It’s all about time, right? Moderate Rock is a small site, the smallest of sites, and will never have the time to listen to every new release of any year. Not ever. So I make space and I make time for some records, some music that I’m pretty sure I know I will love, and often that turns out to […]
Read moreWhile a lot of new records arrive on cue, fresh and clean, at the end of an extensive promotional campaign to an expectant and prepared public, others seem to appear from nowhere. They’re born in darkness, formed without fanfare, and yet haul themselves out of the vast ocean of new music and still somehow, some way, end up in your […]
Read moreJoseph D’Agostino has been through hell. And of course that doesn’t just mean the injustice of his former band, the terrific but terribly-named Cymbals Eat Guitars, never getting the credit they deserved. In between that outfit’s slow demise and the rise of his solo project, Empty Country, he’s also faced mental health challenges, the suicide of a friend and mentor, […]
Read moreThe mixtape turned into some kind of monster this month. At 30 tracks I think it might even be the longest one of the year. But there were so many songs that I found, or, more accurately, that found me, that I instantly fell in love with. Some from brand new bands, others from long-established acts. Some from one-man (and […]
Read moreI hope you find something to love.
Read moreI hope you find something to love.
Read moreIrene Moretuzzo and Lorenzo Dall’Armellina might have just done it. They have might have nailed it. In naming their band, they might have made the moniker that most closely captures the sound of now, of the shimmering swell of the shoegazey dreampoppy glazyhazy scene that’s increased in popularity around the world over the last few years. Whatever music you’re thinking […]
Read moreJune, already. That’s a bit mad, right? Maybe it always feels a bit mad and I just block it out every summer. They say the days are long and the years are fast, or something like that. But you know what makes everything seem just about manageable, what makes everything slow down. Of course you do. It’s the music, man. […]
Read moreEveryone hates bosses, right? But Bosses, the brand new band based out of Chicago, I love. Jokes by BOSSES Originally conceived as a solo project by singer and guitarist Harlee Young, Bosses is now a five-piece featuring erstwhile members of Old Coke and Dead Sun. The well-travelled Young has spent time in the music scenes of Los Angeles, San Diego, […]
Read moreYou know that lightning strike feeling when you hear a new song by a new band and you think, even if for a second, that it might be the best song you’ve ever heard? Well, Dirt Buyer just hit me with 1.21 gigawatts. ‘On and On’ is my favourite song of 2023 so far. On & On by Dirt Buyer […]
Read moreI hope you find something to love.
Read moreWell, I didn’t think I’d be writing that headline so soon. I mean, part of me thought I might never write it at all! But today, just over a year after the death of their longtime drummer, Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters have announced details of their upcoming 11th album. In the band’s own words, “Following a year of staggering […]
Read moreSpring has sprung. The sun shines, the flowers bloom, the birds and the bees do their thing. Life, uh, finds a way, or whatever. But even as nature emerges from hibernation, Moderate Rock, you might have noticed, has slowed down to almost a stop. It’s not permanent, it never is, but things might be quiet around here for a couple […]
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