Thursday, July 02, 2009

wilco
wilco (the album)

     

Wednesday, July 01, 2009
we were promised jetpacks
these four walls
rating     

Upon first listen, We Were Promised Jetpacks - brimming with heavy guitars and emotions in a familiar indie rock accented drawl - are musical twins to bands such as The National and The Twilight Sad. But maybe it's their Scottish background that lends These Four Walls authenticity and an intense desperation in their songs that bleed beyond the strong but predictable song structures.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
moby
wait for me
rating     

Out of work therapists might want to send a "thank you" card to Moby for their recent loss. Why? The legendary dance titan has just released his latest offering Wait For Me; an album that features 16 tracks that almost any depressed individual will find they relate to. Whether you're a nave 15 year old, or a down on his luck 60 year old (out of work therapists?) that just received dreadful news, this record will be one worth commiserating to. Oh yeah...it also may very well be the man's finest reason to press play, since Play.

Monday, June 29, 2009
bowerbirds
upper air
rating     

Bowerbirds are partly grand orchestra arrangement and time travel sensitive tones of Beirut, partly minimalist dark tension in strings and words of Bon Iver, and pieces of the storytelling and elaborations of The Decemberists. On their sophomore album, Upper Air, the Bowerbirds show their own voice wrapped within these woodland rich songs that carry traces of their influences, blended with a pop sensibility that makes it an album grandiose yet simply perfect for their crafted songwriting.

Friday, June 26, 2009
the phenomenal handclap band
the phenomenal handclap band
rating     

Much ado has been made about the soullessness of today's music scene. Honesty takes a back seat to drum machines and heart is sacrificed on the altar of ultimate coolness. But wait, there's hope! Quit losing your religion, don't fear the reaper, skip the Hail Marys, and give your sinning bodies over to the Phenomenal Handclap Band.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
god help the girl
god help the girl
rating     

Stuart Murdoch's newest brilliant project God Help the Girl is what its tag suggests: a narrative sang from classic female characters who each hit precisely the voice and personality that carry Belle & Sebastian's subtle wit and irony laced indiepop with an all out, retro pop glamour. But it's not simply a side project, each of the songs from God Help the Girl stands on its own as a classic, with a rose-sepia tone, a charming world with a vintage touch and storyline rich and vivid.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
dinosaur jr.
farm
rating     

Another in a recent slew of bands shooting for longevity, Dinosaur Jr. had a bumpy path to rejuvenation, breaking up in the late nineties and staying that way for almost a decade. But there is something about the chemistry of these three; J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph mesh in the same way on Beyond as they did in the eighties, and follow-up Farm is proof it wasn't just a coincidence last time around.

Monday, June 22, 2009
deastro
moondagger
rating     

Deastro is a master at creating alternative worlds, full of colors and miniscule shapes spiraling into new patterns and formations, bells and twinkles and hundreds of electronic noises mashing into pop. More than that, though, more than the layers of spacey fantasy sounds and images that Moondagger paints, these are genuine, relatable pop songs. A hook, a bouncy melody, that tangles an unsuspecting listener into this world, might not be so bad of a sacrifice.

Friday, June 19, 2009
portland cello project
the thao and justin powers sessions
rating     

It's just simply not the sort of thing you hear very often, a cello orchestra playing indie rock songs alongside classical pieces, covering Britney Spears or working with Horse Feathers, creating melodramatic orchestra songs next to indie gems with a distinct Portland sensibility. But that's exactly what the Portland Cello Project (PCP) aims to do.

Thursday, June 18, 2009
sunset rubdown
dragonslayer
rating     

Devotees of the Spencer Krug Guild of Tormented Canadian Wailing rejoice! Sunset Rubdown's third CD is here, and it's worth every bit of geeking out the name implies. Dragonslayer's world is a dark and epic one, a sprawling kingdom under a tumultuous sky that's always threatening to storm.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
the low anthem
oh my god, charlie darwin
rating     

Charlie Darwin was a misunderstood man. A lonely man. A man with a lot of big ideas, and not enough people who listened to them. At least, not to the ones that mattered. The ones about lost loves, the ones carried in between tender strings of forgotten instruments, the spaces between words and the echoes of poetic sounds, sandwiched between the rough and raw, explosions of gutsy blues or delicate folk of The Low Anthem's album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
cage the elephant
cage the elephant
rating     

The first listen of Cage the Elephant's defiant, sassy, self-titled debut album is by all means a raucous one. Lively and uninhibited, Cage the Elephant, is from first to last utterly enjoyable. Unimpressed? See how many other contemporary albums you can listen to from beginning to end without pressing shuffle.

Monday, June 15, 2009
street sweeper social club
street sweeper social club
rating     

Looking for the summer's most rebellious rock outfit? The search might be over. Take the crisp, satirical rhymes of Boots Riley, and the innovative, sharp riffs of Tom Morello and there you have it: Street Sweeper Social Club. Featuring Riley on vocals, Morello on guitar/bass, and drummer Stanton Moore, SSSC's self titled debut provides an extra adrenaline rush of danger that every music junky should feel pulsing through their bodies when the moment's right.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
sharon van etten
because i was in love
rating     

Sharon Van Etten's album, Because I Was In Love is the trembling frail rose, bruised with rain drops and wavering in a cold breeze, its color stripped to a minimal blush, thorns exposed, vulnerable, desperate and impossibly beautiful. There is just something about female singer songwriters of this genre...something innate and pure that manifests itself in the heartbroken slow songs.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009
dirty projectors
bitte orca
rating     

The Dirty Projectors tread a fine line in between the realms of experimental "freak folk" and complex, melody driven pop music. Luckily for the Brooklyn based band, their latest album, Bitte Orca (Domino), finds the high point of both worlds. With their intricately layered arrangements and harmonies, the album inspires not genre definitions, but instead a sure to be classic collection of beautifully crafted, bittersweet songs.

Monday, June 08, 2009
sonic youth
the eternal
rating     

To dismiss Sonic Youth as irrelevant is musically oblivious. These noise rockers practically created the genre of alternative in the eighties. Over the past ten years the band has rewarded fans with new material, despite their age; Sonic Youth never grows old. They've existed in several different incarnations, very DIY at first, sometimes label driven, moving to major label Geffen earlier in the decade.

Friday, June 05, 2009
art brut
art brut vs satan
rating     

Some bands like to sing about lofty topics such as angels and God, death and the life pursuit, or at least the hood and the government. Not Art BrutThe modern day's answer to the Modern Lovers' Jonathan Richman, Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos is content to speak-sing about public transportation, comics, chocolate milkshakes, summer jobs, and having songs stuck in your head. However, where Richman was straight-edge and somber, Argos gleefully bookends Art Brut vs Satan with two of the most triumphant hangover songs ever recorded.

Thursday, June 04, 2009
band of skulls
baby darling doll face honey
rating     

There is a lot of rock and roll history flailing about The Band of Skulls' recent new album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey (Shangri-La). So much so that any foray inside its' trenches will reveal an album that unravels layer by layer. As it plays through, expect to find several generations of music; most notably 70s blues-folk, '90s garage rock, and a more modern style of acoustic-pop.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009
harlem shakes
technicolor health
rating     

Listening to Technicolor Health, the long-awaited full-length album from Harlem Shakes, is a bit like trying to unwrap a Starburst with your tongue. Sometimes everything comes together in a colorful display of skill, everyone is impressed, and your whole day is made brighter and more delicious. Sometimes something gets tangled, you get overwhelmed by sugar and red #40, and all of a sudden you're trying to tactfully spit out paper without alerting the rest of the partygoers to your predicament. Still, it's irresistible to try.

Monday, June 01, 2009
patrick wolf
the bachelor
rating     

It is a dark and stormy night; the moon hangs round and heavy over the shadowy alleyways of London where wanton creatures with full red lips hold dominion over Dionysian celebrations. If this kind of alluring nefariousness sounds like your cup of tea, get ready to bare your fangs in delight, because Patrick Wolf has created the most devious of dance parties with his newest album, The Bachelor.

Friday, May 29, 2009
iron and wine
around the well
rating     

When it was released in '02, Iron and Wine's stunning debut The Creek Drank the Cradle planted a modest, wooded image of a stay at home folk singer; one that, if like me, most fans have had trouble shaking over the years. Never mind the crisp, studio sheen of Our Endless Numbered Days. Or the more exploratory nature of his last release, The Shepherd's Dog. Sam Beam - at least in my mind, and probably yours - remains who he was when first we met through a mix tape, way back when. Except he hasn't, and his latest release doesn't cease to challenge that notion.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
deerhunter
rainwater cassette exchange
rating     

Rainwater Cassette Exchange is kind of like Microcastle lite. It goes down easy, it's worth many listens, and it's dependably Deerhunter of the late aughts. But it's not quite a revolution of their sound, or at least an indication, and that's what I was hoping to hear.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
phoenix
wolfgang amadeus phoenix
rating     

The first words that come to mind with a title like Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix might be something like haughty, lofty, or far-fetched; after all, why would a pop rock band from Paris channel the forefather of Austrian classicism? Why not March To The Phoenix, channeling great French composer Hector Berlioz?

Friday, May 22, 2009
pink mountaintops
outside love
rating     

Casting shadows over landscapes are the trembling strings of Pink Mountaintops, quivering with each beat in a shimmery sweet ballad, before cutting through the fog with razor sharp synths, e.g. "Outside Love," where the tranquility is cut short with an epic whistle and a chordal resolution. Pink Mountains are professors at the Canadian indie school of listless grandeur, with contemporaries Arcade Fire, Stars, and the much grittier Black Mountain Collective, of which the Pinkie's were born so many years ago. For fans of this type of epic songwriting, this might be your next squeeze. Pink Mountaintops have created an album that exists outside of the focus, for an interesting, delicate complexity.

Thursday, May 21, 2009
passion pit
manners
rating     

If Animal Collective stirred a collective wig-out last winter with a melodic cast of dance-driven rock that tapped in to the more primordial side of their listeners, then Passion Pit are here to reclaim the genre for the heart. Though isn't that what one would expect from a musical project started as a Valentine's Day gift for lap top tweaker Michael Angelakos' girlfriend?

Monday, May 18, 2009
cymbals eat guitars
why there are mountains
rating     

Save for a few isolated examples, when a band's inspirations are easily cited they often get pigeonholed as imitative and unoriginal. Why There Are Mountains is one of these isolated instances where the quality of the album's composition easily outweighs the transparency of the bands' influences. In the case of Cymbals Eat Guitars, going with what's worked in the past makes for all sorts of wonderful. Progressivism is kind of overrated anyway.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
cursive
mama, i'm swollen
rating     

Development is the catalyst for warring among music fans, especially when it's mistaken for regression. Some are afraid of change, or cling desperately to a band's original sound with closed minds and plugged ears. I'm certain these types of fans will tar and feather Mama, I'm Swollen. However, that does not make it a bad record; just one that popular music critics will label as 'emo' and throw to the dogs, and fans will moodily swill nonsense about it's departure from previous success Happy Hollow. Cursive takes a rather pessimistic tone with this one ('Sad Hollow' if you will), but I certainly wouldn't lump them in with the angsty eyeliner crowd; this sounds to me more like a mid-life crisis for the indie rock veterans. Considering the shelf life of artists these days, once a band turns fourteen, they are allowed to be a tad bit reflective and moody. Growing up is tough for everyone.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009
ben folds presents
university a cappella
rating     

Most music lovers who exist in the collegiate world are familiar with their respective campus a cappella groups, existing as all male, female, co-ed, and even religious centric. In places like universities with a strong arts program or a bunch of dramatic theater majors, they can act as a surrogate football team; attracting students of all ages to rally and support every show, treating members like star quarterbacks or slam dunkers (without ever having to score a goal).

Thursday, April 30, 2009
the coward and the pelican
silhouettes ep
rating     

The Coward and the Pelican are a band of fresh-faced youngsters from Montreal, Quebec, a city that has for some time now been known as a Mecca for independent music. It is perhaps fitting then that Philippe St-Louis, his brother Etienne, their sister Evelyne, their cousin Carmen Madfouny and their friends Simon Mercier-Nguyen and Emma Glasser, all Montreal natives, have joined together in forming The Coward and the Pelican. On the band's debut Silhouettes EP they bring all the energy of their youth along with a maturity in musical composition that is beyond their years.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
years
years
rating     

You may not yet be familiar with the name Ohad Benchetrit. Or maybe it rings a few bells as a member of Do Make Say Think or Broken Social Scene. The truth is that for years now, Benchetrit has been playing all sorts of instruments, helping shape the sound of many of the well known bands in the Canadian indie music scene. It then seems appropriate that since it has taken years for Benchetrit to come into his own, on his debut solo LP he shall dub himself exactly that - Years.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
the pains of being pure at heart
self titled
rating     

It's rare that in 2009 a quality pop album creeps under the radar without any hype attached, but that's exactly what happened with the self-titled rookie outing from Brooklyn based four-piece The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Operating somewhere in between the fuzzy hum of shoegaze and the boom-boom-CRASH of amateurish garage (the good kind), The Pains... sound like the composite sketch of every 80's movie soundtrack in the same vein as The Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink-- veiled and darkly lit with all the beautifully caricatured features of obsessive teenaged idealism (kind of like Molly Ringwald, but with a leather jacket and smoking a cigarette).

Monday, April 27, 2009
the felice brothers
yonder is the clock
rating     

The Felice Brothers do as well as can be asked of any folk band living in the shadow of Dylan and Co., and Yonder is the Clock, for what it lacks in momentum, maintains its worth with a couple of choice sad songs that hang in there with the best of them.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
prefuse 73
everything she touched turned ampexian
rating     

Prefuse 73, one of the many projects of Atlanta, Georgia born Guillermo Scott Herren, has been known to put out music that is both innovative and interesting in that he merges several different genres into one. His latest unclassifiable effort, Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian, is comprised of 29 songs, though don't expect an album of epic proportions. Clocking in at 48.4 minutes, Everything She Touched is really a series of snippets, seamlessly blending into one another, making it impossible to tell where one song ends and another begins.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
doves
kingdom of rust
rating     

If Coldplay and Muse had a lovechild born without the self-indulgent swag of high-nosed, arena rock grandeur, I'd imagine it'd sound something like Doves. After having already quietly topped the UK charts with their previous two albums, the latest offering from the Cheshire trio, Kingdom of Rust, can be viewed as an attempt to penetrate the finicky taste of American pop rock.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
...and you will know us by the trail of dead
the century of self
rating     

The Century of Self, like Trail of Dead's previous two albums (So Divided and Worlds Apart), is a complex and challenging listen. But Trail of Dead also make an effort to honor those who dig the straight and narrow, employing enough of their punk rock past to allow a more simple style of immersion to present itself.

Monday, April 20, 2009
eulogies
here anonymous
rating     

Somewhere in between Americana and alt-rock, Eulogies stands as a reminder that rock music can still be nothing but guitars, drums, bass and the occasional tambourine. We tend to forget Los Angeles has more to offer than sunshine twee and progressive noise bands. Luckily Eulogies has their "Eyes On The Prize" with Here Anonymous (Dangerbird Records), an unabashed collection of self-reflective dream-rock.

Friday, April 17, 2009
camera obscura
my maudlin career
rating     

Glasgow, Scotland's Camera Obscura have been making sentimental indie kids swoon for over a decade now. During this time, the band has released three highly acclaimed full length albums...though it's been three years since last their fans heard from them. Good news though, as these indie-pop darlings are finally set to release their latest batch of cutesy love ballads entitled My Maudlin Career on brand new label home, 4AD.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
gentleman reg
jet black
rating     

Reg Vermue has been making music for almost ten years, a fact that will most likely be overlooked by casual music listeners. It feels like a debut, but only because American listeners more than likely have not encountered Reg in any real capacity. He occasionally performs with Broken Social Scene and he's tuned in to the Arts and Crafts Canadian indie scene, but these things don't necessarily mean notoriety in the US. As a direct result, picking up this record having no knowledge of Reg is like finding a great piece of vinyl in an old music store; buried treasure that's existed untapped for far too long.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
deradoorian
mind raft ep
rating     

Given Angel Deradoorian's booming contributions to the Dirty Projector's line up, Mind Raft provides a rather out of the blue experience. Put simply, this is a differentiated effort; one that will set the listener adrift in a sea of peaceful ruminations if they let it. Call it a life boat if the good ship Longstreth ever goes down

Monday, April 13, 2009
death cab for cutie
the open door ep
rating     

Taking a look at Death Cab For Cutie's career to date, it almost seems as if there have been two completely different bands at work, with only Ben Gibbard's voice providing the link between the pair. Early efforts - namely their 2001 release, The Photo Album and subsequent release, Transatlanticism - showed the potential these much beloved sentimentalists were capable of. And in 2005, it all culminated in Plans; the band's career defining album. But after three long Death Cab-less years, the band seemed to stumble a bit with their 2008 effort, Narrow Stairs. While that album might very well be their most commercially successful album to date, musically it failed to build on the greatness of Plans.

Friday, April 10, 2009
akron family
set em' wild set em' free
rating     

After releasing what was their fourth studio album back in 2007, original Akron/Family member Ryan Vanderhoof quit the band for personal reasons, leaving drummer Dana Janssen, guitarist Seth Olinsky and bassist Miles Seaton behind to try and assemble the pieces that remained. Rising to the challenge, the remaining trio are soon set to release Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (Dead Oceans); an album that, in this case, suggests less just might be more

Wednesday, April 08, 2009
bat for lashes
two suns
rating     

Though there is much to offer in this, Khan's now familiar theatric persona (in this case, it's Pearl - her latest artistic, alter ego), at times Two Suns feels a little light, failing to deliver enough cosmetic enhancement over the full course of the album.

Monday, April 06, 2009
the boy least likely to
the law of the playground
rating     

The Boy Least Likely To have been writing music together since 2002, but it wasn't until the release of their first LP, The Best Party Ever, that people began to take notice. With a brand of childish twee pop that seemed different than anything else at the time, the band brought with it a sense of innocence...almost as if the cute cartoon animals gracing the cover where the ones playing the instruments. Alas, the members of The Boy Least Likely To are not cartoon animals at all, but rather two full-grown men from Wendover, England who go by the names of Pete Hobbs and Jof Owen.

Thursday, April 02, 2009
grizzly bear
veckatimest
rating     

It's always a good thing when a band that has released albums as interesting and complete as Horn of Plenty and Yellow House manages to match and even exceed their previous work. It doesn't happen often but when it does it is truly a wonderful thing. On Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear have not only lived up to high expectations but they have managed to surpass what anybody could have hoped from them.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009
beirut
march of the zapotec and holland
rating     

For a fellow who's barely aged 23 years, Zach Condon's fallen to the bottom of a pigeonhole an astonishing number of times - with good reason. The Beirut mastermind's impressive recording career has spawned, thus far, two critically heralded albums (Gulag Orkestar and The Flying Club Cup) and two tiding EPs (Lon Gisland and Elephant Gun EP); all teeming with an indie-tinged variety of old world extravagance and well-learned European fare. He's done well, this Condon, and his desire to keep doing well may just produce a lifetime of memorable music if he keeps it up. Still, four years of similar global ramblings must dare a fellow to dream, which no doubt explains Condon's most recent release. Packaged together as a two CD set, the March of the Zapotec and Holland EPs effectively aim to usher Condon's legacy in the making in to two very new directions.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
great lake swimmers
lost channels
rating     

For years now, Great Lake Swimmers have been writing beautifully melodic and poetic folk ballads up in their northern home of Ontario, Canada. While they have a couple of songs that may be classified as rock, rarely does their music rise beyond an aroused hush. Consistency has always been one of the band's strong suits. Since the band's inception they haven't had a misstep; each album being as good if not better than the last. This holds true for their latest album, Lost Channels, on which the band takes listeners on a relaxing boat ride through the Thousand Islands region of Canada.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
the veils
sun gangs
rating     

The Veils have been through many changes since their inception in 2002. But while the band has seen its share of band members come and go, the pillar known as Finn Andrews has remained the same. Keeping with a series of cryptic album titles (The Runaway Found, Nux Vomica) the band has decided to name their latest full length LP Sun Gangs. This time around the band has provided a nice mlange of songs ranging from gritty rock anthems, to some more subdued, even eerie pieces, resulting in what can only be described as their most diverse record to date.

Friday, March 20, 2009
sholi
sholi
rating     

Kudos for contrast! The kind that dare not clash, battle, stomp on toes, or rush in to dispose of that which came before too quickly. We're for contrast that sits in the wings, waiting patiently for the precise moment to step in and mix things up in an oh so healthy kind of way. Which is why Bay Area band Sholi is such a pleasant discovery. It's variance of this sort that the pesky three piece get fat on over the course of their recently released, Quarterstick approved, debut album.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
tim fite
change of heart
rating     

Change of Heart finds Fite abandoning (mostly) the stylized, artistic persona he's created over the years. In its' place is a humble musician rummaging painful emotions, tossing tokens of loss in to the heart's fire, and fanning the flames with the pain of a broken relationship. It's heart breaking, really, not to mention the most vulnerable material Fite has released to date.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009
angus and julia stone
a book like this
rating     

It is amazing what siblings can do when they come together to make music. No I'm not talking about the Jonas Brothers or Hanson (as good as Mmm Bop was). But think about bands like the Beach Boys, the Kinks and AC/DC. Or how about some more contemporary bands, like Kings of Leon and Radiohead? The fact is siblings (usually) make good music. Now we can add to that distinguished list a brother/sister duo from Sydney, Australia. They go by the name of Angus and Julia Stone.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009
clare and the reasons
the movie
rating     

How often can you tell if an album will be good by listening to the first ten seconds? Not very often. Usually, it takes at least two or three songs, or sometimes two of three listens to the album in its entirety to get the full scope of what you are hearing. On Clare and the Reasons debut LP The Movie, it doesn't take long for one to come to the realization that this isn't just another band releasing an album into a sea of mediocrity. This is a special piece of musical art.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
the end of the world
french exit
rating     

When a band called The End of the World pens an album called French Exit, it's fairly obvious the folks behind it have the cessation of things squarely on their mind. Drummer/vocalist Stefan Marolachakis and guitarist Benjamin Smith named their second full-length recording after the not so polite term meaning "to leave without saying goodbye." It's a sour sort of sentiment for sure, but one that's draped over most of the narratives that inhabit the recording, nonetheless.

Friday, February 20, 2009
handsome furs
face control
rating     

The Handsome Furs have a problem. Publicly, Dan Boeckner and his wife, Alexei Perry, don't exactly shy away from letting the world know they like to get it on. Check out any number of grope and grab photo jobs, or a topless pic that accompanies the artwork of their latest release for sufficient evidence of that. Call it crass, classless, skeezy, etc. Whatever you deem it though, chances are, it's exactly what these horny Habitants are going for; in real life, and on record.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
black lips
200 million thousand
rating     

With the amount of albums that are released each year, timelessness is a quality that is rarely found in much of today's music. If in fact you're lucky enough to stumble across such a record? Well, it's generally a wonderful thing. Which is what makes the Black Lips' latest album, 200 Million Thousand (Vice Records), so refreshing. Timeless, it seems, is something these boys had time to focus on when they wrote and recorded it.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
m. ward
hold time
rating     

Matt Ward has always kept the kind of celebrity company that would one day make him...well, a celebrity himself. Folks like Jim James, Conor Oberst, Norah Jones, and Neko Case have always flocked to the Portland singer/songwriter, and for good reason. For nearly a decade Ward has churned out an impressive catalogue indeed. End of Amnesia, Transfiguration of Vincent, Transistor Radio, Post-War; Ward has spent the century thus far assembling an alluring blend of backwoods folk, rock, and pop on an incredibly consistent basis. And then Zooey Deschanel came along.

Friday, February 13, 2009
heartless bastards
the mountain
rating     

Best bar band in America: For the last few years, that title has fallen squarely in the court of the mighty Hold Steady. But is their vibe truly that of the dive's? Does Craig Finn's nerdy banter really resemble the rough and tumble demeanor of the average bar keep? Is the spirit of the crazy man muttering to himself in the corner alive and well in an album called Stay Positive? If by chance the band fails to tap into the kind of tunes that send the perfume of stale beer and even staler piss drifting by your nose, Dayton OH's Heartless Bastards are here for you. One listen to their third LP The Mountain will plop you right down on the ripped, worn, and warm bar stool of the mind's eye.

Thursday, February 12, 2009
metric
fantasies
rating     

Depending on who you ask, Metric is a Canadian band that was formed in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. Some Americans, however, claim Metric as their own, having been formed in New York City. Wherever they call home, it seems everybody wants to claim Metric as a band from their hometown, and understandably so considering how over the last decade, Metric has solidified their place as one of the most respected bands in the indie music scene.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
my brightest diamond
a thousand shark's teeth
rating     

Classical music for the masses. This is what Shara Wardon, more commonly known as My Brightest Diamond, brings to us on her latest album, A Thousand Shark's Teeth (Asthmatic Kitty). Don't get me wrong; this isn't music your grandfather will listen to. It is simply music that is overflowing with lush and intricate instrumentation resulting in an album that is not only remarkable, but also a musical gem.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009
lily allen
it's not me, it's you
rating     

How does one create that perfect pop song? Is the recipe merely a catchy beat and simple lyrics that everyone can sing along to? Perhaps it's just the right marketing? Or is there more to it than that? If you compare Lily Allen's new album with some of the other pop albums out there right now you will get your answer.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009
constantines
kensington heights
rating     

When Canadian cult-rockers Constantines released Kensington Heights last April, the reaction it spawned was that of a subtle shocker. Three albums deep (Constantines, Shine a Light, Tournament of Heart), the perpetually, "always-on-the-verge" outfit could lay claim to an impressive linage of blue-collar kind of fare. But this - the album that signaled the band's jump from Sub Pop to Arts and Crafts - was something...different.

