Don Miggs and U2
Don Miggs’ recommendation: “All time, it would be U2. What they consistently do amazes me. It’s never ‘by the numbers’ for them on album or live. They truly lead the way on how to mature gracefully in a rock band. My favorite new act is the Gaslight Anthem. Combining the heart of Springsteen and the guts of The Clash. It just works.”
New to U2 or Gaslight Anthem? Don suggests you start here: “Achtung Baby by U2 is just the perfect blend of a band mixing new sounds with familiar themes. And the songs just kill.
59 Sound isn’t the best Gaslight Anthem album, but it is where you GET the band and hear the promise and potential of a great American act. The album feels nostalgic and achieves a rare feat. It makes you smile and ache simultaneously.”
About our guest author, Don Miggs: Don Miggs fronts, yes, you guessed it, Miggs, a band that may be the hardest working group on the tour circuit. The band plays straight forward pop rock that is drenched in bright guitars and big hook choruses. They average 150 shows a year, landed opening spots with Duran Duran, Maroon 5 and Train and rocked as hard as one possibly can on Good Morning America. The band enlisted multi-platinum producer/engineer Ken Lewis (Fall Out Boy, Kanye West) to bring a bigger sound to their latest album, Wide Awake
MP3: Let the Games Begin
move me more these days than much of anything else. I really can’t put my finger on it exactly, which is how it usually goes with the best stuff. It’s a combination of things, I think. The songs are beautiful and eloquent without even trying. And the music is this hodgepodge flea market of folk and pop, with magnificent clever beats and melodies. I can’t say enough about it really. There are a lot of songs on the record, something like 17 or 18, and that usually is a bad sign. Not here though. There isn’t any filler at all. None. Everything sort of flows together, songs ooze into other songs. I think it there might be magic spells hidden back behind the chords. Whenever I put it on, usually in the car, I see deer and rabbits and shit. Wild things come out of the forest. That doesn’t happen with most records, you know. I never had it happen when I played any other albums, so I quit listening to most of them.
About our guest author, Serge Bielanko: The last we heard from Serge musically was in 2008 where he belted out stirring vocals (check Wilderness below) on Marah’s masterwork, 
About our guest author, Sune Rose Wagner: Sune is the songwriter, co-singer and guitarist for The Raveonettes, the band that Kurt Loder simply could not stop speaking and writing about in 2003. The band perfectly combines ’50s harmonies and Spectorish production with a smack of Velvet Underground punk attitude for good measure. They’re critic darlings, music snob darlings and should be a hell of a lot bigger than they are. Sune Rose literally scoured the Earth to put this band together and his effort paid off, big time. Their somehow simultaneously retro and modern songs are some of the most infectious tunes that have come out in the last ten years and their latest release 
About our guest author, Noelle Scaggs: If you are keyed into all that is hip on the West Coast, then you most definitely have heard of Noelle Scaggs. She started singing at the age of eleven and since has collaborated with The Black Eyed Peas, Dilated Peoples and Mayer Hawthorne. But her cool factor does not end there. She’s also modeled in an art piece for Kanye West and co-hosted TV programming with T-Pain. Her “moment,” however, appears to be NOW as she rocks, shimmies and belts out powerful harmonies in Fitz and the Tantrums. Spy any of the Fitz videos (like the knockout performance on Conan below), witness the energy she brings and just try to take your eyes off of her. Impossible, right? She’s the clearly the co-star here and Fitz himself perhaps puts it best in saying of Noelle, “…we have repartee. Onstage, we’re Ike and Tina.†Fitz and the Tantrums’ new album,