The Dodos, Time To Die
I hope that when it’s my time to die, the new Dodos album will be playing in the background for my last 45 minutes. The indie group released its fourth album, Time To Die, on September 15, and I like it a lot…
Class of 1984, Class of 1984
For all of you beginner students: Class of 1984 will be on the exam, so now’s the time to become learned in class-speak. Jon and James, (fine Irish brothers) have been jammin’ “backwoods filthy rock” in and around Eire since early 2006…
Buddahead, Ashes
I’m going to be honest and lay the facts on the table. This review has been over due for about two months. Okay six, but who’s counting? Well, okay, maybe my editor is, but that’s beside the point. This review is late partly because I became overwhelmed and put too much on my plate…
The Black Crowes, Before the Frost…Until the Freeze
The Black Crowes have just released Before the Frost/Until the Freeze, a double album — sort of. This innovative release is the hard copy of Before the Frost…, with an online code for …Until the Freeze…
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
They don’t make them like this anymore. One of the most surprising things I found about Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was that I hadn’t seen it yet. A friend of mine (who knows I’ve see everything) just naturally assumed I had…
Joshua Tillman, Vacilando Territory Blues
It feels like an eternity ago that Joshua Tillman found me, on that infamous, international, online “social” (yet not so social) networking site. I suppose if there’s any redeeming quality to Myspace beside the huge impact it’s had on the music world…
Searching for Signal, It’s So Bright
More than anything else, Searching for Signal’s new EP, It’s So Bright, feels, well, deliberate. Each note feels carefully selected and placed right where guitarists Matthew Salois and Michael Aziari want them to be, anchored from floating off on its own…
Placebo, Battle for the Sun
Battle for the Sun is a much-anticipated CD for those die-hard Placebo fans who were disappointed by the band’s last album, Meds. This CD, number six, reverts back to band’s old style, with somewhat squealing guitars over Brian Molko’s nasal but forever reassuring voice…
The Informant!
The Informant! is the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a scientist, VP, and whistleblower at the giant agri-business food additive company Archer Daniels Midland, which specializes in using corn to take over the world…
The Guns of Detroit, Monsterattake’s
The Guns of Detroit. The name alone got me. I hadn’t heard one lick of their music, and yet I already knew that I wanted to review their album, Monsterattake’s. It was a gamble I knew I had to take. The Guns of Detroit, I thought, could’ve been death metal from the dark corners of Sweden…
Ghost Mountain, Summer Tapes
So you say your band’s releasing its new album only on cassette? That’s so, er, early 2009, y’all. Want to really take a totally noncommercial, ultra-indie stab in the dark with your band’s next release? Follow the example of strange, candy-like electro-hip-hopsters Ghost Mountain…
American Fangs
Oh, yes. American Fangs are really-truly one of the best damn things going in this city right now — they’re a rock band, to be sure, equal parts punk, alt-rock, and metal, with an added streetwise edge that makes them pretty freaking unique…
Chad VanGaalen, Soft Airplane
Just when you think that the album’s going to be an intimate experience between just you and Chad VanGaalen, slowly he starts cranking up the volume, changing your opinion of the path the album will take little by little. Then track five, “Bare Feet On Wet Griptape,” comes on…
Sylvie, Trees And Shade Are Our Only Fences
For the past few years, Canada’s indie-rock scene has been dominated by one label that encompasses one genre and even one city. It’s the kind of warm and calm folk-infused indie-rock that’s completely unobjectionable and well-received by all, like maple syrup or the concept of universal health care…
Fake Believe, Talk Speak EP
While there’s nothing strictly wrong with the first two tracks of Fake Believe’s five-song EP, Talk Speak, I’ll admit they had me a little worried. The too-slick, hipster-ish dance-funk grooves on the verses of both “Pornography” and “Another Dead Romantic” didn’t get more than a shrug out of me…
Electric Attitude, Laser Laser Laser Beams