Friday, January 30, 2009
cotton jones
paranoid cocoon
rating     

Paranoid Cocoon (Suicide Squeeze Records) is the first full length release from Page France front man Michael Nau under his new moniker, Cotton Jones. While it would be easy to compare this record to Nau's previous releases with Page France, it seems pointless to do so because they are, according to Nau, two completely different projects. Joining Nau in Cotton Jones is Whitney McGraw who was also a member of Page France. Her soft voice is laced throughout the album, making every song she sings in sound just a little bit sweeter and a little more innocent. Her voice is the perfect counter-balance to Nau's raspy drawl. And if the Page France influence wasn't quite strong enough, Clinton Jones, Page France drummer, designed the albums quirky layout and artwork.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
mirah
(a)spera
rating     

Mirah oh Mirah, where have you been? It seems like forever since we have had new music from the Portland singer songwriter, but the good news is she has finally returned with a new album to grace our ears and touch our hearts. This is Mirah's first full length album since her excellent 2004 release, C'mon Miracle. The new album is entitled (a)spera, which is Latin for 'rough', and upon listening to the first track it becomes apparent that she hasn't missed a beat. Mirah has teamed up with Phil Elverum (The Microphones) along with Tucker Martine (Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists) and Adam Selzer (M. Ward) on this album, which yields impressive results. (a)spera is a musical journey. A journey through many different melodies and emotions in which no two songs sound alike and we are treated to many sounds that would not normally be associated with Mirah's music. Judging by the album's cover art, which displays Mirah in what appears to be some sort of futuristic Ice Planet, with an octopus like creature on her shoulder, and a pyramid resting in her hand, she is ready for the journey.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
ben kweller
changing horses
rating     

One of the perks of being a musician, or any sort of artist really, is the freedom to express yourself in any way you wish. Artists can, on a whim, decide to stop what their doing and try something completely different, whenever they please. Many times it is a conscious decision and often it is just change that comes with living and experiencing different things. Whether Ben Kweller decided to write a country album or whether that's just how it turned out is unclear. What is for sure is that Kweller's new album deviates from anything he has done in the past. Fortunately it is also one of his best albums to date.

Sunday, January 25, 2009
andrew bird
noble beast
rating     

Youth and energy has its' definite place in music. Young, gun slinging musicians exuding careless confidence and shit pots of stamina for their booze infused, sexually motivated lifestyles will always be a necessary cog to keep the spirit and vigor of rock and roll cranking along. But as fun as goofing off at the kid's table with these punks can be, breaking a bit of bread with some honest to god adults is often beneficial behavior as well. It's there, after all, where life's more profound themes are discussed at length. It's there where people try and define what their lives are, or what they should be. It's there where "soul food" is generally the cuisine of choice. It's also there where listeners get the chance to pull up a chair with Andrew Bird on his latest release, Noble Beasts.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
matt and kim
grand
rating     

If there's one awfully big, double dare kind of challenge that'll always sit in front of any new recording effort tenderhearted, Brooklyn duo Matt and Kim enter in to, it's the daunting task of attempting to go toe to toe with their manic, live performances on record. Just how does one capture the penultimate energy, slightly inebriated edge, and punky passion that pours from the stage night after night on album? I suppose the answer is you don't. Thankfully, Matt and Kim know this. How else do you explain the band's rather blaring move towards a more natural sounding set of songs on their newest long player Grand?

Monday, January 19, 2009
animal collective -
Merriweather Post Pavilion
rating     

There isn't a whole lot to say about Merriweather Post Pavilion that hasn't already been said. As a product of a hyperactive blog culture, the latest full-length album from Brooklyn/Baltimore based Animal Collective is as divisive an offering as they come. On one hand, you have the obsessives who approach every Animal Collective related project with wide-eyed acclaim and suffocating enthusiasm, while on the other side you have the tunnel vision pundits who hold firm that the band and all its byproducts are a vacuous representation of a vampiric hype culture. However, to say that the answer lies somewhere in between would be way too easy-- the truth is, Merriweather Post Pavilion is an accurate representation of both sides of the argument with very little wiggle room in between. In short, yes, it is overhyped beyond reasonable measure, however, it's also very, very good, and is without a doubt worthy of the polarizing dialogue it inspires.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
audrye sessions
audrye sessions
rating     

Forget responding to that offensive invitation to your 10th anniversary, high school reunion. On their soon to be released, self-titled LP, Audrye Sessions seem more than happy to take you screeching back to those awkward, lovesick days when, chances are all you ever really wanted to do was disappear deep inside a deafening soundtrack of Siamese Dream, Vs., and The Bends. Unless of course you just so happened to actually get the itch to strap on one of those electric guitars for yourself. Then mimicking your early '90's idols was how you dreamed your days away.

Friday, January 09, 2009
bon iver
blood bank ep
rating     

Broken hearted bastards beware. Bon Iver has emerged with a brand new, albeit miniature, set of songs that's sure to tug on your most tattered of strings...but I'm guessing you'll actually be all for it. I know I am.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009
cory chisel and the wandering souls
Cabin Ghosts EP
rating     

So Wisconsin is where the broken hearted go to lick their wounds? That is of course where Justin Vernon famously retreated to in order to sew his soul back together...oh, and he emerged with last year's undeniable masterstroke, Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago in the process. Now it seems the state is handing down another no frills kind of folkie in the immensely talented Cory Chisel. And though he and his Wandering Sons released the Cabin Ghosts EP (Black Seal) several months ago, the mostly heavy heart that pumps through these six songs should do for Chisel what it did for Vernon just over a year ago. Here's hoping, anyway...

Friday, December 05, 2008
kanye west
808s and Heartbreak
rating     

...Kanye West doesn't care, or perhaps more accurately, he's not afraid to show us that he does. As an artist he's unique in that he's in the coveted position of being able to transcend the inherent limitations of his own genre. He's afforded the same rarity of free reign granted to Prince, Michael Jackson, the Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles, and Thom Yorke before him; the only difference is that Kanye does it while tight-rope walking through the faster than light blogosphere of the 2k generation; between Kanye West, the man, and Kanye West, the larger than life ethos. He's the only artist alive bigger than his own giant sound, bigger than his own art, and that's what makes his recent release of 808s and Heartbreak so damn fascinatingit's hip-hops biggest idol violating every cardinal rule that hip-hop has ever held sacred, and, above all else, doing it in style.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008
japanese motors
japanese motors
rating     

As the calendar begins to dial up the dead and dreary winter months that lay ahead, it's sometimes all to easy for those folks who actually have to put themselves through the four season cycle to mourn the better times when the weather was a bit more sizzling. With this in mind, I present to you seasonally sentimental readers Japanese Motor's self-titled Vice debut; a collection of leisurely surf punk, rock and roll that's sure to trigger the internal flicker of sappy memories from the summer (or any other temperate time, for that matter) that was.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008
stars
bad robots ep
rating     

Stars never seem to think twice about finding and flattening their listener's emotional core. I suppose that could explain why "Your Ex-Lover is Dead", the lead track from'05's Set Yourself On Fire, continues to follow me around to this very day. Creeping into randomly generated play lists (far too often!), blasting from crowded bar room speakers; Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell's tragically painted vocal interplay takes the most cosmically opportune times to slay me right then and there time and time again. Sadly, last year's follow-up, In Our Bedroom After the War, lacked the same kind of emotional punch. There's no time like the present, however, and the recently released Sad Robots EP (Arts and Crafts) offers plenty of reasons to stick with the band on in to After the War's full-length follow-up.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
department of eagles
in ear park
rating     

Happenstance is one spooky phenomenon. Think about it. Examine the place you call home, the people you share your life with, and that which keeps you busy from day to day. Chances are these are the random results of monumental kind of coincidences. Your entire life, in fact, is the grand result of some spectacular moment slowly unfurling itself over time. Of course, you already know this, so what's my point? Well, these strange sorts of synchronisms are important. Without them, music fans most assuredly would have missed out on two of the better bands going these days.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
88 keys
the death of adam
rating     

To most listeners, 88 Keys' The Death of Adam (Decon) will most likely touch a nerve. In a word, the Harlem rapper's modern resurrection of the Biblical fall from grace comes off as just a bit misogynous. Of course, if you, like 88 no doubt, see the honest to god humor in this cautionary tale, then there's a pretty good hip hop album to be had here.

Monday, November 17, 2008
little joy
little joy
rating     

When bands break-up, sometimes everyone wins. Take the disappearing act post-9/11 rock revivalists The Strokes performed after their '06 album First Impressions of Earth failed to deliver the goods. As it turns out, the album would be the public's last impression of these stylish young trailblazers. And while the band's early '00 efforts were, in retrospect, kind of monumental for the genre they helped recover, The Strokes' undoing was a-ok. Not only was First Impressions, how do I put this, really bad, but the solo recordings guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. released in the band's wake helped to keep the band's original sonic aura aglow. And while Hammond's had the market for post-Stroke relevance cornered up to this point (that Converse commercial Julian participated in does not count), drummer Fabrizio Moretti recently threw his hat in the ring. And wouldn't you know it? His effervescently titled new trio Little Joy might have just upped the ante.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
dodos
visiter
rating     

Listeners should prepare to shed any two man expectations when taking stock in the hollow body sweat and bombastic stomp that is the Dodo's sophomore release, Visiter (Frenchkiss). Familiar touchstones like The Black Keys, The Kills, and The White Stripes just can't provide a proper framework in which to consider guitarist/vocalist Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber's best of '08 kind of release.

Friday, November 07, 2008
The Gaslight Anthem
The '59 Sound
rating     

It's a shame I happened upon The Gaslight Anthem when I did. The New Brunswick NJ outfit's blazing brand of true blue rock and roll would have struck an appropriately monumental tone just three nights prior. Having found myself all but losing my shit in a fantastic, new found feeling of civic pride (along with a delusional pack of hundreds, mind you) at the intersection of Bedford and North 7th in Brooklyn, the only thing missing from such an extraordinary moment was a fitting, cinematic soundtrack blasting, at the very least, in my own head. But, alas, it was in the wake of Tuesday's events, on Wednesday, that I first heard The '59 Sound...which, I suppose will have to do.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
blitzen trapper
furr
rating     

Blitzen Trapper are good. Real good. As indicated by the acclaim garnered to their 2007 breakout, Wild Mountain Nation, this Portland based sextet can hang in there with the best of 'em. Their newest offering on the Sub Pop label, Furr, twangs, bangs, stomps, and coos with an Americana ferocity that's both country revivalist and, surprisingly enough, refreshingly sincere.

Friday, October 31, 2008
love is all
a hundred things keep me up at night
rating     

No, that's not Dick Dale sliding down the guitar neck on "New Beginnings"...though that doesn't mean the opening track of Love is All's excellent new disc A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night (What's Your Rupture?) doesn't set a totally tubular kind of tone from the get go. Devoted fans and newcomers alike: prepare yourselves for giddy gobs of party starting pop from listen one. Electric tempos, gigantic breakdowns, spazzed out saxophone lines, "ba ba ba's" galore, and Josephine Olausson's faintly accented vocal yelps all help to minister the group's second recorded outing a genuine success.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
king khan and the shrines
the supreme genius of...
rating     

Don't be deceived by the scratchy, vinyl hiss that accompanies The Supreme Genius of King Khan. The nasty, psycho soul and raunchy rhythm and blues that sweats and swelters over the course of this electric collection wasn't compiled from a few pieces of wax someone, somewhere just sort of happened upon. No, King "Bama Lama" Khan and his 12-piece big band are very much of the here and now...a fantastic fact that'll have listeners testifying live in the court of Khan soon after the sixteen tracks offered here have run 'em clear over.

Thursday, October 23, 2008
cold war kids
loyalty to loyalty
rating     

The problem with revivalist rock in general is that it's oftentimes so niched and limited by the very history it draws from that it paints itself into a corner before eventually fading back into obscurity. The room for innovation just isn't there, and if music in itself is a progressive art form, then it's a nearly impossible task for revivalist bands to stay fresh and relevant. Compounded with the career defining test of making a sophomore album that doesn't suck, and Long Beach, CA's Cold War Kids had quite a daunting task ahead of them. Their second full length offering, Loyalty to Loyalty is, more or less, the exact same brand of Americana soul we've become accustomed to. In this instance, however, more of the same isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
boo and boo too
no tempo
rating     

Loud and unapologetic, Kansas based Boo and Boo Too play a brand of raunchy shoegaze rock that taps into the noisy pulse of old New York City no wave. Their full length debut, No Tempo (Ironpaw/Chomp Womp) is a feedback laden monstrosity that can be likened to The Walkmen, but with an undeniably charismatic sprinkling of indie-pop charm. It's a sound that's both tirelessly aggressive and darkly robust, like a double shot of expresso Americano filtered through with Red Bull-- sugary sweet and distinctly heart pounding.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
im from barcelona
who killed harry houdini?
rating     

If there was an award for the 2nd catchiest song titled "Paper Planes" released within the last year, it'd hands down go to this group. I'm From Barcelona are a 29+ member band (!) counter intuitively hailing from Jnkping, Sweden. Led by songwriter Emanuel Lundgren, the bands' latest offering Who Killed Harry Houdini? (Mute) is a goldmine of indie pop paradigms - vibrant instrumentation underneath intelligent, poppy verses interspersing grandiosely memorable choruses.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
icy demons
miami ice
rating     

Icy Demons are a five piece experimental outfit hailing from Chicago. Comprised of members form Chicago notables like Bablicon's Griffin Rodriguez (under the pseudonym Blue Hawaii), and Man Man's Christopher Powell, Icy Demons make music that borrows elements as diverse as samba, dub, electronica, and no wave noise to form a sound that explicitly defies categorization. Their third full length offering, Miami Ice, sounds like a compilation soundtrack of old Nintendo games over the sandy rhythms of a Jamaican beach resort. It's earnestly invigorating and, oddly enough, easily approachable for an experimental album that's as out there as this is.

Friday, October 10, 2008
school of seven bells
alpinisms
rating     

In a vast sea of female lead indie rock bands, School of Seven Bells set themselves apart from the rest of the Feist doppelgangers with an unwavering duet of bright, intelligent, and harmonious pop. The stylings of twin vocalists Alejandra and Claudia Deheza never step over one another rather, we're treated to a synchronized vocal dance, with each voice weaving in and out of each other's way with an almost telekinetic precision that only twin-ship would be able to afford.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008
the rosebuds
life like
rating     

Perhaps the myriad of contrasts is an indication of the bands' latent creativity-- they're fully capable of covering a wide range of musical ground from album to album, drawing from all sorts of worldly influences without being pinned down by the inherent limitations of having "a sound." Or perhaps it's indicative of the creative direction the Raleigh, North Carolina duo are headed in, focusing rather on the inward, haunting complexity of the human psyche. Whatever the case, Life Like is a 33-minute collection of ten songs that couldn't be titled more appropriately.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008
john brown's body
amplify
rating     

Setting an appropriately triumphant tone from the get go, Amplify is a thick, heavyset collection of reggae anthems that are strikingly contemporary in nature. Sure, tracks like "Be at Peace" and "Give Yourself Over" stem from classic, roots reggae influences. But JBB lift some serious weight on Amplify, beefing up traditional bedrock with a walloping, syncopated low end, a crisp, percussive shuffle, and big, bad, and bold brass horns. Progressing things along even further, the record exploits the genre for a fitting vehicle to chauffeur other modern influences to the surface.

Friday, October 03, 2008
born ruffians
little garcon ep
rating     

The Born Ruffian's are a three piece set hailing from Toronto, Canada. The EP follow up to their Red Yellow Blue full length, Little Garcon sounds kind of like the jukebox of your local, neighborhood dive bar at 1 am, jumping around with sing-song-y familiarity, an underlying country twang, and a healthy scoop of in-song unpredictability that has everyone in the bar drunkily mouthing along the wrong lyrics.

Thursday, October 02, 2008
the spinto band
moonwink
rating     

Remember how The OC made a Transatlanticism-era Death Cab the biggest band on the planet for a little bit? And then remember how all your friends swooned over how Garden State was "quirky and deep" and had a soundtrack that featured 20 or so songs from The Shins? Ah, the good ol' days of indie nerd pop.

Well, just when you thought nerd rock was like, sooo 2005, a group of guys out of Delaware (I know, right?) have crept in under the radar with a full length album fully capable of restoring book-rock back to its former glory.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
the black lips
good bad not evil
rating     

Listening to The Black Lips is kind of like the first time you watched South Park back in the 90s. At first, you heard about the show from some friends who hyped it up as "the craziest shit ever", so you caught an episode on TV but still approached it with a heavy dose of skepticism. After ten minutes and about 42 F-bombs in, you realize you've been suckered in by the whole WTF absurdity of a half hour cartoon devoted to construction paper third graders cussing, dying, and hanging out with Satan on national television. You were hooked.

Friday, September 26, 2008
Deerhunter
Microcastle
rating     

It can not be denied. The inspirational pull of one Bradford Cox is a rather mighty one. The lanky, Atlanta based musician has spent the better part of the last two years invigorating the passion and enthusiasm of certain ranks of indie music fans; quite a feat considering such a base is often accused of being indifferent, uninspired, and frankly a bit uppity. So how's he done it?

Thursday, September 25, 2008
birdmonster
from the moutain to the sea
rating     

Back in 2004 Peter Arcuni teamed up with Justin Tenuto, David Klein, and Zach Winter to create what is now Birdmonster. That same year, their self-titled album hit the circuit, and, not long after, was followed up with No Midnight. Through that record the group of Californian musicians gained thorough recognition, jumping on tour to open for bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tapes N' Tapes, Coldwar Kids and The National.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008
joan as police woman
to survive
rating     

Any discussion of a new album by Joan as Police Woman will usually be couched in the same introductory notes, for the benefit of those who weren't already introduced to them in their 2006 debut, Real Life. Most are quick to point out that frontwoman Joan Wasser's ex-boyfriend was the late Jeff Buckley, who died of a freak drowning accident after only releasing one album, Grace. Ok, that's out of the way. Of course, she's been in the music scene for years, playing with various acts. In To Survive, we certainly see many musical sources, and that her sound extends far beyond the niche that female singer-songwriters have been carving for themselves over the past few years.

Thursday, September 04, 2008
calexico
carried to dust
rating     

There always seems to be an heir of predictability that accompanies any new Calexico release. Their's is a history of crop dusted, Southwestern fare; a songwriting tendency Joey Burns and John Convertino are hopelessly joined to the hip with by now. So while the band will probably not incite any kind of hysteria with their latest record, Carried to Dust (Quarterstick), it is certainly a release worth noting. Put simply, Calexico are not an exercise in the tried and true. For that, Carried to Dust is an exceptionally worthy listen.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008
the silent years
the globe
rating     

"The Globe" is certainly just a small fraction of what indie dreamers The Silent years are looking to reach with their third studio album; far-off dimensions and the nether-regions of space and time seem more appropriate a goal for the intricate crafts of this album. Lead singer Josh Epstein must say "everybody" like thirty times... the target audience is obvious, and the glam of the sound is certainly universally appealing. The songs all reach for epic status, with some hitting and some missing; and all of them ultimately averaging out for an enjoyable, if not legendary experience.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
the verve
forth
rating     

I suppose there are those who will tell you that the Verve are as important as any band to bust out of Britain in the mid nineties - though I can only suppose as I have personally never met such a person. But they're out there, and again - I can only suppose here - are most likely excited about Forth; the first album from Richard Ashcroft and co. in eleven years. But if the band had any desire to pick up new converts, or impress those who know them only as the band that ripped off the Stones (effectively making their biggest single a massive wash) they may want to consider casting a penny into the nearest fountain they can find. Their wish? One that will allow them to give their comeback album another go. Because this baby is a bit of a bore...one that actually makes Coldplay's latest like a walk on the wild side.

Monday, August 25, 2008
bloc party
intimacy
rating     

Chopped up, simmered and stewed is how the tried and true, hit-and-miss brits Bloc Party are sounding. The instant classic Silent Alarm and the less-than-intergalatic A Weekend in the City are on the same plate, smooshed together, ushering the band into a gray area of electronic blip rock. Then again, this record oscillates from an uncertain future to the typical Kele Okereke and the boys. There is a little something for everyone... the question is, is it enough of anything to please?

Friday, August 22, 2008
death vessel
nothing is precious enough for us
rating     

Once again, the infectious, androgynous soprano of Joel Thibodeau comes alive in a rambling, sprawling, genre-splitting noise machine. Expectations are as stripped down as the honest instrumentation, as Thibodeau beckons us to wake in his lush, high pitched blues. But it's also folk, alt-folk, jazz, and at times, indescribable in it's eccentricity. Actually, the only thing certain on this record is a general sense of anything but the lackadaisical. This is a well whittled piece of wood, crafted with care.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
lykke li
youth novels
rating     

Minimalism, percussive focus, and crooning vocal prowess all find a home on Youth Novels, fourteen chapters of nomadic chanting, with a Swedish heart. Newcomer, globetrotter, and New York City poseur Lykke Li once masqueraded the big apple karaoke dives as a Swedish superstar (she was not). Her debut shows serious swagger... so much so, she may no longer need such a mask.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
ra ra riot
the rhumb line
rating     

When Ra Ra Riot lost their original drummer, 23 year old John Pike, to an accidental drowning back in June of '07, somehow, the band picked up the emotional pieces and mustered enough strength to forge ahead. Not too long after the accident, the band was back on the road, following their spunky, collegiate brand of indie pop wherever it could take them...so quickly in fact, one might forgive anyone who presumed Pike's passing hadn't quite sunk in. But on their brilliantly crafted debut disc The Rhumb Line, any doubts concerning how these co-eds coped with such an ultimate loss, are quickly invalidated. Pike's death must have ripped them apart, making The Rhumb Line (Barsuk) a very touching tribute to a legacy snuffed painfully too short.

Monday, August 18, 2008
conor oberst
conor oberst
rating     

Whats in a name? If your'e indie rocks most emo-centric pusher of pouty, acoustic poetry, plenty...especially considering this release marks the first time in thirteen years Conor Oberst hasn't hid behind any trusty monikers (Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos, Commander Venus). Free of pseudonyms, this self titled affair should, by definition, come detached from the puppet master's strings. Honest, stripped down, a piece of meat ready for your consumption; Oberst tears the doors off the closet here. Except, he has always done that with his various projects, so what exactly is the point?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
dandy warhols
earth to the dandy warhols
rating     

If I had to summarize the Dandy Warhols' career in a single word, "evolution" isn't the one that comes to mind. Most bands that survive past an album or two evolve, but the word implies too linear a course, as though some ultimate goal exists, whereas I'm not convinced that even the Dandy Warhols know exactly where the Dandy Warhols are heading. "Migration" might be a better fit. Like a rocking tribe of homosapiens, the Portland band have been criss-crossing the musical landscape since 1995's Dandy Rule, OK?, and their latest release is no exception. Earth To The Dandy Warhols, the Dandys' most sprawling record to date, seems to take a retrospective view of the groups' journey until this point -- surveys the wilderness, so to speak -- but the Dandys remain anything but sedentary.

Friday, August 08, 2008
apollo sunshine
shall noise upon
rating     

Nostalgia can sometimes be a good thing, especially for an era of happiness, harmony and love. Certainly a good reference point for a band to point to, especially one as well versed in pyschedelics and near-comical throwback songwriting. Thus Apollo Sunshine succeed and fail at the same time: here is an album of music we already knew we loved, but don't need to survive. It's good music and well written, it's fun to listen to, but it's nothing that the children of the 60's didn't already dream about.

Thursday, August 07, 2008
the airborne toxic event
the airborne toxic event
rating     

What happens to a person when his mother is diagnosed with lung cancer, he himself is diagnosed with a genetic autoimmune disease and comes down with pneumonia while sitting at his mother's death bed going through nicotine withdrawl from quitting his two pack a day habit cold turkey and then his long-term girlfriend breaks up with him? Because if it's anything like this album, then I'm going to be wishing ill on a lot more people.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
bodies of water
a certain feeling
rating     

The unnavigable sea of music is often unforgiving to the simplest of bands, pawning them off as cheap knockoffs or boring, uninspiring muck. I can see how the worlds of snobbery could swing both ways on Bodies of Water, either praising the melodic structure, gospel/punk/folk influences all smooshed together and whipped or tearing it down for being uninspiring or failing. I'm going to join the praise camp; this is an album that is both refreshing, and inviting, striking a delightfully cohesive and interesting tone throughout. Comparisons to the Mamas and the Papas is certain, but the true channel is new favorites like Port O'Brien. Replay value is taken for granted, and scarce... which is why an album like this is like Christmas in August.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
atmopshere
when life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold
rating     

When "Like the Rest of Us", the first track on Atmosphere's latest release When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (Rhymesayers), arrives at your eardrums, you expect to hear the very articulate and highly emotional intensity that Slug and Ant are known for. Instead you get resignation. The stories about broken people, down on their luck, and Slugs personal struggles are all still there. However, this time they're told from the perspective of people who have accepted their position in life and have stopped dreaming of a better future for themselves.

Friday, August 01, 2008
cansei de ser sexy
donkey
rating     

I never know what to expect from Cansei de Ser Sexy. An album named after a burro? Artwork featuring a giant glass animal head? Songs like "Jager Yoga?" What you can expect is more double time hand clapping, more Lovefoxxx, and more of the same pop-lectro dizzying So Paulo rock music. Except this time, CSS is setting their guns to stun, with little result: it's not stunning, and we're not stunned. But hey, we're still dancing.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
albert hammond jr.
cmo te llama?
rating     

The second time around for Strokes guitarist and all-around rocker Albert Hammond Jr. has bigger sights, and bigger ambitions. The general public had the same ambitions, and we're only meeting Al halfway: the good and the bad mesh on the album to create something enjoyable and very non-esoteric, if not slightly disappointing.

Monday, July 28, 2008
black kids
partie traumatic
rating     

In 2007 a brief digital EP entitled Wizard of Ahhhs was released, to much acclaim from, yes, you guessed it, the blogs. Everyone and their sister was chanting "he's got two left feet and he bites my moves," and it was good.Black Kids, the rag-tag bunch from Jacksonville, knew how to make us dance, even with terrible production and absolutely no label support. Since then, lots of paper has been signed, lots of studio time has been bought, and the end result are the raw, grainy tracks once heard for free all waxed, polished, and passed off as something sellable. Are Black Kids part of the next wave of successful major label pop? Or are they a hyped up sucker-punch, nothing more than another false sense of success? Is this a "partie," or simply just traumatic?

Monday, July 21, 2008
dr. dog
fate
rating     

Back with the album they were destined to make (apparently) are Philadelphia’s pysch-rock heroes, Dr. Dog. Fate (Park the Van) is full of songs that make the comparisons to The Beatles and The Band apt ones, if only for the style of it, not the significance. This isn't Dr. Dog's breakout record. But it's still fun to listen to.

Friday, July 18, 2008
the hold steady
stay positive
rating     

It's pretty straight-forward guys. The first twenty seconds lays it out:

"Me and my friends are like the drums on "Lust for Life”/
We pound it out on floor toms/
Our psalms are sing-along songs"

What more do you need to know, other than Craig Finn and "his friends" have pulled it off again. New classic rock.

Friday, July 18, 2008
anna ternheim
halfway to fivepoints
rating     

On Anna Ternheim’s American debut Halfway to Fivepoints (Decca), fans with discerning musical tastes may notice a couple immediate objections upon first inspection. 1) There is a rather major kind of record label staring back at you from the cover; a definite red flag for many fans of independent rock. 2) These songs could very easily end up on an episode of One Tree Hill. That’s right…I said One Tree Hill!

But a funny thing happens to those who are resilient enough to overlook such “offenses”, and give Halfway to Fivepoints a proper play through.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008
HEALTH
HEALTH//DISCO
rating     

It's not often that a band infamous for shocking and screeching, making noise and taking names, will ever meet you halfway. And yet, the LA kings of ambient confusion have allowed their strange yells, loud treble outbursts, and tribal drums to be stripped and remixed to appeal to a more mainstream audience. Mind you, "more mainstream" means a person still willing to listen to some of the insanity, with scattered bass thumps and synth pads. A handful of the guest remixers even chose to include less HEALTH and more beat, but whatever the combination, the end result is something that you might actually be able to spin at a social gathering, without hard drugs.

Thursday, July 10, 2008
Port O'Brien
All We Could Do Was Sing
rating     

No one should be surprised to discover that at the core of this band is a man named Van Pierszalowski, who every summer, works on his fathers commercial salmon fishing boat on Kodiak Island in Alaska (dubbed The Shawnee). And a woman, named Cambria Goodwin, who used to live in the coastal town she shares her name with. These things are ingrained, even screaming, at the heart of this record. Without them, it wouldn't make any sense. One sound clip depicts two people discussing trying to "get out" and "beat the weather" that will eventually fall on them. The alternative? "Stay and suffer." Certainly this is the dichotomy at the heart of the record.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Mugison
Mugiboogie
rating     

I love Iceland. Any country famous for it's daringly unique music has my vote. From singer/professional weirdo Bjork to legendary epic balladeers Sigur Ros, the roster is awe-inspiring. One such juggernaut of musicality, though less well-known, is a grizzly looking chap named Mugison.Trading laptops and synth pads for more raw ingredients like guitars, horns, and the organ, Icelands very own Jack-of-all-genres returns to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to. Sometimes he wants to riff a bluesy foot-thumper with a twinge of distortion. Sometimes he wants to scream as loud as he can over confusion and chaos. Sometimes he wants to moan "Jesus." One thing he never wants to do, however is bore us. Welcome to forty minutes of anything but the expected.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Son Ambulance
Someone Else's Déjà vu
rating     

Someone Else's Déjà vu (Saddle Creek), the latest release from sort-of-duo Son Ambulance (Joseph Knapp wrote most of the material, but collaborated with Jeffrey Koster), is about as appropriate a title this album could ever have. Take, for example, "A Girl in New York City," the samba-soaked track that recalls another girl from Ipanima, though it is broken up with early Kinks-style guitar riffs. The voice is at times a dead ringer for Art Garfunkel, and yet I also found myself thinking about college girl-favorites, Guster, complete with those soothing vocal harmonies. "Quand Tu Marches Seul" feels like the Spanish ballads from a Tarantino soundtrack, but with a flavor of Leonard Cohen. The Elvis Costello-sounding "Wild Roses," and "Yesterday Morning" continue this theme of songwriting-storytellers.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Hercules and Love Affair
Hercules and Love Affair
rating     

Like a time machine to the past, or a look into the future, New York DJ Andrew Butler has made one of 2008's most talked about records. Why the chatter? It's not the disco, although the album is quite a tribute to dance music of the decade of Tab and Saturday Night Fever. It's not Antony Hegarty, who is the voice of most of the 10 tracks on Hercules. No, it's something else, a combination of forward thinking and nostalgia that bustles along to pulsing octave jumping basslines. It's the genuine surprise as I lay a foot tap to glitzy vocals and horns. It's a sign that maybe the American dance record isn't dead.

Monday, June 30, 2008
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III
rating     

With a release date of upwards of six months ago, the hype surrounding Weezy F Baby's tha Carter III could not have been any higher. Common released Finding Forever, Ye released Graduation, Jay released American Gangster, and Lupe released the Cool, leaving hip hop fans thirsty for nothing more than the next installment in the carter series, an album which, based on the previous success of tha Carter II, could have been Lil Wayne's claim to the throne in the form of a much needed classic. Finally released on June 10th, tha Carter III would unfortunately come as close to meeting its expectations as the Lakers would come to winning game 6 of the 2008 NBA finals.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008
KaiserCartel
March Forth
rating     

The sentiment is mutual at the beginning of March Forth... another guy/girl happy-go-lucky couple/songwriting pair? "Oh no." Yet by the end of the record, and even the end of the opening track, the building and swooning of the songs win us over... even if we've heard it before.

Friday, June 20, 2008
my morning jacket
evil urges
rating     

There’s always been something slightly slimy about pigeon holing My Morning Jacket. Yes, Louisville KY’s native sons did kick their career off with three recorded efforts that played like whiskey soaked forays into the heart of Southern rock; discs that never sounded entirely like Skynyrd, yet somehow felt authentically close (even more so when the band churned their way through a rendition of “Free Bird” in Cameron Crowe’s 2005 flick Elizabethtown). But Jim James has never seemed completely comfortable with such Southern touchstones, and the assemblage of musicians surrounding him too talented to be one dimensional. Splayed with bits of dub, reggae, and soul, their ’05 album Z felt like the final swan song of their still mostly Southern sounding pedigree. The writing was on the wall. My Morning Jacket could do something different…something extreme even.

Thursday, June 19, 2008
the notwist
the devil, you + me
rating     

After a long hiatus, the follow up to Neon Golden (which dropped in 2002)has appeared. We're happy to report it's the same kind of electronica-pop which made the band infamous, while capturing a new kind of foreboding with it's on-the-edge constructions. Each track feels closer and closer to disaster, and that's part of the appeal of the record: the movement to darkness is beautiful and intricate. Almost like music to watch a natural disaster to... in slow motion. Something equally depressing and awe-inspiring. Marcus and Micha Acher dare the world to "bring in the trouble."

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Coldplay
Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
rating     

The beginning of Viva La Vida is almost the strongest part of the entire album. The pulsing electronic sound is met with an incredible array of strings and beats, which builds and swells in ways that honestly, none of us were sure Chris Martin and the boys would ever be able to do again. After the clunker X&Y bored us to tears, we felt tears of hapiness to hear the "oh oh oh" come in on the records opening track, "Life in Technicolor." And it felt like a transition to color from X&Y's bland, black and white graveyard of mediocre power ballads and falsetto droning. Coldplay, it seems, has found their way back to the map.

Monday, June 16, 2008
peter von poehl
going to where the tea trees are
rating     

Like Beck’s Sea Change in more formal threads, the debut album from Swedish-esque (only half his blood pumps blue and yellow) songwriter Peter von Poehl’s debut Going to Where the Tea Trees Are (Bella Union) is a mostly quant affair, proving sometimes the simpler things actually are the ones worth savoring the most.

Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tilly and the Wall
O
rating     

O, the third record from the literally toe-tapping Tilly and the Wall, starts exactly like a Tilly song has always started; a simple guitar strum, eighth note pattern, with a simple progression and an upward moving, if not slightly melancholic melody. "When there wasn't anywhere for me to go, I stumbled into deep love with your rock and roll" cries the band in unison, and then they do just that: stumble into rock and roll with more than just the traditional piano/tap dancer combination... we have fuzzy guitars, hard electric riffs, and a lead in to the albums fiery second track "Pot Kettle Black." It's at this point where you should be sitting back and saying to yourself: this is not going to be the same old Tilly.

Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wolf Parade
At Mount Zoomer
rating     

We anticipated Wolf Parade would make a solid record, but no one could have anticipated the kind of quality it would possess: like coffee or good wine, these nine tracks are an acquired taste. And it's not that it is a bad record, but one that needs multiple listens. Perhaps its the plethora of side projects behind the boys (Sunset Rubdown, Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, and Swan Lake... whew) that makes the album inaccessible at first. With all the songwriting muscle, and the development of Dan Boeckner as an equal to Spencer Krug (at least while they're on this mountain).

Thursday, June 05, 2008
Santogold
Santogold
rating     

"Don't be surprised what you discover" from this Philly lead-singer-producer-turned-solo-artist. There was a lot of hype about Santi White and her credits, including writing and producing on How I Do (Res) . Now she has donned the moniker of Santogold and made a pretty solid R&B, dub and hip-hop crossover album that keeps us jumping and dancing even after several listenings. You could say... its gold?

Thursday, June 05, 2008
El Perro del Mar
From the Valley to the Stars
rating     

Sarah Assbring has stowed two previous albums worth of life’s little letdowns away inside the exquisite, yet heart flattening collection of songs she pens under the nom choisi El Perro del Mar. And while the Swedish Songwriter continues to sound something like a delicate, wounded bird, her latest long-player From the Valley to the Stars (The Control Group) suggests she may be ready to pull the plug on the pity party at hand, if ever so slightly.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Fleet Foxes
Ragged Wood
rating     

Ever listen to Jacopo Peri? Yes, he is a composer from the 1600's or something, but four part baroque harmony is definitely being channeled on Fleet Foxes new album, Ragged Wood (Sub Pop)... that is, if Peri was also influenced by the old American west and folk songs. Other influences include a love of nature, simplicity, flowers, trees, the 1960's, and many of their contemporaries. But hey, it's some pretty solid stuff.

Friday, May 30, 2008
Ladytron
Velocifero
rating     

Welcoming listeners like a closed fist, "Black Cat" - the song that opens Ladytron’s fourth album Velocifero (Netwerk) - kills the ears with a buzzy bass line and forceful, mechanical drum work. It’s a sinister new sound; one that conjures up the seediest of S&M clubs and quite possibly might drive you to wear anything leather. It’s also the work of Alessandro Cortini (who’s worked with NIN) and Vicarious Bliss. With their help, the long time electro rock group employs dramatic timing to tremendous effect over the course of the album.

Thursday, May 29, 2008
Shearwater
Rook
rating     

When Jonathan Meiburg first opens his mouth on Rook,
we're not sure where he is going. The slow, simple piano layered with
soft vocals leads us to jump to conclusions... Is this a Coldplay
knockoff? (and we mean the not-so-good version, boring ballads and all).
Never judge an album by the first fifteen seconds. What actually follows
is an explosion of sound, ushering us into thirty-five minutes full of surprises. And then brings us right back down.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Rashaan Ahmad
The Push
rating     

In the world of Hip Hop, it's usually a "who has the biggest mouth" game, spitting lyrics mostly about hating, banging, drugs, whatever. Every now and then we get someone like Talib Kweli who has real mainstream potential AND writes lyrics that speak about faith and hope in things other than selling drugs. Don't get us wrong, we love a good jam on lollipops or whatever. But let's just say, to hear the debut album from Raashan Ahmad is like a breath of fresh beats.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Unicycle Loves You
Unicycle Loves You
rating     

Remember we mentioned these fresh pop rockers from Chicago, Unicycle Loves You a few weeks ago? Well, their album comes out next week, and if you like Bishop Allen and The New Pornographers, or a diet version of Spoon, you should probably buy Unicycle Loves You (Highwheel Records) when it drops next week.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Meho Plaza
Meho Plaza
rating     

I have no idea what Meho Plaza is, and neither does this record, but I like it.

Does anyone else get the feeling that there is cute little indie-pop hiding somewhere in this loud noise? If there is any such filling in Meho Plaza and their new self-titled (Better Looking Records), it's completely obscured with the flavor of distortion and loud synth fuzz. But hey, it tastes good.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Explorers Club
Freedom Wind
rating     

For a band that deems themselves The Explorers Club, these shaggy purveyors of fun in the sun don’t exactly chart the newest of territories. Their’s is a slightly obsessive, vintage sound; the kind which flickers immediate, weather beaten slides of sixties surf culture upon the mind’s eye. So much so, in fact, that one band and one band only comes to mind over the course of these South Carolina natives’ Dead Oceans debut, Freedom Wind. Brian Wilson would be proud. That or he’d feel entirely ripped off actually.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
French Kicks
Swimming
rating     

Swimming (Vagrant) is an appropriate title for this record, which feels like underwater rock with a swooping chorus and shuffle drums. French Kicks score with this one; it's a nice record to put on and watch cars go by.

Friday, May 16, 2008
Jamie Lidell - Jim
rating     

"Play that funky music, white boy" could be the voice of God that drove British singer Jamie Lidell to move away from his electronic roots to an album that opens like John Legend and closes like a futuristic Al Green produced by early Thom Yorke. The appeal of Jim (Warp) is definitely that Lidell takes an old sound and somehow makes it brand new and appealing without really changing anything. The formula is the same, glitzy guitars and keyboards, thumping beats, and Lidell’'s smooth, jazzy voice keeping it funky.

Thursday, May 15, 2008
No Age
Nouns
rating     

It literally takes Los Angeles based duo Randy Randall and Dean Spunt, better know as No Age, all of twenty seconds to descend into complete madness on their newest release, Nouns (Sub Pop). When the vocals come in, we’re not even sure if they even matter, the guitars are pounding, and the ambient noises are abounding. Still, there is an appeal to the millions of layers of scratches and sounds that make up the main riff for “Miner,” and after that, it’s tough to put the record down.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Dizzee Rascal
Maths + English
rating     

I never thought I’d find myself immersed in Grime. In a world of Hip-Hop domination, all Dizzee Rascal has to say about it is “all I see is hype.”

Dizzee spits this sentiment on his latest record, Maths+English, and it must be in reference to someone or something else; because this guy is anything but hype. The English accent might distract the ear, but only if you ever listened to Lady Sovereign too much. With Dizzee it’s not between love or hate, it is just obsession; the guy knows exactly how to string together a beat that fits with his rhymes.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Pattern Is Movement
All Together
rating     

Brooklyn is branching out. That much is apparent. I mean, it used to be the place…like, Brooklyn was the place mere minutes ago. But “poof!” The borough’s influence, it’s experimental bout with rock’s possibilities, it’s clan of bands hocking sounds that are decidedly the product of their time and place…it seems what is probably the most romanticized musical community of the last 15 years is beginning to land punches in places as far off as…well, a whopping 90 miles south, for one. That’s the conclusion Philadelphia’s Pattern is Movement ushers listeners to with their recently released debut, All Together (Hometapes).

Monday, May 12, 2008
We Are Scientists
Brain Thurst Mastery
rating     

I vaguely, in 2005, remember picking up With Love and Squalor from my friend Kevin in High School, (back then he was my one-stop music source) at the same time as Nightmare of You, and thinking "So this is what Brooklyn sounds like these days." They both struck me as bands to watch in the future.

And now, well after With Love and Squalor kept us entertained, finally "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" won't be the only song I remember from these guys.

Friday, April 25, 2008
Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell
rating     

Given the heaping help of hype that accompany this one, one could be forgiven for confusing Tokyo Police Club’s Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek) for anything but a debut album. Plenty of folks sort of lost their collective shit over A Lesson in Crime’s 16 minutes worth of music back in ’06. And both the Smith EP and the Your English is Good single have helped tide fans of the band’s crystalline song craft over since then. All of which actually makes Elephant Shell Tokyo Police Club’s debut full-length…if 28 measly minutes qualifies as a long player.

Thursday, April 24, 2008
m83
saturdays=youth
rating     

Many people would like to forget their teenage years, but in reality our teenage years define our behavior for the rest of our lives. We’ll develop different habits and sometimes reform, but what we became during those embarrassing, confusing and glorious years will stick with us forever.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Kelley Polar -
I Need You to Hold on While the Sky is Falling
rating     

It’s hard to explain the sound of a Kelley Polar album in familiar musical terms. Electronic is the best word, obviously, but it doesn’t quite capture the strangeness and atmosphere that an album like I Need You to Hold on While the Sky is Falling (Environ) accomplishes in pretty much one song. Personally, I imagine George Lucas’ first sci-fi cult classic, THX 1138; this is probably the music playing when the holograms are dancing.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Cadence Weapon
Afterparty Babies
rating     

With references to Friendster, Limewire and the Dandy Warhols, rapper Roland Pemberton (a.k.a. Cadence Weapon) has limited his audience without realizing it. In a roundabout way, that’s a compliment to CW and his second full-length Afterparty Babies. Although the clever lyrics make you celebrate that there are still MC’s who actually care about the art of rhyming, the synth-heavy electro beats are tailor-made for ironic hipster dance parties.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Foals
Antidotes
rating     

And now for a bit more proof that flashy, English kiddos clinging to guitars just can’t seem to resist the urge to disco punk their days away…this time from chirpy, Oxford based band Foals. On their debut disc Antidotes (Sub Pop), Foals continue Britain’s never ending new rave obsession, rolling through a rather athletic, 53 minute set. It’s high energy and ultimately likeable; the perfect kind of urban soundtrack for setting your day to day ways throughout the city of your choice to. Just don’t expect to hear anything particularity new out of Foal’s molecular make up. “Red Socks Pugie” and “Electric Bloom” immediately bring to mind the wide open synthetics and pitchy vocal yelps of both Bloc Party and their so-very-serious-singer Kele Okereke. Lead Foal Yannis Philippakis, however, seems a slightly less sober sort of front man. After all, he did pen opener “The French Open” for his favorite tennis player, Andy Roddick (someone Philippakis admits to being more obsessed with than any musician…go figure).

Friday, April 04, 2008
Ladyhawk
Shots
rating     

Poor Ladyhawk, with the sudden rise of label mates Black Mountain, the comparisons will be sprinkled all over every review you read. What shouldn’t be lost is the soul, sweat, and booze that had to be consumed to create their new aptly titled album, Shots (Jagjaguwar). Hints of the bands' previous efforts are notable throughout, but so is the volume and screaming guitars that may be new for some fans.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008
The Black Keys
Attack and Release
rating     

Akron OH’s shaggy, retro blues duo The Black Keys never knew they were prepping their next album when they first set out to record it. All guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney assumed was that they had been tapped by producer Danger Mouse to participate in a quick collaboration with Ike Turner. But Turner’s passing last December obviously derailed the project, leaving band and producer alike a bevy of unused material to work with. Thus the foundations for the Keys’ fifth and most dare deviling album to date were laid.

Friday, March 28, 2008
Los Campesinos!
Hold on Now, Youngster…
rating     

Boisterous, brash, and bratty might sound like characteristics best used to describe foul-mouthed punks and the “ready, steady, go” rush of guitars and drums they embrace. But as Los Campesinos!’ debut album Hold on Now, Youngster… (Arts and Crafts) affirms, such aforementioned adjectives are hardly limited to rock and roll’s pissiest of genres. No, this crew of Cardiff kiddos (who all sport the mythical surname of Campesinos) flip classic punk cynicism on its’ head instead, fashioning something a little more pure in spirit. Why they even tune their instruments (almost) up to notes that resemble that of the melodic tones they were always meant to output. Thus results in a band that fondly embraces the energy and spirit of their punk rock brethren, without ever tapping into the chaos and madness that made it so dangerous (at times). Of course Los Campesinos! aren’t wimps either. They just play pop music of a more highly caffeinated variety.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Plants and Animals
Parc Avenue
rating     

For all that Montreal has given indie music (send your thank you notes to Arcade Fire, Chromeo, Islands, Wolf Parade, among others) Plants and Animal’s debut album Parc Avenue (Secret City Records) marks the first time I can remember hearing from one of the city’s hippy dippy inhabitants. Even before giving this one a whirl, all signs point towards Patchouli. First there’s that name of their’s. Kind of embraces everything, everywhere, you know? Like all there is to love about life, and the very essence of being. It’s all right there man! Plants and Animals…you dig? Then there is the matter of all those lovely folks on the cover…doing whatever it is they like to do with themselves in the woods. Last time these Sgt. Peppers got together they were staring back at me from Devendra Banhart’s Cripple Crow.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The B-52s
Funplex
rating     

As reunions go, the B-52s return after 16 years is hardly the stuff of rock and roll wet dreams. Nobody’s really been sitting ‘round, pining for something new from the campiest of crews for the last decade and a half, have they? Not a chance. Those kinds of thoughts are generally reserved for more epic contemporary possibilities…think Pavement, The Smiths, or a Led Zeppelin line-up willing to play more than a one-off tease. Yet therein lay the beauty of an album like Funplex (Astralwerks). Listeners probably never missed the band, much less expected their first album of the 21st century to pack such a probable punch. This is ok, of course. In this case, finding ones’ self pressed under the wheels of such a surprisingly fresh bit of punk, new wave, and vintage rock is a rather splendid place to be.

Monday, March 17, 2008
Hot Chip
Made in the Dark
rating     

On first listen, it’s easy to think that the title of Hot Chip’s follow-up to the highly successful album The Warning, Made in the Dark (Astralwerks), is referring to the tonal shift their music has taken. Opening tracks “Out at the Pictures” and “Shake a Fist” definitely take a darker approach than the songs on the previous album, with “Shake a Fist” even sounding sinister, combined with a tribal beat that seems borrowed from The White Stripes. The later tracks of the album, however, don’t all employ this darker tone, but what they do share with the initial tracks is a lack of predictability, as though listeners are the ones who will be “made [to be] in the dark.”

Friday, March 14, 2008
Sera Cahoone
Only as the Day is Long
rating     

Sera Cahoone won’t dash through the listener’s comprehension, mucking up the place with high brow poetics and experimental fits of song. No, Only as the Day is Long (Sub Pop) keeps classic and country; the kind of immediate, warm blooded listen that seeps and settles in on first listen. ‘Course this is a good thing. Records that reveal their intentions from the get go often take off at the same kind of pace. Ask Band of Horses – the band Cahoone once slapped skins for – where the straight and narrow of breakout, Everything All the Time – the album Cahoone played on – lead them. That would be where most musicians only dare to dream. Could Cahoone’s wonder touch strike again?

Thursday, March 13, 2008
Del the Funky Homosapien
11th Hour
rating     

Once again an MC works with a label that he should’ve worked with before. Although it took another label dropping him in order for it to happen, it’s worth the wait. 11th Hour, the new album from Del the Funky Homosapien, finds itself on the premiere indie-rap label Definitive Jux after Del was let go by Elektra. Like the recent release of Mike Ladd’s for European-ears-only Nostalgiator, 11th Hour is the perfect album for anyone who only knows Del’s voice through work with Handsome Boy Modeling School and the Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood.”

Thursday, March 06, 2008
These United States
A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate To The Garden Of Eden
rating     

First things first…Let’s just go ahead and get it over with. A wince, a cringe, a flinch…whatever it is you happen to call that semi “huh?” reaction that inevitably traces the mind the first time you read “These United States”. Just who’s got the moxie to represent themselves in such a way? Well, the answer to that question belongs to Jesse Elliot – a wilder, more poetically American name in indie rock there is not. And after several listens to his recently released debut album, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate To The Garden Of Eden, you’ll have no need to wonder why.

Friday, February 29, 2008
Goldfrapp
Seventh Tree
rating     

Those pampered and primped for the glitter ball glam of Allison Goldfrapp’s last two discs (Black Cherry and Supernature) may very well arrive at her latest offering only to find the party slightly kicked. But for long-time followers of the English songstress, Seventh Tree (Mute) offers a distinct feeling that she and partner Will Gregory have come full circle. Cut from the same cloth as her 2000 debut Felt Mountain, Seventh Tree ditches Goldfrapp’s digital disco fame and eases back into the silky smooth compositions of her original solo work. But where Felt Mountain derives mood and mysticism from its’ minimalist approach, Seventh Tree throws its’ gaze in decidedly less exotic directions. The result is an album of much more classic origins.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Throw Me The Statue
Moonbeams
rating     

With tracks titles like "This is How We Kiss", and "Written in Heart Signs, Faintly", Throw Me The Statue's latest release, Moonbeams is infused with plenty of lovey-dovey ethos. Yet, TMTS, conceived by singer-songwriter Scott Reitherman, never even skirts on the cloying and annoying. With punchy accordion playing, 8th beat drumming, and xylophone touches evocative of a child's toy piano, fan-fav "Lolita" tastes like sleep-away camp and sounds the way a teenage romance can only be perceived in hindsight: We don't have the overzealous intensity of a emo track but a genuinely lighthearted and up-tempo pop tune that inevitably explodes into a premature mess of notes and hormones. Reitherman never takes himself too seriously, and that’s what makes the album so cohesive and enjoyable.

Monday, February 25, 2008
The Billionaires
Really Real For Forever
rating     

Fair weather destinations are all well and good for the vacationing flock. But to locals…and even more so to the children of locals…the allure of their tiny hometown’s summer shacks is certainly a little less obvious. Of course this is an assumption of sorts, but one I’m willing to make after listening to the Martha’s Vineyard bred band The Billionaires, and their debut Really Real For Forever (Too Soon). For one, Really Real reeks of lyrical odes to the suffocating nature of small town boredoms and the vices they spawn. Album opener “The End of Summer Song” alludes to putting off the inevitable…drunken, inebriated fun in the summer sun being the suitable substitute for growing up and getting on. Admits Tim Laursen, one of the band’s many singers: “We have grown up together playing music but mostly being a part of a large creative group of friends, a sometimes very drunk, loving, angry, and sexy group of people.” Then there is that name of theirs. Think a bunch of working class kids care for the oxford shirt/khaki pants/boat shoe enthusiasts that raid their summer colony every year? Really Real suggests not.

Friday, February 22, 2008
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago
rating     

Few back stories in recent memory live as much within the art they eventually created than those circumstances that lead Justin Vernon to his father’s hunting cabin in Northern Wisconsin. A dissolved love affair, a broken band, various life changes hell bent on destroying their target…Vernon never meant to record a master stroke when he retreated to a winter of solitude in the North Woods. Rather, his was a quest for a bit of personal peace…one that, true to the unexpected ways in which journeys of the heart tend to manifest themselves, yielded his stunning new album, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar).

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Lightspeed Champion
Falling Off the Lavender Bridge
rating     

For some, success goes down like sweet nectar, settling the anxious stomach of years of uncertainty and recharging both the malnourished body and soul. For others, however, the supposed happy times never taste as sweet. While certainly not apparent upon first listen, the life and times of Dev Hynes, former guitar twister for the short lived outfit Test Icicles, have apparently not sit so well. Sporting a rather dashing name in Lightspeed Champion, Hynes’ solo debut, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (Domino) might play like the sonic shedding of his previous party punk ways that he so badly needed. But a closer plunge into the country kissed collection reveals a goofy getuped English kid plainly at odds with the world around him.

Friday, February 15, 2008
Kelley Stoltz
Circular Sounds
rating     

There should be a warning label adhered the cover of Kelley Stoltz latest offering Circular Sounds (Subpop) that reads something along the lines of “May Experience Déjà Vu Upon Listening”. The fourteen tracks are chocked full of the familiar sounds of albums from the late 1960s - which is only fitting considering Mr. Stoltz spends his days a clerk at a second-hand record store.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Helio Sequence
Keep Your Eyes Ahead
rating     

Brandon Summers has had to endure a lot. Following the critical success of The Helio Sequence's third album and SubPop premiere Love and Distance, the wear and tear of touring alongside such indie super groups as Blonde Redhead, Modest Mouse, and Kings of Leon, made Summers crack. Literally. The vocalist, half of the dreamy duo, suffered severe damage to his vocal folds, so much so that the fate of Summer's speaking ability, let alone that of the band, came into question. At first, the performer did what any super-cool, super-tortured artist would in his position: drink. A lot. With his guitar gathering dust in the corner, Summers sought the company of two warm gents named Jack (Daniels) and Jim (Beam). Chalk it up to label pressures, band mate Benjamin Weikel's threats of violence or even the unwanted liquor chub, but the singer/guitarist has finally pulled himself out of this self-[dis]satisfied stupor, and is back with a profound new sound on the recent release Keep Your Eyes Ahead (SubPop).

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Mike Ladd
Nostalgiator
rating     

It’s a shame that Def Jux and Mike Ladd didn’t get together before. One of the biggest labels in indie hip-hop decided to release a 4 year-old album several weeks ago. Nostalgiator, originally released in 2004 under the German label !K7 Records, caught itself in a rare category in the days of downloads and the internet: an album that was rarely heard outside of Europe. It couldn’t have come soon enough since Nostalgiator finds Ladd at his most straightforward in terms of hip-hop and electronic music...though the avant-garde jazz side of him isn’t too far behind.

Monday, February 11, 2008
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
We Brave Bee Stings And All
rating     

Bruises, bumps, scrapes, and bee stings; on her Kill Rock Stars debut, Virginian born songstress Thao braves a bundle when it comes to the rocky ways of twenty something romance. Over the course of We Brave Bee Stings And All, Thao and The Get Down Stay Down traverse a ton of tumultuous terrain. The footing is never sure, and some times (alright, most times) she takes a dive. But resilient and hell bent on feeling something (see those goose bumps on the cover? That is Thao, an emotional machine, feeling something) Thao makes her way down twisted, unsure paths, sprinting blindfolded, plastered smile, all the way.

Friday, February 08, 2008
Evangelicals
The Evening Descends
rating     

The bad news about The Evening Descends (Dead Oceans Records), the sophomore release from Oklahoma’s Evangelicals, is that anyone overhearing the music coming from your speakers will ask what you’re listening to with that kind of judgmental tone that makes you feel like you have to defend yourself and your taste. The good news is that once you actually listen to this album, you will have no problem coming up with a good defense. Anything but conventional, The Evening Descends opens like a radio being tuned to a station from another planet.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Devastations
Yes, U
rating     

Conrad Standish, Tom Carlyon and Hugo Cran have made one of the most mature sexual albums in ages, and yet Yes, U (Beggars Banquet) isn’t even about sex. That may seem like backhanded praise, but it isn’t at all. The third album from the Australian trio, who now reside in Berlin, Devastations take advantage of both the space and careful construction within Yes, U to provide a highly sensual, glamorous, and sophisticated, yet ultimately filthy, murky, and claustrophobic kind of vibe. Look to the bouncy/groovy bass and slow-hip shaking drums of opener “Black Ice” for immediate evidence. “Rosa” is a cry for desperation even though lyrics might imply something different. Though Standish (bass, vocals) sings, “I’ll never leave you”, just past the middle of the track, as the song rolls in to the chorus, there’s a pause, followed by Standish’s horrific horror-movie like caterwaul. The result is something that’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s also just as exhilarating as it is frightening. Then there is “The Pest”, a track Tom Crayon (guitar, vocals) works songwriting magic on with the use of electronic drums, a punching bass, and the occasional noisy guitar line. It may be sparse, but is also packed with plenty of emotion and just as opaque as the rest of the album.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
rating     

Given the group’s Ivy League pedigree, one might expect long-winded dissertations concerning who knows what, exactly, out of recent XL Recordings signees, Vampire Weekend. Instead, the band’s debut full length plays like precious post card pop; one side beaming in picture perfect musical snap shots of Cape Cod, Khyber Pass, New York City, Old San Juan, and South Africa; the other sketched in Izra Koenig’s semi-legible, lyrical scribbles.

Monday, January 28, 2008
The Instruments of Science and Technology
Music From the Films of R/Swift
rating     

Deep, introspective, yet ultimately mind numbing, Richard Swift’s latest project, The Instruments of Science and Technology, proves an outing to the singer songwriter’s new electronic laboratory is an excellent opportunity to get a bit lost in your own head…which is fine depending on what one finds lurking among the neurons. Me? I’m plunging through the cracks of the cerebral cortex to find a collage of mood and thought…all shooting the shit to the kind of industrious pastiche of clicks and beats that could easily be anything to anyone.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Cat Power
Jukebox
rating     

Chan Marshall, better know to most by her alias Cat Power, is no stranger to the art of the cover song. Back in 2000 she released the aptly titled The Covers Record and most recently was a contributor to the I’m Not There soundtrack. So it’s not much of a stretch that for the follow up to 2005’s critically acclaimed album The Greatest Ms. Marshall once goes crate digging to offer up the eclectic “mix CD” Jukebox.

Monday, January 21, 2008
Black Mountain
In The Future
rating     

Black Mountain’s sophomore effort, In the Future (Jagjaguwar), might feel a bit like rooting hand and heart for the wicked ways of the bad guy. In this, the band’s bi-polar prophecy, five prog stroking Canucks rub unhinged surges of sprawling riff rock up next to minimal bouts of apocalyptic country folk. But a closer look into this epic ode to dark arts, dark deeds, and very dark times indeed, reveals a band no so enamored with shedding blood themselves, but stoically snuffing out those who desire to do so. Root away…

Monday, January 14, 2008
Steve Aoki
Pillowface And His Airplane Chronicles
rating     

Cinepsace. LAX. Anyone who regularly reads celebrity gossip magazines know these two terms by heart. They also know that one person has been tagged as responsible for bridging the invisible gap between Hollywood and hipsters, dance music lovers with punk rockers.

DJ Steve Aoki has managed to become yet another tastemaker in this, the first decade of the big-business-of-music destroying century. Harkening back to the days before the Beatles, and the early days of rock n roll, Aoki’s built a small empire (kind of an oxymoron isn’t it?) by grouping people together who wouldn’t normally associate with each other. Obviously both groups party hard and involve themselves in all sorts of debauchery. Lindsay Lohan’s friends with Aoki. Paris Hilton has made an appearance or eight at his functions. With all of the excess around him, Aoki has to provide a soundtrack that fits the vibe. That appears to be the basis for Pillowface & His Airplane Chronicles (possibly an allusion to his constant travel around the world to DJ various festivities).

Monday, December 24, 2007
Apollo Heights
White Music For Black People
rating     

Back in November I read an article in the Village Voice about a band I had never heard of. I was intrigued by the word used to describe their sound: soulgazing. It essentially means a mix of soul music, shoegaze and indie rock with hip-hop style looping and drum programming. We’ve all had that moment when you’re immediately, irrationally sold on a product before seeing it or hearing it. This became my moment, but of course I had to check out some songs to make sure that my preconceptions were true (MySpace can sometimes be used for the forces of good).

Let's just say you wouldn’t be reading this if I was disappointed in any way.

Thursday, December 20, 2007
Nancy Elizabeth
Battle and Victory
rating     

If the music of twenty three year old Nancy Elizabeth whips up ice-cold images of isolation in wide open, wind swept terrain, it is certainly for good reason. The Lancashire-born singer captured her ambitious take on folk music’s age-old traditions while surrounded by a sea of countryside. Recorded in both a remote 17th Century white stone cottage in Wales and a village hall outside Manchester, it’s just the kind of intimate setting one would expect to stumble upon a band of clandestine musicians working away on dulcimer, glockenspiel, guitar, harp, mandolin and a variety of other instruments that read like another language all together (bouzouki, khim, etc). The result is Elizabeth’s debut long player, Battle and Victory (The Leaf Label); a unique batch of mystic song fare that calls to mind the very best aspects of Nina Nastasia, Joanna Newsome, and Vashti Bunyon.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Mumlers
Thickets and Stitches

That the Mumlers borrow their name from an enterprising 19th century photographer (that being William H. Mumler) who fetched top dollar for the frozen images of the dearly departed he claimed haunted the frames of his compositions may seem like just another inconsequential historical reference for a band seeking an interesting talking point. But listening to the Bay Area ensemble’s debut album does feel a bit like ghost hunting in a place you’d least expect to drum up long forgotten spirits. Upon first listen, Thickets and Stitches (Galaxia) is an impressive breeding grounds for songwriter Will Sprott’s warm, two inch take on old world waltz, jazz café kicks, folksy wranglers, and workaday guitar/voice pairings. Not only that, but the fellow from San Jose also knows the way to proper embellishment of the basic blocks of American rock. On Thickets and Stitches it starts with accentuating keys, the rusty blare of a second hand brass band, sun kissed slide guitar, and warm fits of accordion.

But sonic appearances can sound deceiving, and on Thickets and Stitches they often are. Sure, there is a certain kind of every day grace that falls from Sprott’s jaw every time he draws it open. But his semi-drunken humor resembles that of the smashed soul who’s been straddling the same bar stool all those years down at the local dive. Sure, he’s a hoot. But deep down, like Mumlers’ photos, Sprott’s rosy reality is haunted by something. Judging by lines like “In 1980 two kids had a baby/I suppose their condom must have broke” (“Dice in a Drawer”) and “If you gathered all my mug shots together you could make a flip book of a boy growing old” (“Untie My Knots”), I’d say it’s his past. – David Pitz

Friday, December 07, 2007
Yeasayer
All Hour Cymbals
rating     

The clicking heels of indie rock’s primitive parade have been striding by for a number of years now. Releases, both current and of the not so recent variety, by artists like Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, Coco Rosie, Grizzly Bear, and Joanna Newsom all bang the can for musical adventures of a more archaic nature, and upon first, second, and third listens to Yeasayer’s excellent new disc, All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free), it would seem fitting to slide the Brooklyn band into this slowly bloating sect of the indie elite. With centerpieces like “Wait for the Summer” and “2080” plump full of a variety of ancient treasures and trinkets – percussive mantras, ritualistic chanting, enraptured hand clapping/ foot stomping, and the colorful clamor of what sound like regional, makeshift instruments – Yeasayer spin the globe more than a few times throughout the course of All Hour Cymbals, excavating diverse musical relics and ricocheting rhythms from a variety of cultural/historical backgrounds. At any given moment, Yeasayer’s powerful pedigree pulls from African, Asian, Caribbean, Mexican, and South American origins to achieve an astounding sense of other worldliness few of their peers can match.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Band of Horses
Cease to Begin

With Cease to Begin (Sub Pop), Band of Horses, the band that gave album reviewers the chance to name-check The Shins and The Flaming Lips even more than usual, has released an album that replaces the echo-drenched indie rock of their first ... with more echo-drenched indie rock.

Ok, that may not be completely accurate. You don't have to look any further than the album opener, “Is There A Ghost,” to find some of the things that made the band so buzzworthy in the first place: the sweeping guitars, the refreshingly heartfelt lyrics, frontman Ben Bridwell's reverby vocals. And yet, it is the details, the subtle shifts in tone, that prove the band isn't simply treading water.

For starters, their move from the gray skies of Seattle to the decidedly sunnier clime of North Carolina has definitely seeped into their music. There is a laid-back quality to the music, a feeling of looseness. “The General Specific” is probably the most obvious example, opening with hand-claps and twangy guitars and featuring Bridwell drawling “What the writers say/It means shit to me now.” There's even an honest-to-goodness honky-tonk piano interlude. The album closer, “Window Blues,” has the bittersweet feel of a guy sitting on his porch strumming a banjo: “the screen door swayin'/now baby give me something to live for.”

But have no fear; Band of Horses isn't turning into Alabama. The band knows not to stray too far from their basic sound – witness the sharp-edged guitars of “Ode to LRC” or the effervescence of “Islands on the Coast.” Cease to Begin's only stumbling block comes when the slower, mellow “No One's Gonna Love You” is followed by the slower, mellow (and obscurely-named) “Detlef Schrempf.” After the build-up of the first two tracks, it's a bit of an anti-climax. Happily, the second half of the album is much more consistent.

More than anything, Cease to Begin seems to be Band of Horses' attempt to deal with that old conundrum of how to change while still staying the same. If you didn't like them the first time around, this album probably won't make you a believer. Actually...maybe it will. Banjos can be awfully convincing. - Claire Orpeza

Monday, December 03, 2007
The Gunshy
There Is No Love In This War

Though the past might be ripe with black and white, newsreel sentimentality and quasi romantic images of the last honest fight, more recent accounts of World War II tell a different tale…one painted in the graphic full-color, hell on scorched earth, strokes it really was. To this, add the penned perspective of Paul Arbogast. An unknown soldier until these last few months, the profusely personal depictions of the European front, with all the untold burdens of sadness, frustration, and the worst kind of homesick blues it inflicted upon those pressed between the war’s iron vice, has recently been unearthed, courtesy of the grandson Paul never knew…though you may know Matt Arbogast as the force behind Chicago’s The Gunshy.

Greased and grizzled, plump with the war itself, the seventeen tracks that make up Matt’s fourth album, There Is No Love In This War (Latest Flame), sprout from an identical number of letters sent from his grandfather back home to his sweetheart Julia, between May 1943 and October 1945. These handwritten interpretations – which sound as if they should have the dust blown off, and kissed with the fine fit of a scratchy record needle – set many a harrowing tales to a more traditional sounding set of songs than Gunshy fans might be used to. “August 13, 1943”/Eddie Was A Good Friend Of Mine” tells of the here today, gone tomorrow friendships Paul encountered while in Europe…this particular one with a man sadly “found with a bullet in his mouth”. It is suicide folk, set to Kara Eubanks’ weeping violin and a quivering songwriter damn near choking on his own words. It’s also one of the most heartbreaking songs to ever grace a Gunshy album.

And so goes Arbogast, sparing little detail, in this, his soldier’s salute to his grandfather. There are furious frustrations on the front; The Gunshy’s “Masters of War”, outlining the deadpan doubt of those “armchair advisors, they pretend to know exactly what’s in store (“September 5th, 1944/The Armchair Advisors”). “September 6th, 1945/’Til My Belly Hangs Over My Belt”, with its’ sparsely paired guitar, violin, and voice, is so reserved, the possibility of such an uncertain daydream ever occurring sounds remote. Most powerfully, there are those life and death moments where Paul found himself on both sides of the rifle’s cross hairs. “July 3, 1944/I Shot a Man” is a panicked romp through the rationale of taking life. Singing, “If the idea alone was enough for him and we’re only here because of them, please may they all soon be dead”, Matt sorts out his grandfather’s reasons and motivations…though Paul still needs help pulling the trigger. “Sometimes it’s better to pretend it’s the first day of deer season and the barrels staring back at us are just their markings on the trees. I won’t feed my family if I let them go, if the animal doesn’t fall to its’ knees.” Sadly, Matt also offers the breathless “June 1, 1944/Instruments of Modern Man”…the day his grandfather felt a “crimson stream run down his cheek” (Paul would die only a few years after the war ended due to complications with shrapnel).

Throughout the album, war’s deplorable conditions on the mind and body are made emphatically clear. But war is perhaps at its’ cruelest when it denies the heart of what it wants most of all. In these particular stories, all Paul really wants is Matt’s grandmother, Julia. Somewhat ironically titled, parts of There Is No Love In This War play like the sharpest writ love letter you’ve ever had the privilege to stumble across. Bursting with warmth, gratitude, and anticipation, poetic lines like “They can’t prescribe this kind of pill in any hospital. When the day is done or it’s just begun and I let my eyes fall shut I see you clearly in the front of me and I’ve never felt their injuries. I’ve never cursed a thousand Nazis” (“June 11, 1944/Pretty in the Red and White Dress”) offer tribute to a real life love that never bowed to the impossible odds of the day. They also serve a more rejuvenating purpose, for fighter and writer a like. For Paul, these letters represent what was at stake in his battles…his life, his gal, and his ring (“December 18th, 1943)”. Is their anything greater worth fighting for? For Matt, these dated words are some of the most profound subject matter the hardened and battle weary songwriter has ever coughed up. - David Pitz

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Efterklang
Parades

Though Sufjan’s stamp is certainly neatly pressed in bright red ink over the close cornered genre of contemporary chamber folk, one would be hard-pressed to ignore the work of Danish band Efterklang after a listen to the astonishing recorded work they offer with their recently released third album, Parades (The Leaf Label). Just sifting through the liner notes is a chore. With an endless array of musicians lending their classical contributions to the five piece core that is Efterklang, it’s best to skip all this browsing and head straight for your play button.

Once there, listeners will find that Parades does more than trace over the lines paved along the orchestral pop-way by their American, almost-counterpart. Rather, Efterklang etch out their own identity by favoring a bit of the freak over the folk. Take opener “Polygyne”, for example. After some quisitive layers of primer - gentle vocals, some glitchy electronic sputterings, a rolling guitar line, and the eventual, timpani enhanced build - the track flops along to the kind of odd ball bassoons that evoke images of marching broom sticks hauling wooden pails of water for a Mickey Moused sorcerer. Quite simply, Parades is a record of a more cinematic nature; so much so, you can hear the rickety flicker of the reels turning in your head. What images do they project? On one particular listen to “Mirador”, the hushed vocals, broken “ba da das” and plump, brass punctuations set the stage for a personal triumph in my mind concerning my life in a place where no one said I could find a home. Take that! Of course, the same track also seemed to fit the rather sad scene of a fat man I spied through a diner’s window – an obvious table for one – slowly gouging himself to his grave.

I suppose this is just the thing about Parades; it is an album that resonates with more than enough mood to cover a full range of emotions. The celestial strains of rum pum pum snare drum, whimsical trumpets, and medleys of woodwind and string spliced throughout compositions like “Him Poe Poe”, “Horseback Tenors”, and “Caravan” offer plenty of possibilities by allowing almost any particular imagery to come to mind. In doing so, the album offers no reason to confuse such grand scope for window dressing. Not only could listeners dig and dig for the roots of these dense orchestrations and not find them, but the heaping choruses and appropriately wintered orchestrations that come and go are absolutely necessary in sparking the imagination. Throughout the album’s entirety Efterklang take listeners for a unique peak through the most intricate of sonic kaleidoscopes. Turn the dial on your I-Pod…new patterns, shapes, and colors are sure to reveal themselves track by glorious track. – David Pitz

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Clipd Beaks
Hoarse Lords

Clipd Beaks’ latest album Hoarse Lords (Lovepump United) showcases the dark side of psychdelia with the more pretentious side of indie rock. It makes for a great listen, but only if taken in small doses.

With unintelligible vocals that are more like wordless howling, thundering percussion and groove-oriented music that somehow break into shrieks and other shards of noise, Hoarse Loads evokes the sound of frustration and helplessness. It’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest with an indie rock soundtrack.

“Melter” makes great use of guitars that seem to suffocate the listener forcing him to fight and pay attention to the other instruments in the background. “Black Glass” features buzzing electronic noises and one moment where guitars, bass, drums and vocals all sound a like creating a wall that may frustrate the average music listener. But if you’re reading this review, you’re probably not the average music listener.

With all of the noise that’s thrown at you for almost 40 minutes, the acoustic number “Let It Win” closes the album on a bizarre note, which is something you’d expect from someone in a strait jacket. If you have one of those rough days and you need to lose yourself in something that reflects said rough day, Hoarse Loads is the perfect album. A challenging, but eventually rewarding listen. - Stephon Johnson

Monday, November 19, 2007
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir

In the liner notes of their new, self-titled album (Bloodshot Records) The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir include a dedication to Dave Eggers and Harvey Pekar. So then, it should come as no surprise that this motley musical collective (led by the one-named Elia) delivers nine tracks of sincere, but occasionally unpleasant, honesty.

Take the album opener, “Aspidistra,” for instance. The fun, jangly guitars of the intro provide no preparation for the tale of drug-use and aimlessness that follows. “Hanging out with whoever/at least the kids that got nowhere to go/if you've got it to share, they won't say no” — hardly a typical suburban youth's complaint of isolation. This insistence on confronting uncomfortable truths is apparent throughout the record. “In Hospital,” a quiet lament about watching a loved one die and then dealing with the aftermath, is heartbreaking in its simplicity. The lyrics echo the way small, mundane things suddenly come to the forefront in the face of a larger, traumatic event; the narrator remembers the green and white sweater she wears “as you go downhill fast” and then, four years later, how she still chokes up when she sees families on tv. A few tracks later comes the shuffly sing-a-long of “Then And Not A Moment Before,” which will force you to consider the question, “If I can't help dancing around my room to a song about a morally-bankrupt cad who lets his children starve, does that make me a bad person?”

For some slightly less guilt-inducing fun, I'd suggest track six, “I Never Thought I Could Feel This.” It's a sweet ode to an unexpected object of affection, complete with hand-claps and a Botticelli reference. Sure it ends with the bittersweet “I just want to be loved by everyone at the end of the day/Now is that so wrong?” but compared to, say, “There are nails in my body/there's blood on my lips/my obsessions crack the whip” (“Obsessions”) it's about as close as the album ever gets to light-hearted.

As surprising as the contrast between the subject matter and the tone of the first track may strike the listener, it is on the final one that TSYGC pulls off something really lovely. What starts as a chronicle of a boy's sad life — his mother dies young, he gets kicked and beaten for being different — turns into a sort of benediction. Sung over what sounds like a particularly soulful organ, the last line, “I hope that one day you'll call to tell me/You're no longer alone in this crowded city/That in the quiet you'll think Lord it's a pity/you can't give everyone the peace you've found,” is almost anthemic.

Perhaps then, what The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir have really done is make a record about life. It's ugly and uncomfortable; it will make you mad and sad. In the end though, something's gotta be said for having a little hope. - Claire Orpeza

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Saturday Looks Good To Me
Fill Up The Room

You may not want to pick up Saturday Looks Good To Me's newest album Fill Up The Room (K Records) if: you're deathly allergic to catchy melodies, you think the world could do with a little more death metal on the radio, or you hate bands fronted by quirky, multi-talented musicians. If none of this applies to you, read on.

On this, their first release on K Records, Fred Thomas and co. make no apologies for their breezy, textured pop songs. From the album opener “Apple,” which sounds like a particularly lo-fi 50s prom theme to the eerie closing track “Whitey Hands,” SLGTM showcases their unconventional take on the harmonies we've all grown so familiar with.

Two of the best moments on the album come toward the end. “Edison Girls” is a lovely hand-clapper of a song that's just begging for a hazy summer evening, even though a quick glance at the liner notes reveal images of broken light bulbs at the bottom of swimming pools and the like. Immediately following is “Hands In The Snow,” a shuffly ode to a relationship's end, which includes the line (I actually laughed out loud when I heard it): “I watch you drink invisible ink/so I won't know when you swallow your words.” Also notable is the unexpected use of strings; the violin and cello provide a nice chamber-pop quality to Betty Marie Barnes' vocals.

There are definitely moments on this record where the listener might imagine he or she is listening to a different artist entirely. Thomas can channel Stephen Merritt with the best of them and quite a few tracks owe at least a little something to the whole 60s pop aesthetic. During the intro of “When I Lose My Eyes,” I remember thinking that it could have come straight off Automatic For The People, while “Peg” (one of the weaker tracks, honestly) is a Buddy Holly B-side come to life.

However, SLGTM is anything but derivative. Thomas fills his songs with surreal images that are that much more surprising for being layered on top of such generally upbeat harmonies. Populating the album with jaws full of saw-teeth, muttering birds, and children “screaming speeches into microscopic tape recorders,” he has assured that every track will get at least two listens.

Which brings us back to why you will want to pick up Fill Up The Room: you appreciate a well-utilized glockenspiel, or you're always wishing for summer, you've got room in your collection for an album that's not afraid to be shiny AND thought-provoking at the same time. - Claire Orpeza

Friday, November 09, 2007
Citay
Little Kingdom

When the first song on Citay’s Little Kingdom (Dead Oceans) emanates from the speaker, you realize that there has never been such truth in advertising. “First Fantasy” lives up to its title with great harmonies, psychedelic guitar work and wordless, but triumphant vocals. This sets a pattern that the band doesn’t stray away from throughout, but then again, it might be the whole point.

Led by former Piano Magic drummer Ezra Feinberg and including Tim Green, of Fucking Champs fame, Citay evokes sunny days and open spaces. It is music meant to be taken in during those communal moments that one can only share with friends. Don’t I sound like a hippie? Again…that’s the point. It’s jam-band like without the intense focus on technical chops or showing off. It’s lazy, loose and patient. Citay realizes that in order to appreciate the totality of the sounds meeting your ears they might have to be deliberately drawn out.

Making the case for music that organically grows until its’ ultimate climax, Little Kingdom comes off complexly natural. Citay has pulled off the trick of meticulously crafting music that sounds like it came off of the top of their heads while recording. There’s a definite Grateful Dead influence here, as heard on the track “A Riot of Color (which sounds like what one sees while on psychedelic drugs), but Feinberg and crew have a sound totally their own. Yes, the theme is generally the same from the beginning to the last track “Moonburn,” but that’s the point. This harks back to the early post-Beatles days when music listeners valued a long player. Little Kingdom makes a great cause to start caring about the concept of an album again. - Stephon Johnson

Monday, November 05, 2007
Beirut
The Flying Club Cup
rating     

Impressing the unknowing will always remain the ultimate objective of the perfectly compiled mix tape, and in 2006 there was no better track than Beirut’s “Postcards from Italy” to call upon to play the role of instant curiosity peaker. All melancholy ukulele, rolling rum pum pum snare drum, blaring brass, and Zach Condon’s stirring vocals, the song is easily the signature track from Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar; though that hardly means the entire body of work suffered.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sole and the Skyrider Band
Sole and the Skyrider Band

Usually on Saturdays, I’m doing one of two things: I’m on my way home to get ready for a night with friends or on my way home to relax with some good books and maybe watch some sports. This night it was the latter. So I left the library at around 7:00 pm and decided to walk home for the hell of it. It looks like I picked the right time (or wrong time depending on your perspective) to check out the new release from rapper Sole whose collaboration with the band Skyrider resulted in the titled mentioned above.

It became pretty apparent to me that this is a record meant to be listened to at night…alone. That’s the only way you’ll be able to take in the passionate, speedy and sometimes indecipherable lyrical delivery, the songs in which the band switches rhythms and melodies on a whim. But at the same time, the organized chaos of it all fell right in with me crossing the New York City streets….alone.

The track that initially made the biggest impression on me was “Nothing Is Free,” a song dominated by a reggae-like bass that included the lyrics “You can’t be 30 and still making hip hop.” Interesting line coming from a genre that’s seen a recent generational divide and received some public flogging in the past year. But all of the criticisms of rap & hip hop culture do not work for Sole & Co. Sole’s known to not rhyme any of his lyrics, which might seem like a betrayal of a basic hip hop aesthetic. The pushing of the envelope works here, because it challenges the listener to pay attention more to the lyrics instead of accepting what sounds good no matter the words. They could miss lines like Sole asking for a “Meteor to hit the media” or “They say the good die young/That’s why I die every two years/To be reborn!”

Some of what comes across on Sole & The Skyrider Band might be considered (paraphrasing the late Kurt Cobain) a vomit bag for Sole’s psyche. But music this intense, jagged, jumpy, jittery and abstract could only produce something like this.

When I finally made it home and sat down on the couch, I couldn’t move for a half an hour. Not because I was tired from walking, I was tired from walking and listening to this CD. It’s a very rewarding and worthwhile listen, but in order to fully appreciate it, you need to absorb this album at night…alone. - Stephon Johnson

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Club 8
The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming

Club 8 — the duo consisting of Karolina Kornstedt and Johan Angergård — is another band that could be submitted as evidence that the Swedes were blessed with some sort of uber-developed indie-pop gene that the rest of the world somehow missed out on. Their newest album, The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming (Labrador), presents a masterclass in how to craft lovely and affecting songs, without ever veering into preciousness or pretension.

It seems only appropriate that the first words Kornstedt sings on the opening track, “Jesus, Walk With Me” are, “When I wake up in the morning/feel the sunshine on my face” because, in a perfect world, this is what my clock-radio’s alarm would greet me with. Over an unabashedly pretty guitar line, she dissects her faith: “If God made me, will Jesus save me?” Elsewhere on the album, relationships of all sorts get the same treatment. The sparkly “When I Come Around” features a chorus — “I’ve got no promises to keep/there’s no love that makes me weep” — that manages to be both a come-on and a statement of independence. The melancholy lullaby “Hopes and Dreams,” however, has Kornstedt pleading, “If you’d miss me when I’m gone, then go when I go.” Falling right at the midpoint comes what might be my favorite track on the album, “Heaven.” It’s unassailably catchy chorus, all breezy vocals over clean guitars, is an insistent call for sunshine; there may be “things to say, but not today.”

Lest the listener starts to think that maybe Club 8 has gotten a little too drunk on the sun’s rays, they would need only listen to the haunting desolation of “Leaving the North” or the mournful musings (“the drugs you take will make you happy they say/it’s another lie”) of “Everything Goes.” Kornstedt, with a little help from some bittersweet string arrangements, sure can whisper-sing her way around a broken-heart.

However, Club 8 really isn’t a band of clouds, ghost towns, and empty beds. They’re at their best (and on an album where the “good” is probably better than a lot of indie-pop out there, that’s saying a lot) on the tracks where the shimmery guitars and dreamy vocals can come out to play. When the album’s same-name final track ends — with a sweet, simple “Goodbye” — it’s not sad, it’s satisfying.

I’m already making a playlist in my head, borrowing liberally from The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming, and perfect for those inevitable rainy days and winter nights.

I think I’ll call it my “We’ll Be Alright in The Daylight” mix. - Claire Orpeza

Friday, October 12, 2007
Tunng
Good Arrows

For those down with songwriting, the dance floor thump of modern electronic music has rarely offered much of a haven to seek solace in…though assimilation with more traditional elements over the last few years is certainly doing its’ part to help champion converts. Genre benders like Beta Band, Books, LCD Soundsystem, and Hot Chip have all come of age with honest to god folk tucked away somewhere near the central nervous systems of their bodies of work. Now tack East London’s Tunng on to this collection of notable exceptions. A four-years and counting collaboration between electronic guru Mike Lindsay and his singer/songwriting cohort Sam Genders, the duo has sprouted a few more members, and recently released their third proper album for those fine, fifteenth anniversary celebrators over at Thrill Jockey. Not to take a piss on the party, but unfortunately Good Arrows ultimately reveals there are better ways to commemorate such a storied franchise of recordings than with this album.

Things don’t sound so grim for Tunng at the onset of the record. While flaunting a few seconds worth of mystery at first, opener “Take” eventually settles into hearty acoustic guitar lines and Gender’s slight push and pull vocals. Queue more phrasing from the sweet sounding Becky Jacobs, and the track is all texture and light hearted melody. Right on its’ heels comes “Bricks”; a song of equal intrigue, frothing over with a video game bass line and off beat, bobble head guitar chords. Sounds good, right? It is…until the listener has a scant and bare bones flop like “Hands”, on their hands. Heavy on an awkward melody that has difficulty standing alone, light on the accompaniment that assures this is not a possibility, the track disturbs the quirky cohesiveness the band worked so hard to put into place with the album’s first two songs. Not only that, but Tunng’s tendency to pair such dainty duds (“Arms”, “Secrets”) with real curiosity peakers (“Bullets”, “King”), is repeated time and time again...frustration!

Therein lay the problem with Good Arrows; only half of the album’s 11 songs ever really hit their mark. Those that do, do so because they are rubbed up with redeeming window dressing…eclectic samples, programmed blips and beeps, hammer dulcimers, clarinets, electric guitar, etc etc. But those that skimp on such vital embellishment fail to attract the same kind of attention as their high-water counterparts. So, as the kegger at Thrill Jockey no doubt rages on over the next few weeks, let’s hope it at least plays out to the tune of only the very best Good Arrows has to offer. Otherwise, the label might find the good times (and their very own legacy) take a bit of a dive. - David Pitz

Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Seabear
The Ghost That Carried Us Away

Seabear needn’t lull listeners in with ultra, attention-fetching songmanship and goofy, “hey! Look at us!” gimmicks. No, these honest Joes…or honest Sindris, Gudbjorgs, and Hlins, as the case may be…rally behind a more sincere approach to the game of gaining the reins, and on their debut, The Ghost That Carried Us Away (Morr Music), you can hear it.

Typically bedroom sounding throughout, main man Sindri Mar Sigfusson recorded this one mic master stroke at home in Reykjavik…though he’d have the listener believe his heart lay no where near city life. Simple, juvenile even, images of nature permeate almost ever track of The Ghost, almost as if Mr. Mar Sigfusson longs so very badly to walk about in a pair of beastly little paws amongst lush natural backdrops in the dead center of no where. Look to “Owl Waltz” and “Hospital Beds” to find the singer’s child like wonder and preciously perceived notions of innocence in the animal kingdom…no National Geographic predator on prey action here.

Such lyrical content makes sense, given Sigfusson’s age. At twenty-four, he teeters on the sometimes unwelcome brink of full-on adulthood…a scarier step for some there is not. Lines like “Human skin can be tough to live in” (“I Sing I Swim”) also offer further proof of his hesitation with aging. So The Ghost sounds plump full of retreat and denial, as if kiddie folk is the comfort Sigfusson’s soul seeks. Fortunately, the songwriter’s personal search makes a beneficiary out of the listener. On songs like “Cat Piano” and “Arms”, tasteful bits of glockenspiel, tinkering toy harmonicas, piano and accordion, plus whispy boy girl vocals do just the heart gooey trick. This is the kind of music that will nestle in nicely next to a collection of Sufjan Stevens’ albums.

It is also the kind of music that aims to liberate the child most keep permanently tucked away inside. I suppose that helps to explain just why Seabear pulled me so snuggly to the speakers when I first heard them. It was September 19th…Doesn’t everyone deserve to feel so young on their birthday? - David Pitz

Monday, October 08, 2007
Matt Pond PA
Last Light

I got my first listen to Matt Pond PA’s newest album on a recent drive up to a friend’s lake house in upstate New York. With three of my buddies in the car and nothing to lose, I popped in Last Light, crossing my fingers that it wouldn’t turn out to be some ear-assaulting horror (clearly, I did not know very much about the band at this point). Lucky for me (and my passengers!), this album was not only great, but seemed put together specifically with a road trip in mind.

The first track also shares its name with the album and you couldn’t ask for a better way to start things off. It’s catchy, fun, and has a supremely singable refrain. A listener may be tempted to forget the vaguely menacing lyrics: “you thought that sleep was dying/you thought it was your time to give into the endless night.” In fact, many of the tracks on this album pull off the handy track of melding serious, almost depressing lyrics with hand-clapping melodies. And yes, there are actually hand-claps on a couple of the tracks.

Let it also be noted, however, that Matt Pond PA does slow and sweet too. Track number nine, the minute and a half long “Until The East Coast Ends” is a gorgeously layered, bite-sized love song: “If there’s any truth it comes from you.” Delivering that line without sounding painfully pretentious is practically a feat in itself. Elsewhere, the use of strings, pedal-steel guitar, and even vibraphone add unique touches. If the lyrics don’t get you, then the country-tinged guitar and lovely background harmonies (some provided by Ms. Neko Case herself) should.

But back to those lyrics. The English major in me couldn’t help but noticing that Last Light is, though it may not have been meant as such, sort of a theme album. The leitmotif is, not surprisingly, light. Or more specifically the interplay between light and dark. In “Basement Parties,” the narrator sings about “stealing back this night” because he is weary of the aimless parties where everyone wants to “leave their bodies.” In “Taught To Look Away,” a lonely lover remembers the way the morning light “first hits your hands, touches your face.” The final track, “It’s Not So Bad At All,” brings the album full circle. Darkness and night are no longer causes to be nervous, no longer call to mind impending death. Instead, a sun-stained carpet becomes of a sign that everything’s going to be okay.

As I mentioned before, Matt Pond PA’s new album seems made for a road-trip, especially one through empty roads lined with fall-colored trees, with a slowly sinking red-orange sun making everything shimmer. Even without such an evocative context, however, Last Light definitely has a glow all its own. - Claire Orpeza

Friday, September 28, 2007
Shout Out Louds
Our Ill Wills
rating     

Somewhere, in an unpronounceable (many umlauts, few vowels) neighborhood in Stockholm, Sweden, there must be a master class in contemporary American indie rock being taught, and we’re just getting the pioneers of the first graduating class. That, to me, seems the only explanation for the new rash of Swede-rock that has been waging a mellow invasion on our shores. Our Ill Wills (Merge), the sophomore album from Shout Out Louds, is another soldier for the cause. And—big surprise—the album was produced by “secret sixth member” Bjorn Yttling, from fellow Stockholm Rock U. alum Peter, Bjorn, and John. I’m telling you, this has “conspiracy” written all over it.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Iron and Wine
The Shepherd's Dog

Credit his intimately crafted rock a bye folk music for this, but Sam Beam is a musician his beard stroking fans think they know very well. When The Creek Drank the Cradle first dazzled in 2002, the album was the kind of solitary effort that coaxed the listener to imagine the grizzled Beam strumming his days away somewhere utterly perfect. A southern cabin, a Midwestern farm, perhaps even a nice and neat West Village loft; where ever his hay bailed guitar and voice was set to crackled analog tape could only have been ideal. Add the fact that 04’s Our Endless Numbered Days, while coated in more of a turtle wax shine, continued on in the same vintage vein, and Beam earned himself a sturdy as aged oak kind of legacy for years to come.

Yet, his first proper album in three years severely complicates that image. Titled The Shepherd’s Dog (Sub Pop), the simple soul that hid between the reels of his first two records is gone, and in its’ place is a man who knows he’s a little more worldly than he has been leading his fans on to believe. Opener “Pagan Angel and a Barrowed Car” casts the chordal roots listeners might be previously accustomed to aside in favor of gnarly sounding hooks. And like so many artists do when it is time to draw upon more expansive influences, Beam punctuates the track with eastern sounding touchups. Think “Norwegian Wood”…light. Clearly Beam is no stay at home folkie, but rather a globe trotting man, eager to dig his heals into a variety of genres. And so goes Beam, splashing through psychedelic puddles on “White Tooth Man”, kicking quasi-Caribbean and Zydeco palettes through “Love Song of the Buzzard”, pounding fiercely on drum kits and hand clap castanets on “Boy With a Coin”, wildly stomping around the campfire to the tune of improved harmonica, didgeridoo, and sun kissed, classical guitar on “House By The Sea”, and even trying his hand at rootsy reggae rhythms on “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)”.

It all adds up to a classic kind of turning point. Beam is no longer the front and center old man in a rocker, cooing for his listener’s attention, but rather a skin shedding veteran of his craft, pushing both production and musicality into new, sonically rewarding directions. Though “Carousel”, “Innocent Bones” and “Flightless Bird, Innocent Mouth” may sound a bit like a return to form, all and all, The Shepherd’s Dog is a record for the Iron and Wine fan willing to take an artistic jump along with Beam. – David Pitz

Monday, September 24, 2007
Jose Gonzalez
In Our Nature

How fitting that this week, the first week of autumn, sees the release of In Our Nature (Mute) the solo album from Swedish-born singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez. In Our Nature is the sound of leaves changing and temperatures falling. It’s the sound of the sun hitting you in the face as you wake up on a Sunday morning. Featuring Erik Bodin on percussion, Yukimi Nagamo on backing vocals and Hakan Wirenstrand on keyboards, Gonzalez’s sophomore album doesn’t veer too far of course sonically from his debut album Veneer, but it’s very noticeable how he’s improved as a craftsman of songs.

“Killing for Love” builds itself with a quiet tension while Gonzalez sings “what’s the point of love if it makes you kill for?” This song, along with the first single “Down the Line,” is part of a multi-part video series now available online. Gonzalez’s songs lend itself to a quiet intimate setting like you’re in bed and he’s sitting at the end singing to you.

“Open your doors/Let down your guard,” Gonzalez says on the title track which features a couple of acoustic guitars, light percussion and Nagamo’s vocals. It’s a quiet rallying cry and a last ditch effort for hope in what seems like a hopeless world to many. The surprise track on Nature is Gonzalez’s take on trip-hop group Massive Attack’s “Teardrop.” The cover does what most cover songs should do: not imitate the original verbatim, but give your own slant to it. While Massive’s original sounded beautiful and heartrending, Gonzalez’s sounds more urgent and filled with life.

At the end of “Abram,” you can hear Gonzalez in the background saying “I want to go to sleep.” You may feel this way about the album too. It isn’t because he’s boring, it’s because these 10 lullabies, soothing in ways that recall Elliott Smith for its literate and melancholy nature, feel like warm blankets wrapping around you. One of the best albums of 2007. - Stephon Johnson

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Joe Henry
Civilians

I’ve always found it easier to write about what’s gone wrong on an album than try to pinpoint what’s gone right. So, imagine my chagrin when Joe Henry, the idiosyncratic musician perhaps best known for his work with the Jayhawks, delivers his latest offering, on which (oh horror of horrors!) I like every single track.

You read that right.

I enjoyed Civilians from beginning to end, from the moody swing of the opening title track (“life is short, but by the grace of god, the night is long”) to the echo-drenched loveliness of the last, “God Only Knows.” Needless to say, this doesn’t happen often.

So, hat’s off to you Mr. Henry. You’ve put together an album that reminds me of all my favorite short story collections – where each piece dazzles on its own, but it is the entire work that reveals the true genius of the creator.

And dazzle these songs do. There’s the gorgeous, bittersweet “Civil War,” where the singer muses that “every truth carries blame, every lie reveals some shame,” layered over a lush instrumental background. There’s the slow heartbreak of a soldier’s search for his sweetheart in “Wave” — when he comes to the conclusion that “life is cruel to the weak and sober,” Henry’s voice drips with weary resignation. There’s the sweetly mellow “I Will Write My Book,” a song whose classic piano arrangement would sound at home on any album with the words “American” and “songbook” in its name. There’s the insistently bluesy “Time Is a Lion,” a catchy and cool rumination on the nature of time (“you can’t see the challenges, I suppose, but time is a dare, and I’m trying too”). Great songs, all. But, falling right in the middle of Civilians, is “the hub of the wheel,” as Henry described it: the simultaneously epic and intimate “Our Song.” In it, the singer imagines having a run-in with baseball legend Willie Mays in a Home Depot, and being witness to an emotional confessional of sorts — “This was my country, this frightful and this angry land/but it’s my right if the worst of it might still, somehow, make me a better man.” Over beautiful, movie-soundtrack strings, Henry comes about as close to making a political statement as he does anywhere on the album, singing about how Mays, “stooped by the burden of endless dreams” comes to stand proudly upright. Given the melancholy of the song thus far, it’s a surprising moment, but no less affecting. “Our Song” sees a man (and maybe a country?) that is flawed, but inevitably, strong.

There are a lot of little moments I’m leaving out, of course. The way Henry describes saints with “their yellow nails curled back to scratch the phantom ache” in “Parker’s Mood.” The slight break in his voice on “You Scare Me to Death” when he sings “You fill up my cup with the worst kind of hope.” Even a wry Dr. Spock reference in “You Can’t Fail Me Now.” One listen is not enough.

As Joe Henry once said, “As a writer, you can look inward, which is a finite space. Or you can look outward, at the world, which is infinite.” Well, I would just like to say thank you, Mr. Henry. Thank you for looking at this infinite world and making such an astoundingly beautiful album.

It’s true. I liked every single song. And, I’m betting, you will too. - Claire Orpeza

Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The Wombats
The Wombats EP

From the moment the first hi hat hits that oh so overused up beat, it might seem all too tempting to cast The Wombats latest EP (Kids) off into dance punk purgatory; a sort of place where Brandon Flowers’ ego pathetically wilts away in a cage, Radio 4 must listen to the horror their post-Gotham! releases have inflicted, and Bloc Party have that all-of-the-sudden-seriousness eternally tickled out of them with a feather. Except a funny thing happens on The Wombats way to hell…that ridiculously recognizable beat gets set to deliciously boppy and hilariously confessional three-minute pop songs worth taking a second take of.

A twenty-something lad who hasn’t managed to shake that horribly awkward teenage fear of beautiful women, Matthew Murphy spends the duration of the EP outlining examples of his chronic struggle with those born with two X chromosomes. From episodic slap-ups (over making a “move when it was well out of context”) on dramatic disco dates (“Backfire at the Disco”), to the fear of staring in a real life rom com (“Kill the Director”) Murphy plays a topsy-turvy lovelorn fool on all five original tracks offered here. Pining for his “Little Miss Pipedream” on the appropriately titled track, the cutesy chimera carouselling ‘round his head goes as far as sounding a bit pathetic… especially given the disaster of a woman the object of his desire appears to be.

Such subject matter should gain a little sympathy headed Murphy’s way. Yet it’s a little too easy to shelve it all in the face of A) such a saucy sense of humor, and B) slap happy tunes that make the listener put Murphy’s romantic follies on the back burner. With handclaps, whistling, accordion, and jingle bells, “Little Miss Pipedream” is as childish sounding as Murphy’s crush, and his disasters generally play out to giddy as fuck hi hat work, run away tempos, and guitar riffs that flop around like a beached octopus. In other words, these Liverpoolians package their songs with all the energy that made this tried and true throwback of a genre worth listening to in the first place. Plus, the fidgety fucker actually manages to squeeze himself out of one of his girl crazy predicaments in “Moving to New York”. Singing “Looks like Christmas has come early this year”, you get the feeling Murphy hardly minds if the listener pokes fun at all the pointless, love sick hoo ha he puts himself through. Just don’t poke fun of his band. The Wombats make the kind of rash and rambunctious music that may have you giving the entire scene a second chance. - David Pitz

Monday, September 17, 2007
Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew
Spirit If...

Even though we should technically consider the album Spirit If…, from Broken Social Scene co-founder Kevin Drew, as a solo output, it’s hard not to see this as another BSS record. The usual suspects stop by as contributors (Feist, Emily Haines Joules Scott-Key and Jimmy Shaw of Metric, Stars’ Amy Millian and Evan Cranley), along with a couple of indie rock big names (J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Scott Kanneberg aka Spiral Stairs of Pavement). The album consists of tunes penned by Drew that were recorded irregularly over the past couple of years. All in all, like the majority of BSS efforts, the collective provided a lot of input.

That’s not a bad thing at all considering that this album provides the listener with the same emotional peaks and valleys and atmospheric sound that the Canadian indie band is known for…and maybe a more intimate listen than previous albums involving the group. Of course the more intimate quality could be the results of having only one person write all of the songs.

The opening track “Farewell to the Pressure Kids” lulls you in for a couple of seconds with soothing keyboards before the drums, guitars, etc. wail away and pound on your eardrums. It’s a jarring feeling, but a triumphant one at the same time. A stereotypical grand entrance like the ones made on previous BSS albums. This type of dichotomy doesn’t reappear until the first minute or so of "Lucky Ones".

The rest of the album, which was produced by Drew along with fellow BSS members Ohad Benchetrit and Charles Spearin, showcases the lush production, dazzling, heartrending and artistic (but not pretentious) nature of all BSS releases (as shown on album highlights “Bodhi Sappy Weekend” and “TBTF”).

Acoustic guitars, with an electronic bass line and electronic percussion highlight the lovely “Gang Bang Suicide.” The harmonies that close this particular song put this particular listener in a trance that he didn’t want to come out of. Be on the lookout for the very catchy first single “Backed Out On The...” which is screaming for a television drama to use it during a happy ending of an episode. “It’s gonna be really hard when you get to the again…but don’t forget what you felt,” says the chorus of the final track “When It Begins.” They couldn’t have been any more right. You have been taken on another journey by one of the best indie bands of the decade.

The majestic and anthemic backdrop of Spirit If… makes it the perfect soundtrack to an intimate night with a couple of close friends or a Sunday afternoon spent alone. One person several years ago called Broken Social Scene an orchestra for the slacker generation and the literati. That sounds about right. - Stephon Johnson

Monday, September 10, 2007
Nina Nastasia and Jim White
You Follow Me

Sorting through the liner notes of Nina Nastasia’s latest album, You Follow Me (FatCat), one could be forgiven for any underwhelming expectations that crop up before giving the album a listen. There will obviously be Nina’s smoke gorgeous voice, and her brittle and cracked like clay acoustic guitar. But she backs herself by Jim White; a lone drummer who hits the skins for Cat Power, Will Oldham, Nick Cave, and the eerie agriculturalist trio, the Dirty Three. This kind of skimpy collaboration has spelled pay dirt for bands that draw a little more juice through their chords. But perhaps this effort might be a little too stripped down to the creaky old skeleton. Rest assured, however. Nastasia and White provide ample reason to question any pretenses that might exist the moment the album begins.

Much of You Follow Me starts in a beatific gutter, a place where White flutters in succinct bouts of unorganized pitter pat in the background, while Nastasia coos front and center lines like, “You have plenty of wine you can offer me a drink. I’ll say I’m wise to you, I know what you must think. Then we’ll barely speak” (“The Day I Bury You”). So often, however, White gracefully pulls Nastasia out of it, leading her (No, you follow me!) from quiet and creaky canyons to rather drastic heights. Look no further than the percussive playgrounds White scatters around in “I Write Down Lists”. It’s seems out of synch at first, but once locked in the two take off. Opener “I’ve Been Out Walking” seems equally destined for the ceiling, though it ultimately fizzles.

