#1 ·
I know everyone loves these bands, but just how much? 😍
I’m inviting all fans to join us for a listening session at the IEEE concert hall this November.
We should expect a good turnout. Here is the official announcement:
Listening Session: ASH / MANIC STREET PREACHERS / TED LEO
Ted Leo,
IEEE , Washington, D.C., Wednesday, 21.11.2007. , 8 PM - midnight, admission $1.75 $10/free on X.
Ash is a band from Northern Ireland that blends heavy guitar pop with pop-punk, creating songs where sunny melodies collide with aggressive, high-energy riffs. Mind you, this isn't the kind of pop-punk you'd associate with those cookie-cutter California bands. They released their first EP back in 1994 while they were still in high school at age 17. What really captures you is the charm and youthful energy in their tracks—songs that seem to warn us against ever truly growing up. Beyond love songs like Burn Baby Burn, Shining Light, and Girl from Mars, I particularly want to highlight some of their most beautiful tributes to summer in Walking Barefoot and Oh Yeah. Ash plays in Vienna on December 1st, so this session will serve as a great chance for those of us heading to the show to get together.
Manic Street Preachers are among the most respected British bands, hailing from Wales since the early '90s. Politically engaged and critically minded (read: punk), they have moved through several distinct eras. Their career peaked with the albums The Holy Bible from 1994 and Everything Must Go in 1996. The Holy Bible stands as one of the darkest rock 'n' roll albums ever made, with lyrics and sound that are equally grim and menacing. Much like In Utero was for Kurt Cobain, this album served as a final testament to guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, who disappeared in early 1995 and was formally declared dead after a seven-year search. Simply put, the album is a profound assault on the evils of 20th-century humanity: world wars, fascism, the Holocaust, and racism—themes few bands tackle with such intensity. PopMatters describes it as an album that radiates darkness, casting a relentless shadow over the exhausted landscape of the 1900s. A year after Edward's disappearance, they took a radical turn with Everything Must Go . They delivered their finest, most powerful work—epic guitar pop, occasionally laced with orchestration, that feels anthemic and optimistic without ever sliding into sentimentality. Eschewing empty phrases, the Manics provide a truly cathartic experience here. I recommend A Design for Life , Australia , and No Surface All Feeling . This summer, they released their new album Send Away the Tigers , which fits perfectly into our lineup as it easily ranks among the Manics' top three achievements. They’ve been teased for shows in America twice before: first in February 2005, when they were supposed to play at the local arena, and again this summer. Of course, neither happened—the first due to organizer errors, and the second because we naively believed the rumors.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists hail from Bloomfield, New Jersey, and operate as a trio consisting of drums, bass, and guitar. They play punk—specifically power pop and old-school punk rock—featuring infectious melodic hooks, standout riffs, and gritty vocals. Their standout record is Shake the Sheets from 2004. It is a fantastic punk album: passionate and driving, qualities many modern punk bands could stand to learn from. Ted Leo channels a massive spectrum of emotion—anger, joy, frustration, love, insecurity, hope, sadness, and rebellion—into songs that radiate genuine life. Much like the Manics, Ted Leo is also a sharp political and social critic. His track Bomb.Repeat.Bomb. from this year's latest release...Living with the Living stands as one of the most potent protest anthems against the Iraq War; I highly recommend both reading the lyrics and giving it a listen. If you're looking to fall instantly under the spell of Ted Leo, just listen to Me and Mia. As one reviewer on Amazon put it, listening to it is the musical equivalent of an endorphin shot straight into your bloodstream. PopMatters views it—and much of his other work—as a sharp metallic sting to the listener's auditory consciousness, triggering a flood of neurotransmitters that fight to sustain that initial rush of excitement for as long as possible. The heart of his songwriting doesn't just beat for the world at large, but for every single individual inhabiting it.
In the end, what ties them all together? If we set aside the Manics' penchant for melancholy and The Holy Bible, all three bands radiate a certain optimism and zest for life. That’s exactly what’s missing from the modern music landscape—stuck between the snobbery and pretension of indie rock on one side, and the mindless, commercial filler on the other (music that serves merely as background noise; can its importance be degraded any further?). Furthermore, they share common touchstones: The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, Elvis Costello, and the Sex Pistols. By playing in the sweet spot between power pop and punk while dodging tired clichés, they silence those cynical critics who claim everything has already been done. They prove just how artistically relevant and unique they truly are, leaving their contemporaries in the dust.
