Email Author Chris Parker

2011 Stories by Chris Parker

• Taking Back Sunday Takes Back Their Original Lineup

  published June 30, 2011

  Taking Back Sunday's current tour represents a sort of homecoming for the emo-punk icons. After going gold with their 2002 debut, Tell All... More >>

• Matt & Kim Skip Along the Sidewalks.

  published June 9, 2011

  Dance-punk duo Matt & Kim might as well be re-dubbed Hubba Bubba. Their music's as bubbly, buoyant and carefree as bubble gum, sponsoring a... More >>

• Manchester Orchestra, Cage the Elephant, Sleeper Agent

  published May 26, 2011

  Manchester Orchestra have always possessed the balls, beauty and ambition to create a great album. Their first two albums, 2006's I'm... More >>

• Get With the Program

  published May 26, 2011

  Over the course of thousands of years, music hasn't really changed all that much. It still consists of sound shaped by rhythm, melody and... More >>

• The Black Angels, Sleepy Sun, True Widow

  published May 19, 2011

  From their name (lifted from "The Black Angel's Death Song") to their sound, there's little doubt that Austin's The Black Angels adore... More >>

• John Vanderslice, Daniel Hart

  published May 19, 2011

  Just as Sinatra was synonymous with nightclubs, you imagine John Vanderslice in a wine bar. His music lingers like smoke, its... More >>

• The Many, Ongoing Interests of Ray Wylie Hubbard

  published May 12, 2011

  Ray Wylie Hubbard's making up for lost time. After frittering away his youth chasing women and a never-ending buzz, Hubbard got sober (with... More >>

• Critics' Pick: Phosphorescent, Family Band

  published April 28, 2011

  Matthew Houck's Phosphorescent is the kind of act whose albums receive 25 reviews from music publications on MetaCritic... More >>

• Felice Brothers

  published April 7, 2011

  Raised in the Catskills of Upstate New York, the Felice Brothers grew up in the shadow of Woodstock, spiritually as well as... More >>

• Akron/Family Lets Their Freak Flag Fly High

  published March 31, 2011

  Some bands content themselves with girls. Their songs are a predictable patter of love and heartache, finding, losing or leaving their beloved... More >>

• Todd Snider, Great American Taxi

  published March 24, 2011

  You know Todd Snider. He's the inveterate joker cracking wise from the back of the classroom. Or, as he describes himself in his... More >>

• Rural Alberta Advantage, Maps & Atlases, Miniature Tigers

  published March 17, 2011

  Toronto trio Rural Alberta Advantage's breakout 2009 debut, Hometowns, was surprisingly muscular for all its folk undertones and... More >>

• Civil Twilight

  published February 24, 2011

  Ignore that this band's name has the word twilight in it. The moody, seductive sound Civil Twilight crafts has a romance all its... More >>

• Javelin

  published January 13, 2011

  It's not clear where Javelin belongs. The Brooklyn duo's part of the indietronic underground but hardly fits within any of the... More >>

• Royal Bangs Ready A New Explosion.

  published January 13, 2011

  Royal Bangs frontman Ryan Schaefer once expressed his bewilderment that any artist would want to plant themselves in the middle of an already... More >>