While it all might sound as if White’s name ought to be slid ahead of Nastasia’s on the spine, You Follow Me hardly suffers from an identity crisis. White certainly whips up a percussive stew at times. But when the moment calls for it, he sets it all aside. Collaboration equals twin billing, and this record’s got it. Nastasia is at her best on windswept haunts like “The Day I Would Bury” and the understated “There Is No Train”. Perhaps the pair’s only misfire is when they take a somewhat ordinary journey down the straight and narrow on “In the Evening”. But even it will make you wish you never doubted You Follow Me. - David Pitz

Thursday, September 06, 2007
White Rabbits
Fort Nightly

On first listen to “The Plot”, the first single off of White Rabbits’ debut album Fort Nightly (Say Hey Records), you might think you’ve found another group to follow in the well-trod footsteps of The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. The guitar riffs, aggressive drums, and even the vocals, down to the “whoa”s have that rock feel that swept through indie rock only a few years ago, but just like Lewis Carroll’s character, there’s a lot more than initially meets the eye with White Rabbits.

The debut comes from a new set of immigrants to the NYC/Brooklyn music scene, a six-piece band with multiple drum sets and piano accompaniment that drives the heart of the album. From the onset of the first track, “Kid on my Shoulders”, one of the more pleasing songs of the past year, in company only with songs from more established bands, the piano steps in with a simply evil riff that gives the song the first of many hooks. The song isn’t afraid to veer from the successful formula it establishes at the onset, progressing to different points and in the end becoming a sort of drunken bar chantey, probably sung by pirates.

Other songs take on ska undertones, while the style of the piano ranges between vaudevillian, calypso, and something out of Elvis Costello. Throughout all the tracks, they manage to hold the gravity of the song while injecting brighter notes throughout. “While We Go Dancing” is a great example of this tightrope walk, keeping an underlying bass line that sounds like Arcade Fire, then transitioning to piano riffs and a chorus that ventures into Kinks territory.

Given the amazing layering of sounds, from the multiple vocalists to the variety of percussion that never sounds formulaic, not to mention fun guitar chords and a dominating sound from the piano, White Rabbits sound like a band that will put on some great live shows. It’s hard to find a single weak track in the bunch, and there’s a beautiful cohesiveness between each song, so that no one tune steps on the others’ toes. If you can make it past the awesomeness that is “Kid on my Shoulders” without feeling let down, the rest of the album will come through as a debut that should see heavy rotation on your speakers. - Eric Silver

Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Art in Manila
Set the Woods on Fire

Dear Art in Manila,

I had every reason to expect the best from your debut album, Set the Woods on Fire. With former members of Azure Ray, Son, Ambulance, Mayday, and The Anniversary, your pedigree is enviable. So, when I popped the promo CD into my laptop, it was to my great surprise (and disappointment) that I found myself … distinctly unimpressed.

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some enjoyable moments. “The Abomination” is probably the prettiest song about horrible things happening to people that I’ve heard in a while. The title track is great too — full of rockin’ guitars and throaty vocals. The best songs are the ones where simplicity reigns. “Anything You Love” layers spare lyrics (there’s a nice repeating coda of “we can be saved”) over a haunting guitar line, while the
Cowboy Junkies-esque alt-country lament of the last track, “The Game,” is quietly bittersweet (“these hits have made a bruise/I wear to show the truth/I don’t care if I win or lose”).

And now, the bad news.

While there are no horrible songs on this album (an achievement in itself, I suppose), there are way too many forgettable ones. The stand-out tracks I mentioned above really do, mostly because they’re usually sandwiched between the equivalent of indie elevator music. All the components are there — breathy vocals, quirky lyrics, fuzzy guitars — and yet, they come off soulless and sterile. I guess some people would argue that indie rock’s soul was lost a long time ago, and one more mediocre album won’t make a difference. I am not one of those people. There were moments when I actually wished that there were some really terrible tracks on the album, because at least then, I could be sure that something was going on.

Last but not least, an appeal. If you, as a band (and I mean any band, not just Art in Manila), decide to put a cover song on your album, please at least pretend that you’re trying to do something new. Exhibit A: Track eight, an acoustic version of Les Savy Fav’s “The Sweat Descends,” which replaces the snarling intensity of the original with laid-back harmonies that are, frankly, boring.

But hey, don’t let this get you down. I believe in you, Art in Manila. Let’s hope your next album gives me some return on my faith.

Sincerely,
Me

- Claire Orpeza

Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Caribou
Andorra

With its’ driving psychedelic swagger, light headed melodies, balmy bits of carefully calculated vintage throwback, and esoteric electronics, Andorra (Merge), the latest release from Caribou, demands more than a few musical variables for the band’s curator, Dan Snaith, to balance. Fortunately, the Canadian artist and certified numbers nerd comes well equipped to compose order out of the kaleidoscopic compositions that make up the album…turns out he is a Ph D in mathematics. And like the elaborate equations he no doubt conquered daily during his studies, Andorra’s erratic tendencies slowly ease over the course of several listens, revealing a still wandering, yet ultimately catchy as can be collection of summertime songs that toyfully teeter on an unexpected precipice.

Taking his listener’s to the edge of the cliff immediately, Snaith masterminds a storm of organic and electronically contrived elements brewing around an energetic 1,2,3,4 snare drum drive on the album’s Mamas and the Papas on even more acid opener “Melody Day”. It’s dense and exotic, with a flurry of swinging cymbal work and wicked trap set fills, kept in time by the right hand of the very best kind of jazz man, setting a furious pace for flutes, bassoons, and acid guitar to fly around. Expect much of the same from songs like “After Hours” and “Sun Dialing”.

Vocally, Snaith knows where his limits lie. Rather than jeopardize the Byzantine, three dimensional nature of his work with overwhelming vocal contributions, Snaith neutralizes his voice by harmonizing it with the mix. It is a nice compliment, not to mention poetically economical. When Snaith does decide to peep up on rare occasions, he reveals cringe-worthy lines like, “You left me nowhere to start and watch me falling apart. There's nothing left I can say to stop it ending this way” (“Desiree”).

Though Snaith has always kept his vital grasp on electronica, Andorra is an album that threatens to plunge down a pit of pop at almost any moment. Of course that kind of conclusion would be a tad too simple (not to mention too dull) for the brainy doctor at the head of Caribou. Rather than commit to one or the other, Snaith chooses to hover on the brink of both. And in doing so, Snaith equates one of the most vivid, and uniquely imaginative albums you’re likely to come across this year. - David Pitz

Friday, August 31, 2007
Imperial Teen
The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band
rating     

For every generation, the same musical question always pops up, and we are left scratching our heads: what happens when pop artists age? Sometimes, as in the case of the Beatles, they shed their poppy roots with the aid of some hallucinogenics, and completely redefine their sound. In the case of Imperial Teen, they get older and write more pop songs about being old.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Blitzen Trapper
Wild Mountain Nation
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Off –kilter jabbing of a single guitar opens “Devil’s A –Go-Go,” the opening track to Wild Mountain Nation by Blitzen Trapper, which features a quirky mix of 60s-style psychedelia, 70s stoner rock, prog rock and country...with lo-fi production. Sounds like a lot to pack into a three-minute song, but if you’re looking for a consistent output then head somewhere else. Nation is designed for the music fan with a short attention span, taking you on various excursions and throwing a dizzying amount of musical styles in your direction.

Monday, August 27, 2007
Maps
We Can Create

Is there some memo going around telling one-man acts that they have to choose plural names to perform under? Is it some kind of inferiority complex at being one person, or just the desire to hear newbie fans say, “Oh yeah, I love their stuff,” thus displaying their ignorance? The Streets, I’m looking at you. Coming onto this “I’m more than just one person” scene is James Chapman, a.k.a. Maps, with his debut album We Can Create (Mute). While the sounds all emanate from one source, they certainly rival anything coming from most bands.

Maps first came onto the scene in 2006 with his self-released Start Something EP, and has since received some favorable reviews and playtime in his native land of England. The debut album takes songs from the EP, refining their sound with production from Valgeir Sigurdsson (Bjork) and mixing by Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros), and adds the rest of the tracks that resulted from Chapman sequestering himself in his bedroom with a 16-track recorder and his own thoughts. That’s right, this electronic album was done the old-fashioned analog way, though one would be hard-pressed to find any shortcomings in this method. If anything, the only possible problem with Maps’ methodology is that when it comes down to it, he really is one person, with one perspective on the music, and this comes across on the album.

From the first song, “So Low, So High”, it feels like something big is about to happen. The song explodes with a chorus of “ah”s, as though you are experiencing a revelation at that moment. Chapman’s voice comes in at a whisper, singing, “Strange you feel so low, then you feel so high.” It fits the music perfectly, like that one instant when things completely turn around from their darkest point. If I could describe this song in cinematic terms, as this type of music lends itself easily to, it would have to be the background to the scene at the end of The Neverending Story where Bastion and the Princess are sitting in the dark, after Fantasia has been destroyed. I’m telling you, you’ll hear it and agree.

The remaining songs on the album are all pretty stellar, with very few dips, except for the final two tracks, which go on a bit too long. Listeners who have made it that far through the album, however, will have reached the point where this is hardly an imposition. If you want to have fun while listening to the album, try playing the game “Which is a single?” Not to ruin it for you, but there really aren’t many wrong answers. “Don’t Fear”, “Start Something”, and “Lost My Soul” were all released as singles on the previous EP, while “Elouise” was a featured iTunes UK single of the week. “It Will Find You” and “So Low, So High” have “single” written all over them, if they aren’t ones already, and “You Don’t Know Her Name” is apparently the U.S. single. Seriously, it’s a little ridiculous when one album has something like seven singles. It says a lot about the product, though it is arguable that while each song individually sells the Maps sound, as a grouping they might overload a listener with variations on a similar theme. Separately, they all have a cinematic quality about them that will probably conquer a few soundtracks or commercials in the near future. If Garden State had come out just a few years later, “So Low, So High”, “It Will Find You”, or “Lost My Soul” would definitely have been in the background.

The shortcomings of the album are clearly in the lyrics. Chapman has perhaps two suitable lines in an entire album of vague poetry that sounds like Beckett’s dialogue if it was meant to be taken seriously. He claims to have woken up singing “Elouise”, which I think goes to show what Ambien is capable of. The themes are basically about love, loss of love, finding love, and all the other types of emotions one would expect from someone shut up in his apartment for weeks on end. There’s very little depth to any of the sentiments, the rhymes are lamentable, and for those who happen to look at the inside booklet before listening to the music, “It Will Find You”, a complex composition that extends to over five minutes, it will be painful to realize that he just sings the same four lines over and over, and they suck. Vocally, Chapman isn’t much of an instrument, either. The whispering works at first, and then you realize it’s because he’s got the range of your average karaoke singer on a Friday night. Thankfully, his voice often takes a backseat to the music, which remains stellar.

For a debut from one man, it’s quite an impressive album, and there are more than the normal share of great, otherworldly songs that blend the sounds of Spiritualized, The Postal Service, and even The Stone Roses. Maybe the next time around he’ll find someone to collaborate a little with, and get out of the house a bit, so we can get a little thematic range to complement the compositions. - Eric Silver

Friday, August 24, 2007
A.A. Bondy
American Hearts

The few, who remember AA Bondy from his days with the now defunct punk band Verbena, will be in for a surprise when they spin American Hearts (Superphonic Records). Lush acoustic guitars and spine tingling harmonicas lay the foundation for Bondy’s soulful twang. Athough never really establishing himself as anything different from the new collection of troubled troubadours like Ryan Adams, Jesse Malin, or M.Ward, Bondy does create an album that is beautiful in tone and harmony, while desolate and heartbreaking in subject matter. Bondy seems to have gone through a spiritual cleansing while holed up in a barn recording this album. On the track “I Killed Myself When I was Young,” he confesses “ killed myself when I was young/ with my hand on the poison gun.” In the haunting opening track “How Will You Meet Your End,” Bondy sings, “I killed my daddy and took his .45/ he was no good/ he had to die,” with such conviction that you almost believe him. The title track “American Hearts,” would not sound out of place on Neil Young’s masterpiece Harvest, while “World Without End” would fit in seamlessly on Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind. It’s hard to listen to Bondy and not play the “Who Does He Sound Like On This Song Game,” but what should not be lost is the honesty and sincerity in which these songs are conveyed. It’s only a matter of time before people are being compared to Bondy himself. - Tom Duffy

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Liars
Liars

“I wanna run away/I wanna bring you too” — this quintessential teenage snarl provides an appropriate opening for Liars’ forth full-length album. The three person art-rock outfit, known as much for their song-titles (think “We Fenced Other Houses With the Bones of Our Own”) as for their stylistic experimentation, has managed to put together a record that is distinctly stripped-down, but no less surprising. Says frontman Angus Andrew, “We…wanted to write songs that spoke for themselves in a more visceral way – like when you’re a teenager and things really mean a lot for you in a song.”

The first track, “Plaster Casts of Everything”, sets the tone with an explosion of discordant guitars and intense percussion. Followed by the spacey shuffle of “Houseclouds” and the paranoid atmospherics of “Leather Prowler”, it becomes obvious that Liars is not a band to be listened to passively. In the midst of a chill-out track (like “Sailing to Byzantium”), unexpected touches, such as an interlude of hallucinatory harpsichords, are hard to ignore. Growly, crunchy guitars make their presence known on the metal-tinged “Cycle Time”, while on the obsessive, squealing “Clear Island”, Andrew’s “Come save me,” seems that much more urgent when combined with the boot-stomping chant in the background.

All that being said, the band definitely doesn’t shy away from putting their pop sensibilities on display. There are more than a few instances where they seem to be pulling directly from the Jesus and Mary Chain’s sonic top-hat, as it were. “Freak Out” blends an unabashedly pretty melody with fuzzy guitars and catchy percussion, resulting in perhaps the most “radio friendly” track on the album. The jangly guitars on “Pure Unevil”, the reverb-heavy layers on “What Would They Know”, even the insistent dissonance of “The Dumb in the Rain” — Liars clearly understands that in order to create something original, it is always important to have a grasp on what came before.

Whereas the album begins on a rebellious note, it ends on a more introspective one. On the elegiac “Protection”, a somewhat more world-weary version of the opening track’s narrator muses about a long-ago summer (“I would take a Polaroid, you would teach me how to drink”), culminating in a little-older-little-wiser pronouncement: “Where are we today? Somewhere near the future.”

“When we started the band was more like a means of expression,” explains Andrew. “Before it was a bit more like an experiment, a stab in the dark.” Happily for Liars fans, this newest album is pretty much a clinic on blending this insatiable need to push boundaries with the confidence to simplify.
- Claire Orpeza

Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sleeping States
There the Open Spaces

Like making my way back to a place once proud to call home, there is a solid sense of familiarity in the music of Sleeping States. The sedately strummed acoustic guitar, Markland Starkie’s pretty as a peach vocals…these are variables that I have come to admire in many songwriters like the English Midlands-born artist. But something is slightly eschew when it comes to Sleeping States, much like the Midwestern city I once claimed as my own. And on There the Open Spaces (Misra), Starkie cuts up slivers of oddly timed samples, and strews them across a less than lively life line. It’s uneasy, it’s lonely, it’s even cold at times. But given the sudden feeling of being out of whack in what once were intimate borders, Open Spaces suits my own mood perfectly.

Starkie obviously relishes the role of the singer/songwriter…He sounds too much the classic kind of fellow, dusting his Morrissey albums nightly, to deny it. So it is odd to hear him proclaim that, “When I started Sleeping States, I gave myself a set of rules because I had a real problem with singer/songwriters. I find the whole thing cheesy beyond belief.” No need to worry Markland. Songs as lonely as “Rivers”, and the sprawling nine-minute gem “Memory Games” are too isolated to sound cheesy. Tack the romantic undertones that seep into “The Sleeping States, or Who Has Been rocking My Dream Boat”…a woozy, wine bar ode to those stoic spells just the right kind of woman can put a man under…and Starkie’s songs sounds so heart felt, there can be no confusion as to their authenticity. Cheesy-ness avoided.

Perhaps listener’s personal taste should be Starkie’s only real concern. Aside from “September, Maybe” and “I Wonder”, both of which mimic a stripped down Broken Social Scene, Open Spaces is an unsettling and hushed experience, ironically, never reaching for any kind of wide open place where Starkie can clamor on to any dynamic he so chooses. Rather, Open Spaces remains, by contrast, in the indistinct confines of dark room haunts, and late night back alley boundaries. For those willing to step into such a curious environment, there is plenty the sonic shadows eventually reveal. What initially seems uncomfortable is ultimately orienting and comfortable. And as I warm up to the fact that I, in fact, have moved on from the cheesy life I once lived, I guess the same can be said for my former neighborhood. It to is orienting, and comfortable after all. - David Pitz

Thursday, August 16, 2007
Ryan Ferguson
Only Trying to Help

“I’ve always written pop music,” says Ryan Ferguson, formerly of Southern California indie-rockers No Knife. “These songs aren’t too far off from what I’ve always done.” In this case, “these songs” refers to the eleven tracks on his latest solo effort, Only Trying to Help (Better Looking). True to his word, Ferguson has filled this album with glossy, pop-tinged rock.

For example, on "Remission", the opening track (as well as one of the best on the album), Ferguson’s awareness of melody gives the song a distinct anthemic quality. He is not afraid to be catchy or to craft a hook that will latch onto a listener’s ear and not let go. This does not mean that Ferguson is afraid to try something unexpected, however. "The Imposter" starts out with breathy vocals over a simple guitar line but builds to a lush, dreamy (but no less catchy) coda. Immediately following, "In the Sea" has Ferguson creating a soundscape that vaguely echoes the sweetness of a classic 50s track. His knack for layering different elements comes to the forefront on the penultimate track, "Must be Friday Night" — bittersweet lyrics (“This cigarette’s burning my hand, there’s ink on my face, and a drink on the night-stand”), lavish strings, and delicate boy-girl harmonies combine to create something both intimate and epic.

Ferguson’s only missteps come when he tries to cram too many things at once. The schizophrenic "Introduction" sounds vaguely like a discarded James Bond theme, with a refrain that seems to come from a totally different song and unfortunate lyrics like “A faded photograph of her face takes me to the safest place.” And I Worry, the last track, is similarly disjointed, a regrettably anti-climactic ending to a very good album.

Ferguson has said that he wanted “to write a real powerful album. One that people won’t forget too easily.” Engaging and complex, Only Trying to Help proves that, for the most part, his walk matches his talk. - Claire Orpeza

Monday, August 13, 2007
Junior Senior
Hey Hey My My Yo Yo

Rarely does a band lose its edge quite this fast.

And if any quirky rockers were going to go fuzzy-pencil on their sophomore attempt, the listening world probably wouldn't expect it to be Junior Senior, the Danish garage-fabulous pop duo who challenged the term "dance music" in 2003 with their debut, D-D-Don't Don't Stop The Beat.

The flamingly take-no-haters glee is there, but the sexy take-no-shit experimentation is gone. Where every track on Beat had it's own kick-Disco-in-the-balls lyrics ("Chicks and Dicks" and "White Trash" come to mind), this reissue of their 2005 sophmore album, Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (Ryko), filters the lyric options down to the words "dance" and "chance." (If we wanted to groove to ABBA classics, we would.) Where their first album kept feet (and heartbeats) on the edge with complex, fresh rhythms, tracks like "Itch U Can't Skratch," "I Like Music," and virtually every other song on Hey Hey force us to regretfully tap our shoes to a Wal-mart selection (and not in a good way) of dance beats, waiting for the "Rhythm Bandits" of this album that never comes.

The versatile vocal abilities of Jesper "Junior" Mortenson and Jeppe "Senor" Laursen have been all but exchanged for an impressive symphony of recruited female vocalists, including Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson of the B-52's, 1960's Motown girl-group The Velvelettes, and electro-political punks Le Tigre. And even though, for instance, Pierson and Wilson glitter on "Take My Time," it's no Jeppe Laursen, and lining them up next to woman after woman robs everyone of the "My My" aspect of this album.. Redefining themselves as a recording studio block party for funky vocalists has, ironically, homogenized Junior Senior's once-outragous sound.

The indisputable highlight of HHMMYY is "Dance, Chance, Romance." One of the five Le Tigre-assisted tracks, it bubbles with Architecture In Helsinki-like delight, shouts of "Halleluyah, halleluyah!" replacing the typical "Woo! Yeah!," an interplay between violin synths and vocal harmony reminiscent of fellow Euro-scientists Belle and Sebastian, and most importantly, a flower-power psychedelia tribute of a guitar hook, the first and only hint of an era besides Motown, disco, or early rap on the record. In fact, the Say Hello, Wave Goodbye EP, included with the new CD, has accomplished more musical variety and intensity than all of the full album put together. Perhaps that's because it kicks off with the band's first-ever song in minor key (and you thought they couldn't pull it off!). Perhaps it's because the songs address issues other than dancing: in fact, on "Headphone Song," Mortenson moans "I can't dance anymore/It's no fun anymore," a line that just didn't make the cut for the Muzak-worthy party-worship of the full album. Or perhaps it simply features more Junior and Senior, the nymphomaniac DJ-demons with something to say. "I can't rap, I can't sing, but I'd do anything for love," they declare to head-spinning beats on "I Can't Sing," featured on the EP. True or not, it's the honesty you long for at the conclusion of Hey Hey....so save it for dessert.

No one's claiming that Junior Senior needs to follow Of Montreal to the realms of deep, dark dance confessions, but when the jagged charm of a promising rock band is lost in crowd-pleasing fluff, musicologists can agree that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. - Dorit Finkel

Friday, August 10, 2007
Dirty Projectors
Rise Above
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An amateur’s eye rarely registers abstract art upon its’ maiden gaze. All aesthetic at first, what skill, touch, contrasting calm and chaos, and emotion that often lie at the heart of a modern piece can be easily lost if one lacks the understanding on where to find it. Not surprisingly, The Dirty Projectors’ Rise Above(Dead Oceans) presents a hard case for the fact that the same can be said of the extreme sect of experimental music these days. So forgive me if these words hardly sound accredited; I am no expert when it comes to the elegant mess of grooves, beats, harmonies, melodies, and other catastrophic soundings that one can expect to hear flailing around in the 11 songs Rise Above offers. Though, as the listening experience that surrounds the album evolves play after play, that may not always be the case; plenty is eventually revealed in Rise Above.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Architecture in Helsinki
Places Like This

If you’ve gone to any shows for Death Cab for Cutie, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, or David Byrne, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve already been turned on to Architecture in Helsinki, and their eclectic sound. Or you might be from Australia, in which case you should probably just skip to all the parts about their latest album, Places Like This (Polyvinyl).

Places Like This is the third album from the Melbourne-based ensemble, and old and new fans alike should be pretty pleased with the new direction the band has taken. Two years after the release of the melodic, slower In Case We Die, the band has upped the ante in a new album that retains the soul of their sound while picking up the pace to get you moving.

The single, “Heart it Races”, with its tribal calypso beats (not to mention a few opening chants that bring Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” immediately to mind) will probably do most of the selling of this new album, as the beat is as infectious as mono. The good news for the intrepid pioneers who are willing to base an impression of a band off of one song is that the single is rather indicative of the major themes of the album. Imagine getting drunk with your friends and watching Tom Cruise’s seminal classic Cocktail on repeat for about four hours straight and you just might have found the inspiration for the sound of Places Like This. Tracks like “Like it or Not” and “Lazy (Lazy)” keep up the poppy vibe, as if you’re deep into the late hours of the house band at a destination wedding.

With a mixture of instruments, from an analog synthesizer to the occasional recorder, Architecture in Helsinki manages to bring more than a few bands to mind, seamlessly blending their styles into one that is distinctly theirs. Cameron Bird’s vocals are a mixture of Alec Ounsworth from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Fred Schneider of the B52s…and this is a good thing. It provides a sense of fun and humor, and pretty much brings back the message that music can be enjoyed like a cold can of soda in the sweltering summer. “Hold Music” is reminiscent of the poppy dance sound of the B52s, down to Kellie Sutherland’s vocals, singing “Hold music, hold music, give it to me baby,” as if she were channeling Kate Pierson. The band transitions just as easily into the New Wave synth-rock of the likes of Devo on “Red Turned White”, then throws in tastes of ska as the brass pipes in on other tracks.

Even more impressive than a tight album that boasts a catchy sound throughout multiple tracks is the manner in which the music was produced. A year after their second album, Cameron Bird migrated to the indie mecca of the world, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, leaving the remainder of the band in Melbourne. From the U.S., in true Postal Service fashion, the band composed the tracks for the album through the internet, recording the songs in less than two weeks in a Brooklyn studio after their 2006 tour. They may have stumbled onto the kind of creative process that suits their sound best, since the distance involved in their songwriting has allowed the variety of sounds from each band member to find their moments in the spotlight. Bird cites the Puerto Rican neighborhood in which he lives as the source for a lot of his inspiration, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the presence of more aggressive, poppy beats under lighter musical fare isn’t inspired a little more by fellow billyburgers The Rapture, and the dancehall approach they took for their second album.

Complimented by sick album art courtesy of British illustrator Will Sweeney and a clever video for their first single, AIH is poised to increase their U.S. fan base on the strength of an album that will leave listeners wishing it clocked in at more than half an hour. So, to answer Bird’s question from the sixth track, “Do you like it or not,” I think that’s going to be a “yes." - Eric Silver

Monday, August 06, 2007
They Shoot Horses Don't They?
Pickup Sticks

The recent release by They Shoot Horses Don’t They, a multi-instrumental and avant-garde group from Vancouver, showcases what’s right and wrong about the experimental side of indie rock. Pickup Sticks is an exercise in making people feel slightly unintelligent if they don’t understand what’s going on. But in reality, not much is.

