Marc Scarano is a musician/writer/medical videographer who lives in Burlington, VT. He has been writing for bigtakeover.com since 2010 and is most happy sitting in front of his turntable. Marc is active in the northern Vermont music scene with his band Black Rabbit and has written online music reviews for Seven Days, Vermont’s alternative news weekly. He was once interviewed by The Wall Street Journal about his Big Takeover piece comparing Lauren Hill to Axl Rose. When he’s not listening to, making, or writing about music, he enjoys biking along Lake Champlain, videography, and reading.
I know it’s only April and it snowed a little today but it still feels like summer because Best Coast just played my town.
Phil’s bio states that he is “too folky for the rockers and too rocky for the folkers”, but since putting together the Affiliates he’s had both feet firmly planted in the rock camp.
This self-proclaimed “pot punk” band’s debut Home. Run. is a solid slab of indie fuzz pop that is unsophisticated in the best possible way, and eminently listenable to boot.
This record was made to be cranked at juke joints, hoedowns and keg parties. It’s the sound of a bar band reaching peak velocity.
He played a six-string and a twelve-string, both acoustic, and was joined by a second acoustic guitar, drums, violin, and most surprisingly, a harp.
Now I know why they named their album The Big Roar- because that’s what they sounded like, a three-person post-punk whirling dervish of a band.
What better venue to see the man play than a church?
Not only do they do faithful versions of Zappa’s music, but Dweezil manages to recreate Frank’s guitar tone to an astonishing degree.
These punk rock veterans made it look so easy, flailing and headbanging away while playing some of the tightest, heaviest and catchiest music that I’ve heard in years.
The production is appropriately dirty and analog for a tribute to The Sonics, and all the essential elements of the music are in place: organ, guitar, saxophone, and gritty blues howl.
When Kim Deal played the opening notes of “Debaser” the place just exploded, and the intensity did not go down until the house lights went up almost two hours later.
They may not sound like how you remember them, but the New York Dolls are back with the first essential summer record of 2011.
With inspiration from an unlikely source, Mike Watt started a record label and put out his magnum opus.
I came to the realization at the show that Lauryn Hill is the Axl Rose of the hip-hop world.
It has a big, fat bass sound that stands out on nearly every track, rivaling the guitars for dominance and giving the album coherence.
Dweezil’s got the DNA, but Project/Object has the Zappa alumni: Ike Willis and Ray White are in the band, and their enthusiasm was infectious.
It’s always fun to see a band two nights in a row. The extra night allowed them to spread their wings and play songs from all of their records.
“The story of Death is the story of two cities- Detroit and Burlington”, said Bobby Hackney, which is why Burlington was lucky enough to be one of the few cities to witness Death live.
The three-guitar arrangement was not overkill at all. Each player carved out his own space within the framework of the songs.
This year The Figgs released their tenth studio album and toured as Graham Parker’s backing band. Mike talks about life with the band, songwriting, and the man who fights himself.
This record is bound to increase The Sword’s profile and expand their audience into hard rock territory, but not at the expense of the headbangers who have been fans from the beginning.
Last weekend I found a hidden gem for two bucks! For the price of this record I could have only downloaded the first two tracks from iTunes.
This sounded like such a cool idea that I had to go: a satellite broadcast of The Big Four of 80’s thrash — Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax — beamed down live to movie theaters around the world from the Sonisphere Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria.