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LUKE ONEIL

Latest Articles

Getting real with Tumblr’s favorite editor

GIF it away now
The relationship between an editor and her writers can be a complicated one.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | May 16, 2012

Active Child is preaching from the choir

Urban hymns
Since the invention of music, dudes have been harnessing their natural singing talents for one specific purpose: to pick up babes.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | May 08, 2012

Deflecting feedback with the Dirty Dishes

Structurally sound
As we're all well aware by now, the window of musical-temporal referencing has sped up at an alarming rate.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | February 28, 2012

Deciphering beauty in the Life and Times

Into the vast beyond
You're standing at the edge of a vast canyon.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | February 21, 2012

Hanging in a crush-gaze balance with Cults

Metal worship
What do you think has been the most buzzed-about indie style over the past few years?

By: LUKE O'NEIL | January 17, 2012

PTSOTL names the shittiest songs of 2011

Kill your radio
PTSOTL names the shittiest songs of 2011

By: LUKE O'NEIL | December 21, 2011

Layering pop with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Boy racers
First impressions are everything, whether you're looking for a job, a date, or coming across a band for the first time — particularly one with a goofy-ass name that's made you ignore them for months.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | December 14, 2011

Digitalism dance to the harmony of song

Heartthrob
Obviously there aren't meaningful lines between dance, pop, and indie-rock anymore, since more and more instrument-focused acts born as rock bands are leaning on the techniques of electronic music production to modernize their sound.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | November 22, 2011

Noel Gallagher takes center stage

Fookin' birds
Oasis fans have long wondered what the Manchester band's records would have sounded like without Liam Gallagher in the mix.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | November 09, 2011

The timely pop return of Emergency Music

So long to the subtle
"I would agree that Emergency Music started at a rough time to be in a band if you're comparing it to starting up a band in 2011," frontman Jesse Duquette offers via email.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | September 20, 2011

Getting an alt-rock buzzcut with Yuck

Sonic mooch
Somewhere along the line in the history of music journalism, writing about the way a record sounds turned into drawing up a laundry list of predecessor comparisons.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | September 14, 2011

Identity Festival rocks out the dance party

Beats happening
Genre predictions are dumb, but there is one thing absolutely certain in music: rock music is dead, and the era of electronic dominance is finally here.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | August 17, 2011

Hot Water Music | The Fire, The Steel, The Tread/Adds Up to Nothing

No Idea/Chunksaah
It's been seven long years since Gainesville, Florida's Hot Water Music have released any new music.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | August 19, 2011

The tasty return of Cibo Matto

Back on the menu
There's been a lot of talk recently about how the '90s are back, much of it by me.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | July 13, 2011

The December Sound drop a sonic boom

Grand scale
Sonic mastermind Zack Sarzana (who returned from a sojourn to New York City a while back) and bandmates Jimmy Rossi Jr. and John McGuigan have always had a knack for finding the plot in a vast haze of feedback, occasionally shaping that cosmic stuff into a pop song cloaked in noise; or, at other times, simply laying waste to the room with power blasts of guitar-pedal mayhem.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | June 29, 2011

Getting a sonic high with Ringo Deathstarr

Fully operational
The songs from Austin noise-pop trio Ringo Deathstarr — in particular, the devastating dopamine rush of "So High," which features a string of effects pedals marked "MBV" and "J+MC" and twitchy, whorling waves of feedback and call-and-response male/female vocals — have me pressing the play button on my computer repeatedly, like a lab monkey waiting for the cocaine pellet to pop out.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | June 29, 2011

Dancing to life's desire lines with Lykke Li

Love & poison
You already love Lykke Li. You may not know that you do, exactly.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | May 20, 2011

Arctic Monkeys escape the pitfalls of buzz

Post-hype sleeper
Three for three with critically acclaimed #1 albums in their native UK. Top spots in countries around the world with each release. Early hype for their forthcoming Suck It and See (Domino). That's a pretty good track record.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | May 12, 2011

Chris Carrabba revisits Further Seems Forever

Second that emotion
For fanboys of a certain, oh, let's call it a distinguished temporal status, it was the emo-nerd equivalent of leaked footage from a new Star Wars installment showing up online: last August, the long-pined-for defunct Florida band Further Seems Forever released a video of themselves rehearsing their 2001 anthem "The Moon Is Down."

By: LUKE O'NEIL | April 26, 2011

Cut Copy elevate the cycle of rock and dance

Heights & music
Talking about rock and dance music as if they were entirely separate entities is weird, because in the early years, they were essentially the same thing.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | April 04, 2011

Richard Ashcroft digs America

Soul mission
Quite a month for Brit-rock fans of a certain age, innit? Thus far, we've seen a new Radiohead disc, Liam Gallagher resurfacing with Beady Eye, and even a Primal Scream tour behind the 20th anniversary of Screamadelica (though only in the UK, sadly). Now comes ol' Mad Richard himself.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | March 24, 2011