Saturday, June 17. For the 2006 version of the all-day event, a buffet for hard rock music fans was laid out. The doors on Saturday opened at 10 a.m., the music began an hour later and didn't let up until Poison's Bret Michaels said goodnight to the crowd shortly after 11 p.m.It was the fourth night into the band's 20-year anniversary tour and it started off in perfect fashion with the title track from their debut, Look What the Cat Dragged In. The crowd…
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14 Jun

A Springsteen-Seeger Shindig

Sean McCarthyFeature
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…
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08 Jun

Why The Eagles Suck

The DV StaffEssay
This one comes with some caveats.We at the DV try not to be needlessly negative. In general, music is a glorious thing, and in general, its creators deserve respect. Unless, that is, they prove themselves unworthy of it.Surprisingly -- after all, we've got more than our share of classic rock aficionados on the staff -- we discovered quite by accident recently that a large percentage of DV writers have harsh feelings about the Eagles, that superstar disbanded-and-reformed musical juggernaut that produced one of the seminal albums of the '70s, not to mention the best-selling greatest hits album of all time.…
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