“This is the last song!” screams lead singer and guitarist Nut Brown on the opening track “One Final Push”. I guess for those that are paying attention to lyrics it sounds like an attempt at being ironic, but the majority of music audiences don’t pay attention to lyrics, so it’s all for naught. This is especially true when the song features circus-style music with random horn bursts and Brown’s whispery talk/scream vocals. The same story continues on “The Guest”, a song with a repetitive and mind-numbing bass drum kick on the downbeat (although points are given for the bass playing that dives in and out of the song). As Pickup Sticks moves along, very few songs offer anything more than their successors do. Summing up the average track, They Shoot Horses Don’t They seem to begin most of their songs with some keyboards, followed by horn punches, bass drum kicks, a noisy chorus, and a weird, unorthodox conclusion (which isn’t so weird and unorthodox when heard so often). Look no further than the bouncy keyboard shrieks of “A Place Called Zo”. Worse yet, Brown comes from the school of indie rockers who have adopted the vocal styling of David Byrne when they want to sound emotional. After a while, it really can start to irritate.

I suppose it’s easy for the casual music listener to get angry at a label like Kill Rock Stars for believing in such pretentious art. But the label has been a godsend for musicians who want to try something different and see what sounds they can make come out of their instruments. I always enjoy hearing what a band can do. But the 40 minutes of Pickup Sticks placed more responsibility on the listener than the average prog-rock album (a genre that I actually like and many indie rockers loathe).It definitely feels longer than 40 minutes. Since this is designed as an album and not a collection of songs, I appreciate it, but the songs blend into each other too much, nothing really stands out, and it begins to sound a bit the same in the end. Being somewhat of a pretentious person (at times), I’ll definitely give it another listen, but if you’re looking for a melody to sing along to…this isn’t the record for you. - Stephon Johnson

Wednesday, August 01, 2007
The Perishers
Victorious

Don’t let the name fool you. The Perishers, who hail from Umeå, Sweden, are not some kind of Nordic black metal band. The quartet, consisting of Pehr Åström, Martin Gustafson, Thomas Hedlund, and Ola Klüft, is much more likely to woo its audiences with its melodic, guitar-driven indie pop.

On their newest album, Victorious, these pop tendencies are put to good use. From the summery, Fountains-of-Wayne-ish “Carefree” to the infinitely hummable la-da-das of “Is It Over Now?” the band provides a listening experience that is often catchy, but never boring. Though the general tone of the album may be a bit bittersweet — on the second track, Klüft sings “I’m sure we’ll grow, but we’ll never bloom again” — the songs never wallows in clichés.

While a listener may be hard-pressed to identify a weak track among the twelve on the album, it is a far easier task to pinpoint the standouts. The second to last track, “8 a.m. Departure” starts out as simple entreaty to a lover — “You could call in sick, we could make out all day.” It then proceeds to build, climaxing when Klüft sings that “the worst part of it all is I don’t know when I’ll see you again.” Many of the qualities that make the other tracks so good pop up here, but taken to a different level. The subtlety, the pretty melodies, the earnest lyrics combine for a truly stunning result. On a slightly different emotional frequency is the title track. There is an anthemic quality to it, as Klüft muses on the passing of time (“You know me, I’ll be fine, life is short, I know the feeling”) while the rest of the band provides a driving background which only adds to the song’s urgency. This track also provides perhaps the album’s most hands-in-the-air refrain: “We shall be victorious” the band insists. And you believe them.

Shimmery and sweet (but never saccharine), The Perishers really are a joy to listen to. Let’s hope they outlast those teen melodramas who seem so fond of using them on their soundtracks. - Claire Orpeza

Monday, July 30, 2007
Bishop Allen
The Broken String

There can be any number of ways a band might arrive at the front door of a newly finished, studio album. Where one group might prefer to prepare a handful of signature tunes to rehearse and record the hell out of, another might take a more round about way to arrive at the material. Slide Boston born/Brooklyn bred band, Bishop Allen, into the latter…though their ’06 EP project was more of a scattering in every which direction than a brief detour. But, as it turns out, the relentless release schedule was more than just a prolific project to keep the band going. It was the search for an immaculate follow-up to their hooky, pop gem of a debut, Charm School. Witling fifty-eight songs down to a handful (and adding a few previously unreleased tracks), The Broken String (Dead Oceans) colors in the year-long project’s lo-fi scribblings with fully detailed arrangement and vivid production. It also reveals why so many have gravitated towards the band over the course of their career.

Like Colin Maloy and James Mercer, Bishop Allen’s Justin Rice and Christian Rudder inhabit their music with both the personal and fictitious…though it is sometimes difficult to decipher one from the other. Tack a literate, descriptive habit of skirting the listener into the same places Bishop Allen find their muse hiding in, and The Broken String plays like an endearing, personal, one on one story telling session. If you find yourself lost in a vivid, Chilean daydream while “Like Castanets” plays, it is because the band takes you there with muted trumpet, flamenco guitar, offbeat rolling snare slaps, and lines like “I’m following the coffee trail. I drink it cheap and by the bail. The pesos turn to paper cups. My fingers tremble at the touch. Like castanets.” That young girl poking around a breezy, blooming wildflower field, butterfly net carefully cocked, waiting to capture her dainty prey? That’s newcomer Darbie Nowatka singing the petite bedtime ballad “Butterfly Nets”. “Click Click Click Click” tells the tale of a whimsical wedding crash to the tune of the pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck, of a nylon stringed guitar, a gooey bass line, the perfect pop beat, and hints of glockenspiel and wood blocks. And never mind the uncomfortable rumble under your feet. Just clutch the hand rest, sink back into your seat, and enjoy the wild ride up 95 “Chinatown Bus” takes you on.

A little adventure, a little self-reflection, a little history, and a little love – The Broken String hides it all within its’ 12 songs. And best yet, listeners can expect the exotic pop the band perfect with unique instrumentation, solid composition, and well written lyrics to age well. Bishop Allen could have released three albums this year. Instead, they released one of the summer’s best. I suppose that is just the kind of thing that happens when a band sifts through the sonic sand to find their very best material. Ryan Adams, take note… - David Pitz

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
A Fine Frenzy
One Cell in the Sea

The debut album by A Fine Frenzy - really Alison Sudol, the red-head featured on the cover - follows, in many ways, the tradition of the soulful and slightly world-weary female singer-songwriter. The breathy vocals, the insistent piano, the boozy confessions; they're all here. Yet, it is such formulaic construction that prevents this album from being something truly original.

Not that it doesn't have its moments. One of the best tracks, "Almost Lover", might seem, on the first listen, to be one of those aforementioned formulaic songs. However, it becomes one of the most successful by virtue of Ms. Sudol's achingly sincere delivery. When she sings, "I never want to see you unhappy, I thought you’d want the same for me,” the listener forgets that the singer of this modern-day torch song is only twenty-two years old. Another high-point on the album is "Near to You", a song that has Sudol imploring her current lover to stay, even while she tries to get over a past one. "He and I had something beautiful but so dysfunctional it couldn't last" she sings, over an appropriately spare piano line. It is confessional, pleading, and heart-breaking.

Unfortunately, a few good tracks does not a great album make. One gets the feeling that some of these songs were actually meant to be the opening themes for a failed teen drama. In "Ashes and Wine", Sudol seems to be going out of her way to stitch as many bad-high-school-poetry clichés together as possible. "Think of You" has her singing “You don’t owe me anything, you paid me well in memories.” Even more unfortunate is that lines like this crop up in most of the songs on the album.

It can’t be denied that Ms. Sudol has a wonderful voice, a voice that, in her best songs, can be both vulnerable and passionate at the same time. One Cell in the Sea’s biggest fault, however, is that it tries too hard, sacrificing originality and emotion for well-trodden familiarity. - Claire Orpeza

Monday, July 23, 2007
Great Lake Swimmers
Ongiara

From the very first banjo strokes, Ongiara (Nettwerk) invites comparisons to some of the big names of indie folk: Neil Young, Iron & Wine, Nick Drake, and Sufjan Stevens. While this could be considered a somewhat stifling group to work in (who’s going to want to try to compete with Neil Young??), the Great Lake Swimmers perform admirably, and manage to present a sound that is distinctly their own. The third album from the Ontario-based band is in no way a departure from their previous two albums, but rather works on developing their sound, to varying degrees of success.

The opening track, “Your Rocky Spine” clearly shines as the winner of the album. The lyrics present a spirited love song that could be read dually as devoted to Canada’s famed landscape, or as the exploration of a lover’s body. Along with “Put There By The Land”, this song serves to present the environmental leanings of the group, and to their credit, the crunchiness doesn’t make you want to vomit. Still, only Canada could produce something like green indie folk.

Tony Dekker’s voice has the kind of softness and vulnerability that lends itself to what has been described as “ambient folk.” But on this particular album, Serena Ryder and Sarah Harmer add background vocals…particularly on the choruses. At times, it works well. At others, it falls just short of the Indigo Girls headlining the Lilith Fair. Perhaps it is an attempt to step up the game from the previous two albums…especially since there are other guest appearances from the likes of Bob Egan of Blue Rodeo (pedal steel and dobro) and Owen Pallett of The Arcade Fire (string arrangements)…but sometimes Ongiara sounds like there are too many cooks spoiling the broth; especially given Dekker’s talent.

Lyrically, Decker has just as many ups and downs as the album. Where “Your Rocky Spine”, “Changing Colours”, and “I Become Awake” have some great lines, “Backstage With The Modern Dancers” and “I Am Part Of A Large Family” are clunky in places. In the case of the latter song, it’s all a shame because the stanzas far outshine the chorus. Then there’s “Put There By the Land”, which has six lines. I don’t even know if it’s actually legal to say you wrote the words to a song when it’s only six lines. Liner note readers will also enjoy the added bonus of Decker’s homonyms in the songs, like singing “piece” instead of “peace.” And all that time I had been singing it wrong!

Named after the Harbor boat that took the band to their initial recording sessions on a Toronto Island (for their first album), Ongiara seems to signify the band trying to arrive on the scene. Many of the songs have a poppy, down-to-earth melody that recalls days relaxing on the porch out in the country, which should go a long way to making their efforts at converting fans worthwhile. Some of the extra adornments may come off as a little too much, but it will just come down to matters of personal taste in folk. Much like a boat ride, their trip might be a little rocky at times, but they’ll probably make it there in one peace (that’s for you, Tony). - Eric Silver

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
M. Ward
Duet For Guitars #2

While sitting in my apartment in the concrete jungle of Manhattan, and listening to M. Ward’s Duet For Guitars #2 (Merge), I couldn’t help wishing I was on an old wooden back porch somewhere in the south with the sun just about to disappear over the mountains. Ward’s debut, which was originally released in 2000 and impossible to find until now, shows a singer-songwriter laying down the foundation for the songs that would lead to his current success. Shimmering acoustic guitars, mandolins, dulcimers, and part time keys are perfectly paired with Ward’s ragged but elegant voice. Duet’s lo-fi vibe and shoestring budget allow the songs to speak and breathe without any extra production, resulting in the perfect companion for Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. The only exception is the brilliant 50’s sounding “Look Over Me,” which would have benefited from the studio treatment if only to bring out the grandness of the song.

Although there is nothing strikingly different about what Ward was recording then compared to now, you do get a glimpse of the aspiring singer-songwriter before he was touring with acts like Norah Jones and selling out headlining gigs. It’s unlikely that Ward will take the bare bones approach to recording again, but lucky for us that the good folks at Merge thought we should hear what it sounds like. Duet is perfect for when your long night out is coming to an end and you see the haze of morning creeping through the purple night sky. - Tom Duffy

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Few bands work as well within relatively simple, sonic confines as Spoon. Compiling a conspicuous catalogue that rarely leans hard on window dressing, the band has always known what works. Drums, bass, guitar, and keys: these would be the basic building blocks if pop music had a periodic table of the elements. Of course, Spoon would not be relevant after nearly ten years without a little creative zest peppered in to their stunning formula. That originality has just never come at the expense of the song.

So when trumpets, saxophone, cello, a plethora of percussive extras, flamenco guitar, a Japanese koto, chamberlain, and bits of studio chatter pop in and out of their sixth studio try, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge), it might seem appropriate to suspect the band may have over did it a bit. Of course, these Texas Tunes men have spent a decade perfecting their precise attention to detail. And when a band has a clever pop song neatly tucked away for all occasions, creativity need not require over the top composition.

Those quasi cool undertones Spoon has always kept in their back pocket...creative nuances that have never made their songs just pop songs...are drawn at will over the course of Ga. All sneaky surf guitars, “Don’t Make Me a Target” is a fragmented, kickoff. An obvious plea to the powers that be, the song is, initially, Britt Daniel’s composed complaint. However, near its’ conclusion, he’s fierce and furious, cutting and snarling over rowdy, radio static guitar. It’s humid and hot as hell; the kind of song that sounds best when sweat is pouring down your face. It’s also a steadier version of Gimme Fiction’s excellent opener “The Beast and Dragon, Adored”. On the other hand, the pounding pianos of “The Ghost of You Lingers” plays more reminiscent of the minimalist, fragmented numbers of Kill the Moonlight (Think “Small Stakes"). Pre-packaged with anxiety and tension, Daniel’s vocals, like a proper apparition, come creeping out of nearly every corner. And where the song plays as if it should be building towards something, sweet relief never comes. Like the temporary sizzle of a splash of water over hot coals, heat and fervor always wins.

For an album clocking in at just over 36 minutes, Ga always cycles through at an alarming pace. Giddy numbers like the bass driven romp of “Don’t You Evah”, curiously titled “Eddie’s Ragga”, and street-wise groover “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case” are so well knit with plump keys, rhythmic tambourine, and Daniel-a-go-go vocals, it’s going to be hard not to keep the album sitting on repeat for the next few months. But it is the album’s high water tracks that mark the evolution of the band. On previous albums, Spoon really only dabbled in soulful, rhythm and blues when it came to Britt’s vocals. But on Ga the rest of the band finally follows his lead. With a well composed brass section and “Mrs. Robinson” acoustic guitar, the band hits doo-wop hard on the Jon Brion produced, “The Underdog”. And if you find “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” sounding a bit like “Build Me Up Butter Cup”, it’s because it’s the closest to Motown the band has ever trekked.

Spoon never fails to impress. Initially simple and straightforward, the intimately conceived details of Daniel and Jim Eno’s albums always reveal themselves over time. Ga is certainly no exception. But consistency is one thing; creating an album that stands out from the bunch is another. By uniting tidy songwriting and studio educed creativity in such an industrious way, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga certainly gets the nod over its’ predecessors. - David Pitz

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Au
Au

When music is at its best, it allows you to put your own meaning to it. The songs may be so open-ended that anyone can add their own interpretation. Even if the song shares a theme every listener can recognize, it might mean something different to each person. Now that I’ve run that metaphor into the ground, we can focus on the beauty of the work of multi-instrumentalist Luke Wyland under the moniker Au (Aagoo/Oedipus Records). Simple, but complex. Elegant, but down to earth.

If one were to classify Wyland’s music it would fall under the genre of “Avant-Folk.” But classifying Au would do the album injustice. Backed by several musicians, Au, produces some of the most life-affirming material heard in a long time.

“Boute” sets off the album with jumpy pianos that remain low in volume, but eventually pick up when joined by hypnotizing cymbals and beautiful, angelic vocals. The increase in volume should be the audible definition of joy. The triumphant display of noise on Sum suddenly stops and is followed by a ukulele solo, which also stops to introduce Zoe Wright’s carefree vocals, blistering play from the strings, which are joined by percussion to create a wall of sound that can do nothing but make you smile.

“Death” seems to follow a couple of the stages of mourning with a sad beginning and angry middle and an eventual acceptance at the end. The middle features Sarah Winchester singing “Bring me my death/Bring me my shadow,” a line that sounds like it was sung with the labor that accompanies dealing with the death of a loved one. When “Death” seems to be the sound of dealing with someone else’s demise, “Remain” sounds like someone realizing their own impending doom…or at least just thinking about it. “Remain” provides the listener with an assortment of percussion, uneasy and kinetic pianos, a high-pitched scary rattle and a threatening bass drum. It’s the sound of death approaching. The sweetness of Honeybee, emphasized by Jonathan Sielaff’s clarinets, is the antithesis of death, but welcomed nonetheless. “Life” and “Ask The River” close the album on a beautiful and somber note.

Au takes you on a trip through life that many might not experience themselves. In a way, these pieces (calling them songs feels so wrong) offer the path to life without the help of many lyrics. You'll be a better person if you bought this album. - Stephon Johnson

Friday, July 06, 2007
Pissed Jeans
Hope For Men

To the pissed off punk, life inside a corporate shell can be pretty damn inspiring. Look no further than the cover hovering over this review. Having literally stripped the white-collars off of their sweaty backs, two bare-chested band mates embrace each other. Seems sweet doesn’t it? But sentiment is not where this story ends. Pissed Jeans’ Matt Korvette and Bradley Fry earned their keep as a claims adjuster and account manager, respectively. But having recently cashed in the “straight world” for the brutal, beautiful, business they attend to on their latest album, Pissed Jeans present a rather compelling, if not arresting, corporate complaint.

Having recently been up to my neck in wistful indie rock and singer/songwriter types, Hope For Men (Sub Pop) plays like a swift kick to the face. Ever choke on your own teeth as they trickle down the back of your throat? I think I just did. Upon first listen, Hope For Men is obviously obscene. The sonic sludge the Allentown PA outfit plods can shit, hiss, spit, and (appropriately) piss disgusting dirges in the vicious vein of Black Flag and The Jesus Lizard. Drummer Sean McGuinness’ hemorrhaging 1,2,3,4 strokes provide the pounding pulse to Fry’s anything goes guitars, and Dave Rosenstaus’ bulldozer bass lines. Like a tumultuous speed train racing down the line towards derailment, Hope For Men barely teeters on the brutish tracks the band built for it. It is totally terrifying, and I like it.

But as autocratic as the fierce and frenzied punk and hardcore Pissed Jeans carve up is, it’s what Korvette has to say about the dehumanizing “straight world” that sounds important. Choosing hilariously, sarcastic metaphors to display his distaste, Korvette channels the frustration, anger, and sadness mainstream culture has obviously dished out on him throughout the album’s entirety. On opener, “People Person”, he longs for the everyday pleasantries of a company man…the cars, the women, the doors that always seem to open, etc. Of course, he’s not serious; Korvette sees everything he despises in a “People Person”. “Scrapbooking” plays like a completely wicked document of a morose madman. Growling and barking over sedate piano lines, Korvette wickedly unravels until he is held together by his last string…or in this case, glue sticks, special scissors, construction paper, and distant memories. And are listener’s really expected to believe that, no matter what kind of “Bad Wind” blows through his neighborhood, all it takes is an ice cold, therapeutic bowl of sugar to avoid being swept off his feet? “I’ve Still Got You (Ice Cream)” would suggest so.

In the end, the sick sense of humor Pissed Jeans whip up makes a whole lot of sense. They dodged a lifetime of confinement in a big business jail cell. What might have seemed like an impossibility when they slaved for suits (um, getting signed by Sub Pop, touring, making money playing music), is now this band’s reality. Seeing the outside, they see hope. I bet Pissed Jeans would want to know you do to. - David Pitz

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
rating     

Whenever a troubled, brave faced musician hustles enough courage to get better, there is always the inevitability that it may come at the expense of what they do best. Most music fans are probably not afraid to admit that they sometimes dabble in the narcissistic, preferring the art over the artist. Luckily, Jeff Tweedy did not find it necessary to squeeze any of his long time listener’s arms when he decided to get healthy. Instead, he chose to take a personal about face, and make one of the year’s best albums - Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) - along the way.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Gore Gore Girls
Get The Gore

“She’s a fox in a box and she wants to rock/let her rock”

Sometimes, but not always, the best way to figure out the vibe or mood of an album is by looking at the cover. The cover of Get The Gore by the Gore Gore Girls (named after the 1972 film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis) features a white background with a guitar next to the legs of a woman (presumably lead vocalist and guitarist Amy Gore) in a pair of black high-heel boots. The picture could not have said it any better. Get The Gore is a record that comes right out of the box, never letting up its genuine discharge of welcomed noise.

The girls start the album with a bang. “Fox In A Box” (with some lyrics mentioned above) features blazing guitars, handclaps and a pounding drumbeat. Songs like “Loaded Heart” and the sleazy “Pleasure Unit” continue the visceral attack much to the enjoyment of this listener. Their blend of 60’s girl group pop sensibilities and harmonies and late 70’s punk attack conjure up the spirits of the teenager that’s still in us, wanting to bounce off the walls and have a good time.

Featuring a tight rhythm section with Nicky Styxx on drums and Carol Anne Schumacher on bass, the grooves of the girls never let up while Amy Gore & Hammer never waste a moment on their guitars. The music compliments Amy’s strong, brash, bratty and assertive vocals perfectly, especially on songs like “Don’t Cry”, which is one of the most upbeat-sounding breakup songs I have ever heard.

The girls let up a bit on their attack with the psychedelia of “Where Evil Grows”, but it’s right back to the ruckus with “Casino”. A song, which deals with having a queasy feeling about a significant other, never sounded or felt this good. With the girl-leaving-the-small-minded-small-townisms of Mary Ann, you realize that the Gore Gore Girls are true girl power. Screw that, power period.

In a way, Get The Gore makes you nostalgic for a time many of us weren’t even alive for. Short songs, short solos, a back to the basics approach that packs a wallop. This kind of music should remind people what rock and roll is missing. - Stephon Johnson

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Battles
Mirrored

What exactly is “math-rock”? The exponential increase of clunky heartbeat rhythms until you can’t put two and two together? The even dividing of walls of sound into human and machine counterparts? Or the mirroring of our perception of reality inside a calculator of graphs, decimals, radicals, and memory?

Limits or infinites?

Battles dubs themselves with this apt label for their first full-length album, Mirrored, a woozy glimpse into what math might sound like if we listened closely. The shimmering humor behind so many tracks on this album reminds us that while those too wise to experiment will claim this century is having its soul sucked out by YouTube, iTunes, and MySpace, the philosopher knows that the mind behind the robot will always prevail. Is the internet taking us captive, or can computers make us more human? When “Rainbow” sputters like a Fisher Price toy on speed before wailing into its space-odyssey gong-fest, is there any question about who’s in charge? When “Tij” builds on the recorded loop of hard breathing while careening into a haunted pinball machine, can you calculate where the line starts and ends? Mirrored is a challenge…a math problem, if you will.

Whether it’s the woeful whistling and smooth “a capella” arrangements on “Race:In” or the appearance of actual lyrics on “Atlas” and “Ddiamondo” (performed like nothing you’ve heard before, might I add), Battles always manages to include a little flesh and blood in their equation. The clash between the living and the simulated is so strikingly harmonious that it doesn’t seem a struggle, but rather an excited acknowledgement of their combined power. So add it up. What is being Mirrored here? - Dorit Finkel

Monday, June 11, 2007
Frog Eyes
Tears of the Valedictorian
rating     

A confused stereophonic rush envelops the frenetic cries of Carey Mercer’s grim poetry on Frog Eyes’ fourth album, reeling comfortably into an indie scene which has already been prepared by experimenters like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Pterodactyl for the aurally assaulting—and the emotionally explosive.

Friday, June 08, 2007
Elliott Smith
New Moon
rating     

Whenever the music of Elliott Smith finds its’ way to me, I’ll admit it can be hard not to feel a bit overwhelmed. Elliott’s compassionate composite of chords and voice provided one of the first places I can remember finding beauty, doubt, fear, hope, love, power, and sadness all intersecting at once. It was powerfully emotional…the perfect soundtrack to the range of thoughts and feelings life inevitably throws at most young people. I adored Elliott. Not surprisingly, when he passed, it was one of the first musical death’s to give me a jolt.

Monday, June 04, 2007
Johnny and the Moon
Johnny and the Moon

You may not know Dante DeCaro by name, but you might know some his bands. First there was New-Wave British Columbians Hot Hot Heat, whom he left just as the band signed to a major label, and then after a brief chill-out period and a transcontinental journey he joined that pack of Montreal warble-rockers, Wolf Parade. It’s quite a resume, but it doesn’t do much to prepare you for the radically departed sound of his new outfit, Johnny and the Moon. This group of trashcan rattlin’, banjo pluckin’, acoustianados doesn’t bring any of the slickness or hipness of its Canadian counterparts, and as a result it may be the best thing Dante DeCaro has ever done.

Johnny and the Moon’s debut album is a brisk travelogue through a century of folk traditions and domestic, lo-fi expressions. The album begins with convention and slowly splinters into something much more scattered and unique, but earnest emotion is the scoliotic spine keeping this varied, surprising album assured and consistent. The record opens with “Green Rocky Road”, a traditional folk song, but when percussionist Lindy Gerrard enters the track midway the tune starts to breathe deeper, and dense moods start creeping in like a winter fog. Gerrard’s rhythms remain essential throughout the album; his strange patterns and jerky pacing give the album an urgent pulse that beautifully complement DeCaro’s plaintive, cryptic lyricism. Tonally, the album sounds like a bunch of neighborhood rascals who ran off with the goods from an Appalachian yard Sale and started testing them out in a hidden, shadowy barn. There’s plenty of trinket tinkering, and the songs could have easily imploded into amateur hour were it not for the beautiful chord changes and concise arrangements. Almost every song surprises with its brevity, but no track fades out before delivering at least one moment of touching tenderness.

