Could it get any worse for Philadelphia Eagles fans?
The now 5-5 Eagles will play the rest of the season with veteran Jeff Garcia at the helm following the loss of superstar quarterback Donovan McNabb to a torn ACL.
One of my good buddies is a die-hard Eagles fan and season ticket holder back out in Philly, so I know how this is probably affecting him. But look at the bright side...at least you're not the Packers.
He's also a TAN! fan, so to soothe his pain, here's some info and tracks from their most recent release, Make History.
Featured Album: Thunderbirds Are Now!, Make History (2006)
[PopMatters Review]: We’re coming into that time period where bands that made it big via the blogosphere are trying to figure out their next step. Thunderbirds Are Now! weren’t so much discovered by the internet as recovered from a poorly-begun trajectory (their debut, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, sacrificed originality and lasting appeal for one-off joke-spaz punk). 2005’s Justamustache was Les Savvy Fav streamlined, a chugging new wave showcase of hook and melody, and in general just a much more polished effort. But it was released on the exact same day as Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm. That piece of disposable homage overshadowed the higher-quality release, with its multicultural bombast and dance rhythms inclusive enough for those indie-lovers closest to the mainstream.
So is 2006 a better time for this sound, a better time for the group to really establish themselves as a legitimate player on the indie rock scene? Not really. We’ve been inundated with wave after wave of mediocre dance-punk containing nominal shades of difference. It’s sometimes hard to tell them apart, and easier to just tune them out. Recently it seems that this crowded space has been increasingly turning away from punk and post-punk and dance-punk to electro and heavy metal and electro-metal—dirtier and darker sounds.
But a high quality album should transcend release-date timing issues, and surprisingly TAN!’s Make History, for the most part, does this in a pretty convincing way. The hallmarks of their new-established Justamustache sound are still here—and the album’s not all winners, of course—but a consistent adherence to the conventions of pop music (verse / chorus, major keys, one-idea-per-song structures) turns out to work well for this band when applied to their upbeat post-punk aesthetic.
“Panthers In Crime” kicks things off on a high note: opening with a sweet guitar arpeggio and swirling, psychedelic background, it’s an effective and catchy start to the album. As increasingly intrusive electronics take over, marking the transition to the band’s more recognizable peppy LSF guitars and pop-punk texture changes (pulling back to build up again at the chorus), the band settles into a comfortable space that characterizes the bulk of Make History. But then “The Veil Comes Down” reminds us of the swirling sonics and shouted-out enthusiasm that were so attractive on previous efforts (and the chorus here’s a real winner)...[READ MORE]
Thunderbirds Are Now! - "Panthers in Crime"
Thunderbirds Are Now! - "The Veil Comes Down"
Thunderbirds Are Now! - We Win (Ha Ha)
Around the block...
Chromewaves freshens up with a new look and same great tunes as always
Chad's back with another Everybody Cares, Eveybody Understands Podcast featuring M.Ward, The Arcade Fire, and others...just in time to save the Seahawks season. (Long Borat-like pause) Not.
I Guess I'm Floating discusses seeing The Big Lebowski for the first time (gasp!) and clues us in to Everthus the Deadbeats. I'm pretty sure I've seen Lebowski like 500 times. Hell, I've even lectured on it in grad school...so I can only imagine the excitement of seeing it again for the first time.
Anything you could ever need to know is probably at Largehearted Boy, including interviews with the Strokes Albert Hammond Jr., a review of Thomas Pynchon's new novel, Against the Day, and some of the best links to music related news around.