I’m inviting all fans to join us for a listening session at the IEEE concert hall this November.
We should expect a good turnout. Here is the official announcement:
Listening Session: ASH / MANIC STREET PREACHERS / TED LEO
Ted Leo,
IEEE , Washington, D.C., Wednesday, 21.11.2007. , 8 PM - midnight, admission $1.75 $10/free on X.
Ash is a band from Northern Ireland that blends heavy guitar pop with pop-punk, creating songs where sunny melodies collide with aggressive, high-energy riffs. Mind you, this isn't the kind of pop-punk you'd associate with those cookie-cutter California bands. They released their first EP back in 1994 while they were still in high school at age 17. What really captures you is the charm and youthful energy in their tracks—songs that seem to warn us against ever truly growing up. Beyond love songs like Burn Baby Burn, Shining Light, and Girl from Mars, I particularly want to highlight some of their most beautiful tributes to summer in Walking Barefoot and Oh Yeah. Ash plays in Vienna on December 1st, so this session will serve as a great chance for those of us heading to the show to get together.
Manic Street Preachers are among the most respected British bands, hailing from Wales since the early '90s. Politically engaged and critically minded (read: punk), they have moved through several distinct eras. Their career peaked with the albums The Holy Bible from 1994 and Everything Must Go in 1996. The Holy Bible stands as one of the darkest rock 'n' roll albums ever made, with lyrics and sound that are equally grim and menacing. Much like In Utero was for Kurt Cobain, this album served as a final testament to guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, who disappeared in early 1995 and was formally declared dead after a seven-year search. Simply put, the album is a profound assault on the evils of 20th-century humanity: world wars, fascism, the Holocaust, and racism—themes few bands tackle with such intensity. PopMatters describes it as an album that radiates darkness, casting a relentless shadow over the exhausted landscape of the 1900s. A year after Edward's disappearance, they took a radical turn with Everything Must Go . They delivered their finest, most powerful work—epic guitar pop, occasionally laced with orchestration, that feels anthemic and optimistic without ever sliding into sentimentality. Eschewing empty phrases, the Manics provide a truly cathartic experience here. I recommend A Design for Life , Australia , and No Surface All Feeling . This summer, they released their new album Send Away the Tigers , which fits perfectly into our lineup as it easily ranks among the Manics' top three achievements. They’ve been teased for shows in America twice before: first in February 2005, when they were supposed to play at the local arena, and again this summer. Of course, neither happened—the first due to organizer errors, and the second because we naively believed the rumors.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists hail from Bloomfield, New Jersey, and operate as a trio consisting of drums, bass, and guitar. They play punk—specifically power pop and old-school punk rock—featuring infectious melodic hooks, standout riffs, and gritty vocals. Their standout record is Shake the Sheets from 2004. It is a fantastic punk album: passionate and driving, qualities many modern punk bands could stand to learn from. Ted Leo channels a massive spectrum of emotion—anger, joy, frustration, love, insecurity, hope, sadness, and rebellion—into songs that radiate genuine life. Much like the Manics, Ted Leo is also a sharp political and social critic. His track Bomb.Repeat.Bomb. from this year's latest release...Living with the Living stands as one of the most potent protest anthems against the Iraq War; I highly recommend both reading the lyrics and giving it a listen. If you're looking to fall instantly under the spell of Ted Leo, just listen to Me and Mia. As one reviewer on Amazon put it, listening to it is the musical equivalent of an endorphin shot straight into your bloodstream. PopMatters views it—and much of his other work—as a sharp metallic sting to the listener's auditory consciousness, triggering a flood of neurotransmitters that fight to sustain that initial rush of excitement for as long as possible. The heart of his songwriting doesn't just beat for the world at large, but for every single individual inhabiting it.
In the end, what ties them all together? If we set aside the Manics' penchant for melancholy and The Holy Bible, all three bands radiate a certain optimism and zest for life. That’s exactly what’s missing from the modern music landscape—stuck between the snobbery and pretension of indie rock on one side, and the mindless, commercial filler on the other (music that serves merely as background noise; can its importance be degraded any further?). Furthermore, they share common touchstones: The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, Elvis Costello, and the Sex Pistols. By playing in the sweet spot between power pop and punk while dodging tired clichés, they silence those cynical critics who claim everything has already been done. They prove just how artistically relevant and unique they truly are, leaving their contemporaries in the dust.