daniel brockman

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Closing the book on the West Memphis Three

The Paradise Lost story began in 1993 with the discovery of the bodies of three West Memphis, Arkansas, children in a watery ditch, hogtied and mutilated. A confession led police to the arrest of three teenagers: Damon Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie
Between heaven and hell
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 06, 2012

Why there won't ever be another 'Big Four' - and why that's a good thing

In April, thrash metal's self-billed "Big Four" — Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax — played a one-off American show in the middle of the desert in Indio, California.
The state of metal
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | August 26, 2011

Photos: M.I.A. at the Creators Project

M.I.A. live at the NYC launch party for new Vice/Intel arts venture Creators Project
M.I.A. live at the Creators Project show in New York City
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 02, 2010

Into the weird

No, it's not your imagination: things are getting smaller. Or at least, it seems that way in the funhouse-mirror world of modern music, where the semi-demise of the major-label factory has colluded with the anti-star obsession of the underground to pro
Welcome to our many small worlds
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 05, 2010

Master crafters

In a perfect world, a great moment in music would come accompanied by a sense of grace, as if it had traveled far and long to reach you here and now. In short: great art is often the product of a lot of work — and work isn’t all that exciting.
The National come back from the drawing board
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 28, 2010

Rock the vote

Musicians with national interests
Musicians with national interests
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 28, 2010

Ronnie James Dio (1942 - 2010)

As he lay in a Texas hospital bed in March, being treated for the disease to which he would eventually succumb, Ronald James Padavona, better known to the world as heavy-metal legend Ronnie James Dio, gave an interview to a local TV station. “Cancer? I’l
Live free or rock
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 21, 2010

Crystal Castles | Crystal Castles (2010)

The battlefield of ’00s electro-tantrum spazz-ravers is littered with the corpses of those who burned too brightly at the outset and, in the process, burned out any interest in a sustained career of noisemaking.
Fiction (2010)
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 21, 2010

High fidelity

“It’s a complicated subject,” says Peter Kember — a man more commonly known by his pseudonym, Sonic Boom — on the relationship between music and drugs.
Sonic Boom’s Spectrum are worth the trip
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 14, 2010

Review: Public Image Ltd. at Royale

Terrifying, ridiculous, glorious
PiL, live at Royale, May 7, 2010
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 14, 2010

Broken Social Scene | Forgiveness Rock Record

Recent “loudness wars” notwithstanding, dynamics in music have very little to do with actual volume.
Arts & Crafts (2010)
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 07, 2010

Molten metal

Let’s cut to the chase — metal is back. And not just as a popular musical style, but as a subculture, freely seeping into the mainstream in a variety of strange ways, from the bullet belts you see on a dance floor to the devil horns being thrown by every
Expanding definitions at the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | April 23, 2010

MGMT | Congratulations

Listening to the new MGMT album requires similar preparations to those for a prolonged psychedelic experience.
Columbia (2010)
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | April 09, 2010

Photos: High on Fire at the Middle East

Phantom warlords High on Fire demolish the Middle East with their bonecrushing steamroller of metal.
High on Fire, live at the Middle East, on April 7, 2010
By DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN | April 09, 2010

Not teens, not dreams

“The abstract has been very good to us.” I am communicating via e-mail with the two members of Baltimore’s dreamy pop choir Beach House, and to be honest, I don’t know which one of them made that statement.
Beach House avoid the literal
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 26, 2010

Boys meet girls

Much of the press tumult over Beach House has focused on how the duo’s idiosyncratic musical style folds into a surging wave of like-minded indie artists eschewing rock histrionics for a gentler path to the hearts of music listeners.
What duos do
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 26, 2010

Continental drift

It's fitting that when I finally get Jean-Benoît Dunckel on the phone, he's just stepped off a plane.
Flying the friendly skies of Air
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 19, 2010

The other side of heavy

Loving heavy rock is a two-step process. Step one is easy: you hear something heavier than you've ever heard before, and you realize, "This is my thing." Step two is a little trickier: you wonder, "What is 'heavy'?" If you can accept the idea that a ce
Harvey Milk scramble your metal detector
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 05, 2010

Japanimayhem

Japanese acts attempting to interface with Western audiences often do so from behind a veil of inscrutability. Never mind that Japanese artists emerge from an alternate J-rock history that seldom intersects with ours. Tokyo's enduring Polysics have bridg
Tokyo's Polysics cannot play music in calmness
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 12, 2010

Choir power

The Romantic notion of artistic merit is that one must plumb the depths of despair to emerge with great work — and that the finest triumphs are often born of the direst misery.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo raise their voices
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 05, 2010

Blackshaw's good vibrations

Blackshaw's low-key career has evolved as organically as one of his songs: at 28, the Londoner has amassed a body of instrumental guitar music that defies tidy categorization. What he does isn't really folk, jazz, or new age — and it's far too accessible
James Blackshaw keeps his ears (and strings) open
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 29, 2010

Odd men in

When Beyoncé, in a recent Guardian interview, pegged Georgia art weirdos Of Montreal as a group with whom she'd love to collaborate, the real weirdness was in how sensible it all seemed — as pop music has gotten skronkier and more fuzzed-out, indie ro
Of Montreal might be weird enough for the mainstream
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 22, 2010

Photos: Julian Casablancas at the Paradise

Julian Casablancas at the Paradise Rock Club
Julian Casablancas, live at the Paradise Rock Club, January 8, 2010
By JULIAN FURTAK | January 15, 2010

Prep rally

Much of the early backlash that followed the Strokes' meteoric rise had to do with the idea that a '00s punk revival couldn't be spearheaded by a band of moneyed prep-school twerps — as if boarding school and rock stars didn't go together like marmalade
Rock's rich history of boarding-school brats
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 08, 2010

Stroke of genius

Julian Casablancas is in control, for better or worse. Better, in the sense that he is finally seeing the release of his debut solo album, Phrazes for the Young (RCA), in which he steps out of the stripped-down style of the Strokes — his blockbuster un
Julian Casablancas goes it alone
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 08, 2010

Same old song

Most music fans can probably be forgiven, at this point, for being doubting Thomases at the alleged demise of the major-label music industry.
Reissued and remastered CDs give classic releases a fresh face
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 11, 2009

Same old song

Photos: Sonic Youth at the Wilbur Theatre

Photos of Sonic Youth on their 2009 tour
Sonic Youth, live at the Wilbur Theatre, November 22, 2009
By JEROME ENO | November 27, 2009

New attitude

The rock career of UK upstarts the Big Pink has been one of finding, at the intersection of sheer bloody noise and haunting melodies, the commonality of hate and love.
The Big Pink accentuate the positive
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 27, 2009

Human touch

“Get me something to stop the bleeding!” were the first words to come spilling out of David Yow’s mouth as his recently reunited Jesus Lizard tore into the first song of their triumphant set last Saturday night at the Paradise.
The Jesus Lizard, live at the Paradise Rock Club, November 14, 2009
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 20, 2009

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