Johnny and the Moon have created something remarkably charming and affecting, but it is by no means a masterwork, and that’s a good thing because such an achievement is probably still yet to come. Dante will have to continue to grow into this genre before his emotive, rustic pleas resonate to the bone; sometimes you know you’re involved in a gleeful process of exploration, experimentation, and historic romanticizing. This is most apparent when the indie-rock roots break through the country soil. On “Johnny and the Devil” Gerrard jumps into the song with an explosive cymbal crash and subsequent floor tom thunder roll that is strikingly similar to Animal Collective’s “Grass”, and the album closer “When I Die” has the same dark, twangy, death-obsessed feel as Lonesome Crowded West’s final cut, “Styrofoam Boots.” But although Johnny and the Moon have their points of reference just like everybody else, they’re merely contextual when you make a record as enjoyable as this. - David Schneider

Monday, May 21, 2007
Juliette and The Licks
Four on the Floor

Thrashing somewhere between Jet, the Foo Fighters, and Pink is former screen-star Juliette Lewis, frontwoman of her 4-year old band, Juliette and The Licks. Over the course of Four on the Floor, the LA band’s 2006 sophomore album, Juliette spins, crawls, screams and kills, bringing with each track a balance of trite eye-rollers and ear-scorching, one-of-a-kind attitude. In “Smash and Grab,” she can get away with “We’re gonna rock it tonight” by snarling “Pretty police lights glowin’ red/Like the blood in your face when I tore up your bed.” Ow.

There are exceptions to this rule. “Purgatory Blues” and “Are You Happy” reveal the vocal ability you’d rather not know about—the one that evokes Fefe Dobson and Michelle Branch, and the one that may land The Licks back with Silvertide, in the annals of forgotten throwback hard-rockers. However, this sugary register juxtaposed to the sickening imagery of “Death of a Whore” is pure genius: “All tattered and blue like a gutted sheep” will give you shivers precisely because it’s sweetly crooned, giving a new stab (no pun intended) to a topic that’s been addressed many times before.

It’s no small feat to recall The Who, The Stones, and AC/DC all in one song, but that’s what J&TL accomplish in “Get Up.” Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters frontman and former drummer of Nirvana, who drummed with The Licks (guitarists Todd Morse and Kemble Walters and bassist Jason Womack) for the recording of Four, seems to have rubbed off on Lewis in “Inside The Cage,” the darkest track on the record. She moans, “I’ll waste, I’ll waste inside the cage,” and you’ve got to wonder why she doesn’t list Hole among her influences. Lewis may walk a fine edge between popstar and disturbed biker, but she struts it with aching sincerity.

Gods, killers, whores, cops, bitches, and Bullshit Kings. According to Juliette and her faithful Licks, it’s a dirty, dirty world. . .but since we’re here, it’s damn worth fighting to survive. - Dorit Finkel

Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Feist
The Reminder

When the world first met Leslie Feist, she was busy courting an affluence of critical acclaim for Let It Die (Interscope); a record that set icy, winter born lyrics to the kind of wistful music that seemed perfectly suited for those long, lazy August afternoons the mind tends to trace off to when the thermometer begins to freeze over. Now, two years later, the Canadian singer/songwriter returns with her highly-anticipated follow-up, The Reminder (Arts and Crafts); an album that, once again, paints Feist as the victim of a handicapped heart. But where Let It Die felt like a whimsical scattering between genres, The Reminder is wonderfully cohesive. And Feist is quickly cornering the market on cosmopolitan cool pop music.

Recorded in Paris with longtime producer Chilly Gonzales, The Reminder is born of a tasty, full bodied musical aesthetic that simply goes down easy. Reminiscent of “Gatekeeper”, opener “So Sorry” is a Parisian acoustic number glazed over in honeyed back up vocals, and Feist’s tearful croon. “I Feel It All” plays like a dainty, retro rocker…complete with just enough distorted guitar and jangled tambourine to suggest there is mucho love for her moonlit side project, Broken Social Scene, boiling in her blood. Then there is“My Moon, My Man”; a revealing bedroom bounce that sounds like Feist challenging Spoon’s Britt Daniel to a boogaloo contest. And “1,2,3,4” goes kablooey to the tune of sprightly handclaps, ivory tinkling jazz piano, a blaring brass section, Chicago blues style bass, and soulful backup vocals,

But, as much as The Reminder bursts with charisma, charm, and personality, it is hard to deny the fact that Feist spends most of the time on the album sounding down right devastated. Sadly, The Reminder thematically weeps with candle lit laments that cast shadows of familiar love on the wall, only to be lost a moment later by the playful flicker of the flame. Look no further than wounded warrior lyrics like “With Sadness so real, that it populates the city and leaves you homeless again” (“The Park”).

It all would have you believe that Feist is deadly delicate in the game of love. But a Polaroid of dice, included in the artwork, also indicates that, regardless of the pain, she is not one to sidestep chance. Singing, “I’m a stem now pushing the drought aside…opening up…fanning my yellow eye” (“How My Heart Behaves”), Feist lets listeners know, she can move on from love's detrimental ways. - David Pitz

Tuesday, May 01, 2007
CocoRosie
The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn

Few acts in recent memory have nimbly nudged their way to the front of the folk flock with a more interesting back story than Brooklyn, by way of Paris, duo CocoRosie. Glazing a curious, prizewinning tale to a turtle wax shine, almost every review, column, and interview concerning the cryptic Coco Casady sisters have touched on their story of years spent in unwelcome estrangement, and the unforeseen reunion in the perfectly cobbled streets of Paris back in 2004 (add this review to the list…).

Now, nearly five years, and three albums later, the time should finally be ripe to bring the tumultuous, yet ultimately fortunate chapter in the sisters’ lives to a close. With a highly anticipated new record, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (Touch and Go), ambitiously expanding Coco’s sound into celibate genres, critics and fans should finally find a reason to lose themselves in the bizarre, European motifs the Casadys have boldly staked their remarkable music on. Obsessing themselves less with guitar chords, and more with rhythm and backbeat, the now tripnotic duo shed their folk cred…in a good way. Opener “Rainbow Warriors” is ravishly radio ready. “Promise” nudges as close to straight up hip hop as the sisters have ever come. And odd ball “Japan” treks around the world to smoky, reggaeton stylings. The music still sounds born of the cluttered, haphazard playrooms of their childhood. But, this time around, the wheezy vocals and delicate combination of sampled complexities… animal themed alarm clocks, klutzy music boxes, chiming bells and whistles, and toy gadget glitches…come pouring out dance hall speakers.

And yet, as fascinating as the record is, the circumstances that ripped CocoRosie apart in one place, and brought them back together in another, still sound as fresh and relevant as ever. Ghosthorse and Stillborn are Sierra and Bianca, and the album explores their relationship with one another. On record, Sierra sounds poised and proper, classically trained, accomplished, and strikingly powerful. Bianca proves edgy and modern; a scrappy poet willing to lay down her pen and draw a sword if need be. Can the same be said about the two in life? That I can’t say. But tracks like “Werewolf” and “Animals” certainly drop hints that, underneath the musical façade, the recorded character differences between the two women might be the result of their real life, topsy-turvy past. - David Pitz

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Palomar
All Things, Forests

It seems even The Gap has finally tapped into the marketability of the east side, of the East River. In an effort to keep 70-dollar jeans moving out of doors throughout the country, the store is molding hipsters out of Gapsters with a new line of “Williamsburg” skinny cut jeans. Williamsburg: you are running out of time.

Of course, judging by the lot of frustration and bitterness boiling over the brim on their latest record, All Things, Forests (Misra), long time power pop outfit Palomar would probably argue that the incubator of the current New York alternative and avant rock scene met its’ match a while back. Tracks like “You’re Keeping Us Up”, “Top Banana”, and “Whoa!” play like the band’s salty salute to the lot of deep pocket bands and comb over industry types who flooded the scene over the years. When leading lady Rachel Warren confesses on “Bridge of Sighs”, “This town is a drag and we’re never coming back”, it is easy to see her desire to escape all things Brooklyn and flee the over saturated streets for a more isolated place. I suppose when the fertile soil of the Williamsburg music community is turned over too many times, and it loses its’ ability to bare fruit of value, it is time to look elsewhere.

Except it is records like All Things, Forests that give gigantic reasons to continue to believe in Williamsburg. Ironically, in spilling all their displeasure, Palomar have created their most compelling work to date. Aside from the sweet sounding sway of “Bury Me Closer” and the dainty “Surprise Us”, All Things, Forests is an exquisitely crafted collection of solid songwriting that wants nothing more than to rock the hell out. “Our Haunt” and “How to Beat Dementia” are so ripe with single worthy hooks that it is hard to imagine the band missing out on some of the same successes many of their peers have enjoyed.

In the end, Palomar, by their very existence, challenge the notion that Williamsburg is nothing more than a magnet for pretentiousness and commercial cool. The Gap may have their jeans. But they can’t have the neighborhood that made the current, independent rock scene worthwhile.
– David Pitz

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake
From The River To The Ocean

In an era when over-thought and over-produced seems to be the profitable formula pervading the music scene, it's refreshing to see that organic, old-fashioned musicianship can still find a crack in the armor through which to breathe. From The River To The Ocean, the latest record from jazz duo Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake, exemplifies the bygone era when an artist's desire to express themselves with pure and unfiltered conviction was not dismissed as a novelty. It also proves that jazz can retain its ability to entertain and relax, while at once being gloriously removed from the comatose "smooth jazz" elements that have recently defined the genre.

Opening track "Planert E" is a brilliant send-up referencing the glory years of jazz's prime. The "E" in the song title could easily be a reference to ecstasy, as the interplay and improvisation between the musicians ascends to an orgasmic climax after a dazzling 14 minute-plus intro. In light of the current state of jazz radio, it almost seems like this music does hail from another planet; the fact that the only vocals sung on the album are not in English (as heard on the song "For Brother Thompson") makes the sentiment all the more intriguing.

From The River To The Ocean can easily transport the listener back in time to the Cotton Club-style "gin joints" of days long past, with the audience tapping its collective foot as the duo executes its craft. And if you concentrate carefully, you should be able to feel the spirits of Armstrong, Ellington, and other jazz greats illuminating the din. - Justin Thomas

Friday, March 09, 2007
Arcade Fire
Neon Bible

Each track on Neon Bible is an immaculately planned epic, floating between military dirge and sermon of politics and loss. The album’s sound is rooted in colossal reverb and crowded arrangements, seemingly captured in a canyon during a storm. With orchestras, organs, and echoes, Arcade Fire has turned the stunning bedroom symphonies of 2004’s Funeral into oceans.

Calling on the grandiosity of Bruce Springsteen, the Polyphonic Spree, and Broken Social Scene, the best tracks pulse with the small touches and turns of a rich, bittersweet layer cake. The showpiece hymn of “Intervention” gradually piles its pocket orchestra – tinkling xylophone, twitching guitars, and coursing strings – on the warm glow of a church organ to construct a glorious, pulsing mass. After a distant wave’s crash, the gentle surf rhythms of “Ocean of Noise” ride a vamp into a ghostly throng of strings and horns, which are then left to stand alone in utter perfection.

“Antichrist Television Blues” plays like a Springsteen outtake, complete with 9/11 lyrical themes and “Pink Cadillac” vocal reverb, both of which fit pleasantly next to the cloudy geopolitics and clunky cultural invocations of “Windowsill.” An unnecessary but uplifting retread of “No Cars Go” (their self-released 2003 EP’s best track) leads into the slow-motion elegy of “My Body is a Cage.” As the climactic, echoing church organ slides away, the listener needs time to return to earth.

Even with slightly diminished charm, dampened hope, and the eventual auditory comedown, Neon Bible sings the right devotionals to follow a masterpiece and gives the band ample ammunition for their relentless, inspirational live performances. - Jeff Kozlowicki

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Arbouretum
Rites of Uncovering

Arbouretum’s second disc is a journey into the soul of the human condition. In the words of lead singer/songwriter and guitarist Dave Heumann, the Baltimore-based band aims to "convey the emotional impact of an experience or state of mind to the listener," and Arbouretum largely succeedes in that endeavor.

Rites of Uncovering opens with the welcomingly melodic "Signposts and Instruments." With its Simon & Garfunkel-reminiscent guitar plucking and Hermann’s commanding yet vulnerable vocals, the song pulls the listener right into the fold - a conversion, if you will. This serenity begins to unravel, however, with "Tonight’s a Jewel." The track itself is a jewel for those who love old time, down 'n' dirty blues, containing a seamless dichotomy of delicate guitar riffs and furious soloing that would make Jack White envious. The recording is intentionally primitive, as the echoing of Hermann’s voice makes apparent, and it accentuates the emotional hollowness that permeates the song. The frontman's reverberating vocals resonate as though he's lost inside a cathedral, singing his confessions to the audience as the anger in his music steadily builds.

The list of succeeding songs demonstrates Abouretum's contempt for convention, as their long, loose jams are purposely devoid of the commonplace structures of contemporary music. That isn’t to say that they're incapable of skillfully arranged song craft; “Sleeps of Shiloam” is a standout track showing pop craftsmanship in the vein of latter-day Pearl Jam. The sinister baseline and haunting vocal melody of the closing track, “Two Moons”, acknowledge that the band, along with their audience, are no longer the naïve souls that were converted at disc’s beginning. Rites of Uncovering does take you on a spiritual and emotional journey, and it's one that defies convention. - Justin Thomas

Monday, February 26, 2007
Stars of Track and Field
Centuries Before Love and War

Stars of Track and Field hail from Portland, OR, where the band’s proximity to Northwest kingpin Ben Gibbard seems to have seeped into their electro-pop music. Centuries Before Love and War, the trio’s debut album, is bound together with electronic bleeps, blips, and all the digital pop flourishes of The Postal Service's Give Up. At the same time, the band is equally capable of large, crashing anthems, with standout tracks like "Movies of Antarctica” channeling the same bombast as Death Cab for Cutie’s “The New Year.”

To their credit, frontman Kevin Calaba, guitarist Kevin Bell, and drummer/programmer Daniel Orvik have musical tastes that venture far beyond the Gibbard catalogue. The band’s name is taken from a Belle & Sebastian song, and some of the radio-geared tracks even evoke a bit of Radiohead and U2. Add some luxuriant production from Tony Lash (who mixed, engineered, produced, and played on all three Heatmiser albums), and you've got an album as lush as The City of Roses itself.

Not having a bass player to beef up their lower end, Stars of Track and Field control their sound by paying careful attention to volume and dynamics. On the softer numbers, Calaba’s soft voice mixes with the pre-programmed percussion to form some sort of digital lullaby. And when the group plugs in, turns up, and reaches for the stars, their swelling crescendos and stacked harmonies sound ripe for airplay and/or inclusion on O.C. soundtracks (RIP). Centuries Before Love and War is a thoroughly solid (and long overdue) debut - one that is sometimes reminiscent of the band's indie-rock predecessors, but more often indicative of Stars' potential to eventually rival those influences. - Andrew Leahey

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Looker
Born Too Late

Looker, a pop-punk group from NYC, fall right into the similar stylings of Breeders, Cake Like, and a few other female-fronted pop-punk groups I listened to back in middle school. Back then, I was a little punk rocker with piller box red-dyed hair, babydoll bangs, white t-shirts with band names written in sharpie marker, worn out jeans, and green converse sneakers. I collected every girl pop-punk group I could get my hands on, including Bratmobile, Yum Yum Tree, The PeeChees, Sleeter-Kinney, L7, Luna Chicks, and Babes in Toyland. Also, my favorite movie was Alex Sichel's "All Over Me."

With that said, I hope such background gives a good picture of how this album sounds. Girls' voices + pop + punk = nostalgia in so many shaps and sizes. Honestly, Looker didn't win me over right away. I heard the first song, "Serenade Stare," and had to switch to the second track right away. That track, "Born Too Late 1978," was better than the first. So I listened on... The next song, "Hey Kids," was not my fav, but I’m a sucker for the droning, melodic sounds of female voices in unison so I continued to listen. In general, the songs I prefer from Born Too Late are most definitely (in order!) "Radio," "Last Man," "To the Finish," "One Way Screen," and "Tickle My Spine."

I’m looking forward to seeing these ladies live in NYC soon. Thanks for the flash back, Looker! I think I still have my homemade band t-shirts at home that I might pull out of the storage trunks! Although I wonder if anyone outside of Connecticut would understand why I made one with a huge spatula on it...- Amylu Meneses

Monday, February 05, 2007
Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

For a decade, Of Montreal have provided a steady soundtrack for the naive, sugar-rush lover. Leader Kevin Barnes has consistently melded '60s psychedelic and chamber pop influences to produce a dense, classic sound and, arming each album with a unifying concept, an adventurous lyrical whimsy. With a growing focus on electronic instruments and leaner arrangements, his last few albums have proven increasingly difficult to ignore, but the newest release is an entirely different animal.

Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer, a white-funk opus laden with harrowingly personal lyrics, is a risky adventure that thrills beyond expectations. Bouncing, melodic bass lines swim in kitchen-sink instrumentation, driven by insistent hand-claps and smoothed with intricate harmonies. The buzzing synthesizers of the baroque "Suffer for Fashion" – an instant, irresistible hit – and "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethian Curse" carry into the simple slow-burn of "Gronlandic Edit."

Though calling upon Midnight Vultures-era Beck for musical amusement, Barnes's lyrics exhibit all of the stages of his real-life break-up and breakdown: denial, self-medication, depressed cynicism, and pale efforts at emotional rescue. The disturbed Prince-meets-Queen histrionics in "Faberge Falls for Shuggie" and "Labyrinthian Pop" demand an ass-shake that carries over into the sub-Franz Ferdinand disco of "She's a Rejector." Goofy song titles and a 12-minute clunker track notwithstanding, the story compels throughout and ends with feeble optimism. No longer weighed down by twee music and cutesy lyrics, Of Montreal have finally transcended the Beach Boys inspiration to create a bitter, vibrant, and eminently danceable masterpiece. - Jeff Kozlowicki

Thursday, February 01, 2007
The Long Blondes
Someone To Drive You Home

The first time I ever saw The Long Blondes, they were playing at a small basement venue in NYC called the Cake Shop. My friend Sheila B invited me to see this great band from UK with a gal singer, and she knew I’d just love them. And I did. I love female singers, I love rock n’ roll, and I love punk rock. That night, the Long Blondes proved to be awesome at all three elements and won my music heart. The basement was packed from wall to wall with lots of familiar faces, as well many new ones. That’s how I like it. I love to see who comes out of the wood work to see live shows.

On the band's new album, Someone To Drive You Home, the singer, Kate, has a great, growly, punky F@*k-You kinda voice. The guitars have lots of screechy strings and the bass and drums are equally strong in an in-your-face, pay-attention-to-our-music-damnit kinda way. One of my favorite songs just happens to be their single, Giddy Stratospheres, which has a music video that’s already been featured on MTV2! This song is kinda trippy-psych and kinda poppy. It’s definitely good for dancing or riding in the car late at night on the highway with the volume full blast. Lust In The Movies is also a great track for dancing and driving in the car while singing along at the top of your lungs to the lyrics "I just want to be your sweetheart! I just want to be your sweetheart!"! Honestly, all 19 tracks are enjoyable, so take a listen and check it out. - Amylu Meneses

Monday, January 29, 2007
Mando Diao
Ode to Ochrasy
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An early fan of Mando Diao since their Knitting Factory show several years ago, I’m still entertained by them. On the band’s third album, Ode To Ochrasy, producer Bjorn Olsson (formerly of Sountrack of our Lives) helps Mando Diao focus on the big picture instead of the narrowing details. The first track, "Welcome Home, Luc Robitaille," has a strong, soulful sound and meaningful lyrics. "Long Before Rock n’ Roll" reminds me of the days in college when you could dance all night long on a Wednesday night and not have to wake up until 2 pm. You’d wake up with smudged black makeup on your eyes and red lipstick on your pillow, with your clothes smelling like smoke. Those were the rock n’ roll days…

Monday, January 22, 2007
Pilot Speed
Into the West

Pilot Speed comes dangerously close to burying itself beneath a pile of U2 and Radiohead comparisons. There are worse piles to be in, of course, and many groups would love to be associated with such legends. But these four Canadians are different. They want to be huge, to write inspirational rock songs, to join the ranks of musical royalty alongside Bono, Yorke, and company. And while Into the West fails to make Pilot Speed the tastiest Canadian export since maple syrup, its strongest tracks do rustle up an impressive imitation of The Joshua Tree's sweeping sound.

"Into Your Hideout" is the album's standout song, thanks to singer Todd Clark's powerful Yorke-ish wail. The lyrics don't express anything we haven't heard before (Clark's going to "tear your walls down" while "a bitter snow is falling," among other clichés), and the guitar riff is remarkably unremarkable. But every time Clark unleashes his arena-ready voice – with its range and power and forefront position in producer Joao Carvalho's mix – those previous flaws are reduced to nothing more than insignificant turbulence. Haters of modern rock radio won't like this album's shiny appearance and widespread appeal, but Into the West offers an enjoyable flight to anyone who appreciates strong debuts and stronger vocals. - Andrew Leahey

Monday, January 15, 2007
Deerhoof
Friend Opportunity

Deerhoof was formed in 1994 by Greg Saunier and Rob Fisk (who actually came up with the name "Deerhoof"). Kill Rock Stars released the band’s first 7", Return Of The Wood M'lady, the following year. In 1996, Satomi Matsuzaki moved from Tokyo to San Francisco and joined the band as Deerhoof’s vocalist, completing the lineup that we see (and hear) today.

Experimental, lighthearted, and playful – three of my favorite elements in life and music. These are the first three words that come to mind when hearing Deerhoof’s latest album, Friend Opportunity. Some of the songs (especially "Whither the Invisible Birds?") remind me of sitting in a dark theatre and watching a middle school play - but here, the singer is actually in tune. Other tracks like "Kids Are So Small" and "Perfect Me" remind me of songs by Shonen Knife, YMCK, and Meta Crauau. With songs this playful, I’m not surprised to hear that Satomi’s first experience with Deerhoof was singing into a strange microphone constructed out of paper mache and walkman headphones (I picture the colors to be fusia pink and mellow yellow-green with silver sparkles on it). I’ll give them 3 gold stars and an A+ on the album. - Amylu Meneses

Thursday, January 04, 2007
Harvey Danger
Little by Little
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Like their power-pop contemporaries Fountains of Wayne, the Seattle natives in Harvey Danger have dedicated their careers to creating sharp, articulate, woefully underappreciated music. Their songcraft has aged well since the band’s mid-‘90s emergence, and Little by Little features some of the finest classic pop in years. But we’re in the 21st century now, and pop music has been largely limited to the sales-driven schlock you'll hear on Ashlee Simpson albums. God bless Harvey Danger for carrying the torch into the new century.

Thursday, January 04, 2007
Cold War Kids
Robbers & Cowards

Okay, so I remember the days when I would go into the record store and buy records that I knew nothing about but liked the cover art. Sometimes I would love the record forever, like when I bought LUSH’s Split, and sometimes I’d be disappointed forever, like when I bought Electric Pea Pod (don’t ask). These days, sometimes you never even see the cover art... especially if you’re downloading the music. I mention the thing about cover art 'cause a 17 year-old kid wrote that he bought the CD because he liked the cover and a promo sticker that read "echoes the likes of Tom Waits and The Pogues." I think I still have my share of those innocent music adventures to this day.

Anyway, I don’t think the band sounds much like Tom Waits or The Pogues, but they sure have a good folky tune goin’ on. The first song makes me think of a guy singing his heart out in a pair of worn jeans, cowboy boots, and a dirty wifebeater tank top.

I think they sound a lot like The Strokes, Kings of Leon, and Mando Diao. Ultimately, my favorite song on the album is "Hang Me Out To Dry." It’s a bit on the slow side, but it’s super chill and sounds like it’d be used in a 20th century cowboy movie. - Amylu Meneses

Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The Rosewood Thieves
From the Decker House
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Musicians have modeled themselves after John Lennon for approximately 45 years now, which means newcomers The Rosewood Thieves are entering some seriously congested territory. From the Decker House, the band's debut EP, is a pitch-perfect homage to that musical legend, with frontman Erik Jordan navigating his way around Hammond organs, jangling guitars, and Beatles-esque songwriting. But while other Lennon disciples are content to simply mimic their influences, Jordan also injects these six songs with a down-home blend of folk and country flavor. “Back Home to Harlem” includes a Spanish-styled tango of acoustic guitars and castanet percussion, while standout track “Lonesome Road” switches between quiet, cooing verses and romping honky tonk. The band has already penned its ode to California, too, and the resulting “Los Angeles” opens the EP with all the dreamy, smogged-out beauty of the City of Angels.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Rose Hill Drive
Rose Hill Drive

Rose Hill Drive has quickly found a dedicated following amongst jam-band fans, and it's easy to see why the group's brand of straight-up rock 'n' roll appeals to that crowd. But while bands like Phish and Moe pride themselves on long, improvised musical passages, Rose Hill Drive specializes in focused blasts of classic rock. They’re disciples of Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Zeppelin, and all the other pioneers of guitar-based, drum-pounding, vocal-screeching rock ‘n’ roll. And while their music truly flies in a live setting, Rose Hill Drive’s self-titled debut is a solid introduction to the band’s mix of electrified rock and acoustic psychedelia.

It’s hard to pick favorites with this power trio, but guitarist Daniel Sproul deserves some extra recognition for his endless barrage of fiery-fingered riffs. His soloing is impressive, his guitar tones perfect, his execution flawless. If anything can steal the spotlight from vocalist Jake Sproul’s wailing tenor, it’s his brother’s boundless skill with the guitar. The boys don’t jockey for the spotlight, though, and Rose Hill Drive ultimately comes off as all ideal debuts should: strong, centered, and boding well for future drives. - Andrew Leahey

Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Thunderbirds are Now!
Make History

Thunderbirds are Now! have grown up since 2005's Justamustache, which combined frenzied guitars and keyboards with all the sugar-loaded hyperactivity of a kindergarten classroom on the day after Halloween. On Make History, the group tones down the craziness in favor of poppy, focused songwriting. Frontman Ryan Allen's voice is still nasal and high-pitched, and his songs haven't lost the kinetic energy that landed his band a spot on the Frenchkiss roster. The Thunderbirds are simply more focused now, with choruses and memorable melodies taking precedence over the musical freakouts that've dotted their past albums.