Lav's Music Corner

For this bulky rapid-fire reviews segment I gathered together 5 bands who to varying degrees of commercial success and critical acknowledgment, occupied the blog-driven world of indie and alternative rock in the late 2000s. Many of their contemporaries have fade, but these five are still going strong to extremely varying degrees of success in 2024.  All Hell  - Los Campesinos! Verbose indie-punk outfit Los Campesinos have been quiet with studio albums since 2017, but their presence has never faded. Whether that's due to the many bands who are obviously influenced directly by their vibrant, youthful sound and lyrical snark, or because they dropped an EP a few years ago and some compilation material since then, the band still feels much more relevant than others from their era. I was on board with this new record right out of the gate when I heard the fantastic lead single Feast Of Tongues . It sees the band channeling their righteousness into pinpoint catchy songwriting with nu...

Cage The Elephant is a Kentucky based rock band that has released 5 albums to date employing different styles and approaches throughout their career. They scored two alt-rock radio hits in the late 2000's with Ain't No Rest For The Wicked  and Back Against The Wall  and continued this success into the 2010's with songs like Shake Me Down, Come A Little Closer  and Trouble .  Review By Lavender: I consider myself a pretty big fan of Cage The Elephant but even that doesn't mean I've exonerated the band from their hit or miss nature. Their first self-titled album is a jangly and jammy piece indebted to southern rock for it's sound and southern folk for it's lyrics. As big of a fan of it as I was at the time even I am willing to admit it sounded better then than it does now. The follow-up was one of the most disappointing releases I have had the displeasure of being around for. Thank You, Happy Birthday  was a turn for the low-fi that tried to adopt t...