Album Review: The Strokes - Comedown Machine

Album Rating: B-

In 2009, I had no interest in indie rock. I was a wanna-be radical high school sophomore straight out of Episcopal middle school, passing my relatively dull evenings (shouldn’t I have been doing homework?) listening to Propagandhi, Bad Religion, and Rise Against and thinking about how bad President Bush had been. Oh, girls too. I thought a lot about girls. It was girls that showed me the Shins, the Fratellis, the Decemberists, and any number of other girl-wooing indie acts that just ended up making me feel bad about not being able to woo girls. And then there was the Strokes. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I spent a particularly long April of my life with nothing but Is This It on my iPod. I learned every crevice of every song. For the first time in my life, I felt like an album was made just for me.

Live Review: Leeds Festival, Part 3 Of 3

Friday and Saturday of Leeds 2011 had been great, but even a cursory look at the lineup would tell you that the third and final day was where the fun and games lay. The NME/Radio 1 and Festival Republic Stages looked strong as ever, while the Lock-Up Stage made a welcome return after it had been transformed to the Dance Stage the day before. The days highlights didn't take much seeking out, though, since most of them were positioned on the Main Stage. Things came to a head with the festivals' first 'co-headliners,' The Strokes and Pulp, but there was also gold to be found earlier on in the day, with critical darlings The National, emo legends Jimmy Eat World and timeless festival veterans Madness all coming in late afternoon. It was a day that promised much, and proved to live up to every expectation and then some...

SUNDAY (28/08/2011)

After two days which had been mixed at best on the weather front, the sunshine finally made a long overdue appearance late on Sunday morning. This only worked to improve the atmosphere on site, but Main Stage openers The Joy Formidable still had the strong wind to contend with. Nevertheless, the Welsh rockers managed to battle the elements and played a solid set drawing from their excellent debut album The Big Roar - which is one of my personal favourites from this year. Some of their unnecessary instrumental jams did get lost in the bluster, but the quality of songs such as 'Whirring' and 'The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade' was more than enough to see them reign supreme. There are plenty of bands out there that try to resurrect the qualities of grunge and shoegaze, but few do it as well as this trio, and although this wasn't the best I've seen them it was still a solid way to get the day underway.