98.1 FM WQAQ

Band of Skulls: The Devil Takes Care of His Own

Band of Skulls is an amazing band with an awesome raw heavy rock sound. Similar to the white stripes and the black keys. They are currently on tour over seas with the black keys. Check out their album Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, it is one of my favorite albums of all time. This song is a new song from hopefully a new album soon!!

babanees:

Aloha Hawaii (acoustic) - The Guru

i’m young and i’m able
make the best of what i have 
i’m permanently sharp
i’ll do the best that i can 

We’re all huge fans of The Guru at 98.1 FM, and this song rules!

Trash Talk - Burn Alive

I’m so excited that Trash Talk killed it with their newest EP Awake. With five songs clocking in around eight and a half minutes, Trash Talk takes the sound they solidified on last year’s Eyes and Nines and improves it; making it aggressive, violent, and uniquely catchy. “Burn Alive” cements why Trash Talk is doing the whole 80’s revivalist hardcore thing better than pretty much anyone else (although Ceremony kills it too): the track is a suicidal anthem that makes you want to burn down a police station and then piss on the ashes that lie in your wake. Get ready to get violent.

Sonic Youth - Wish Fulfillment

Dirty (1992)

Sonic Youth is pretty much the perfect band. They struggled early on finding their niche, but once EVOL hit something really stuck.  The band continued their success in the late 80’s to pump out solid album at an alarming rate in the 90’s.  1992’s Dirty found the band adding a lot of pop elements, while still retaining their noise rock roots.  ”Wish Fulfillment” is a song nesting in between the calm and chaotic side of the band in the early 90’s.  It embodies what the early alternative scene in the 90’s meant and connects nicely with the showing of The Year That Punk Broke WQAQ will do Tuesday, October 25th at 7p.m. for its own and QFS’s members. 

You Might Have Missed…

Billy Joel - Everybody Loves You Now - Cold Spring Harbor (1971)

    Being a Long Island boy, I’m biased heavily toward Billy Joel. No matter what music you normally like, if you’re a Long Islander, you likely have at least one Billy Joel song and know all the words to one of his songs for an in-traffic sing-a-long. But it’s not just Long Island, though. Show me one person that doesn’t like the sound of Billy Joel, and I’ll show you a half-million that love his music, or at least that won’t turn it off it comes on.
 Billy Joel’s first album was appropriately named after the Long Island town of Cold Spring Harbor. His trademark combination of jazz, ragtime, classical and rock music is present all through the album, but most of all in the LI name-dropping track “Everybody Loves You Now.” You can’t help but move to his music and sing along if you know the tune. In his early years, and still today, Billy Joel has songwriting capabilities to rival Paul McCartney in his prime.

Glocca Morra - “them”

In terms of the current Kinsella-esque emo revival that’s been happening over the last few years, Glocca Morra is a band that doesn’t come up in conversation nearly as much as they should. Their first release was an effort in the vein Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate). It was a solid debut, but then the band decided to play faster and harder and everything changed.

They released a fantastic split 7” with The Greek Favourites and two weeks ago they put out a 6 song cassette entitled “Ghoul Intentions” and it rips. Instead of dwelling on the whole “twinkly” (forgive me for the term) trip, the band plays a combination of noisey garage punk with a nice touch of emo. The lyrics are bitter, confrontational, and self-deprecating, but not in an indulgent manner. I think (hope) that they’ll be referenced as an influence when a new wave of emo emerges years from now. Until then, they are hopefully putting out a new LP soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Rites Of Spring - For Want Of

Rites Of Spring (1985)

Rites Of Spring is a band that can’t be measured by the extent of their discography, one LP and one EP, but by the influence they had. Pinned with creating the emo/hardcore bridge, the band was comprised of members that would go on to create Fugazi with, then producer for the band and member of Minor Threat, Ian MacKaye. They were recently featured in an AV Club article about artists who had short, but highly influential careers. Without Rites Of Spring, I think punk, hardcore and emo music would have developed an interloping relationship much differently. 

You Might Have Missed…

Styx - She Cares - Paradise Theater (1981)

    Styx, particularly the Paradise Theater album, is what got me into rock music. f you just look around the internet, Styx tends to take a lot of crap from people for one reason or the other, were the ones who essentially created the sound of the 80s. Their catchy melodic hooks, soaring guitar riffs, beautiful keyboard work, and of course powerful harmonies are what set them apart from so many bands.

    She Cares is the seventh track off of Styx’s fourth consecutive triple platinum album, “Paradise Theater.” The song was written by guitarist Tommy Shaw as a filler in their sweeping concept album. You won’t find any other reviews about this song, nor will you ever hear Styx play it live in concert, but She Cares is one the band’s best, and my favorite. Simple lyrics, balanced out by the guitars and keyboard. The twin solos of guitar and saxophone. And the harmonies. Perhaps people mock Styx so much simply because they can’t be matched.