kevin.

Alternative Press is finally starting to build up their online archive, which means some of my articles have finally found their way online. This is especially helpful for me, as I don't actually read the magazine because I never seem to manage to get on the subscriber list.

Review - Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies (November 2006)

AP Ten Essential - Breakdown Clinics (September 2006)

I saw the Hold Steady last Thursday, but honestly, was too drunk to remember most of it. I hadn't played the elegantly wasted "that guy" in quite some time, particularly at a show, so I figured it was about time, and the Hold Steady is the ideal complement to that mission.
Enough for the aside. I'd review the show thoroughly, but HITS has done a nice job of it for me:
The Hold Steady at El Rey Theatre, L.A.: Guess if you’re jonesing for vintage Bruce, you could do a lot worse than this glorified Brooklyn-by-way-of-Minneapolis bar band extraordinaire. Picture Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar playing a rabbinical scholar fronting the band at the time of The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle and you get an idea of rock’s most unlikely lead singer. Craig Finn, who looks Jewish, but is actually Irish, apparently takes drugs like the former,…

The album's shredding penultimate track "Mission Statement" says it all:

We are the change that we've been screaming for.

Any long-term Strung Out fan won't argue that the band had, in every sense of the term, "lost it" on their last two records, American Paradox and Exile In Oblivion (read my old review). Strung Out's first few albums, particularly Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues and Twisted By Design, got me through my formative years despite rampant bouts of depression, and it's a shame that the only thing in the ensuing years that brought about a similar state was the release of really disappointing Strung Out records.

It's beyond my pleasure to say that Strung Out has officially "returned." I won't blame it all on the Alternative Press feature of  Suburban in a recent issue, but it's really incredible to see the band return to their roots (going old school to return…