I’ve been dancing around it a while in my head, and I just can’t think of a friendly, nice way to talk around it, so I’m just going to say it: I don’t like the guitars on Electric Attitude’s latest EP, Laser Laser Laser Beams. At least, I don’t like ’em as much as I feel like I should…
Behemoth, Evangelion
There’s just something strangely cool about seeing the new Behemoth CD/DVD, Evangelion, advertised in the Sunday ad for Best Buy. Right next to upcoming indie-rockers and pop-start wannabes is this trio of corpsepaint-wearing Polish Satanists. Fucking awesome…
Fruit Bats, The Ruminant Band
It hit me in the car, on my way back to the house yesterday, and suddenly, it all seemed plain as day: it’s Paul McCartney. That’s who Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson reminds me of, more than anyone else, at least on the band’s latest, The Ruminant Band…
Sleepy Sun, Embrace
I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting, but I know this wasn’t it. I think I could be forgiven, though, for being blindsided by Sleepy Sun’s Embrace, especially considering the way the band shifts gears partway in. The album starts off with the thumping, dark, nearly funky murk-croon…
Nebula, Heavy Psych
“Retro” has become a bad word in the musical world. First we had the ’70s stoner bands, the neo-thrash bands, and the revival of glam. So what’s a band like Nebula supposed to do, when they were retro before retro was a cool, and subsequently uncool, thing to be?…
Iron Age, The Sleeping Eye
Hailing from the hipster central town of Austin, Iron Age offers their latest, The Sleeping Eye, for all to enjoy. Hopefully. When you see any album from Tee Pee Records, there’s a good chance that it should come equipped with rolling papers…
The Warlocks, The Mirror Explodes
Psychedelic music often gets a bad rap for its close kinship to ’60s hippie culture. Despite modern psychedelic rock’s distance from its groovier brethren, its dedication to mind-altering substances often does the music more harm than good…
Vetiver, Tight Knit
Reviewing Vetiver’s latest release, Tight Knit, has been a most pleasant experience. Self-classified as “Thrash/Black Metal/Christian Rap”on their MySpace page — proof positive the band does have a sense of humor — the band tends to get tagged as “Freak Folk” or “crippled pigeon music” by reviewers…
Such Hawks Such Hounds
In the overflowing racks of DVDs at your local record store, the subject of stoner rock has long been neglected. The void has now been filled, however, with the release of Such Hawks Such Hounds. The film is the culmination of three years work by John Srebalus…
Blackwood Company, Forbidden Fruit
I once had to make the agonizing drive from Houston to Los Angeles in one sitting. From the grueling scorch of land between San Antonio and El Paso through the mind-hell that is Arizona, I really wish that I’d had Blackwood Company’s debut album, Forbidden Fruit, with me…
Atlum Schema, Atlum Schema
I’ll admit I didn’t have high hopes for this album, a CD-R with a laser-printed CD sleeve and an unwieldy, pretentious-sounding name; I figured it was headed for a quick listen and then a toss on the ever-growing pile on the desk…
Mos Def, The Ecstatic
Back in 1998, Rawkus Records released Black Star, featuring the iconic debut of Mos Def and Talib Kweli as the hip-hop duo Black Star. One year later, Mos Def released his critically acclaimed solo album, Black on Both Sides, solidifying himself as a socially aware and truly gifted MC…
Guitars, White Night White Night
I’ve always thought of The Velvet Underground as a band that was less about songs and more about a general feeling, a kind of sleepy-yet-restless nervousness that’s raw and wide-open and pretty much uniquely urban. To this kid from partly-rural central Texas, the VU was like the sound of Noo Yawk…
The Lonely H, Concrete Class
If you miss the classic rock of the ’70s before it got caught up in the hit-making machinery of AOR radio, or you recently discovered the musical gems hidden in your parent’s album collection, then Concrete Class, by The Lonely H, is an album you’ll want to hear…
Wonderlick, Topless at the ARCO Arena
Topless at the ARCO Arena is the first album from Wonderlick since their eponymous release in 2002. With two former members of Too Much Joy in the band, it’s tempting to skip breezily over the pretty surface of this album and chalk it up as another tongue-in-cheek record…
WE ARE HEX, Gloom Bloom
I usually come across four types of bands: the bands that impress you with their musical technicality; the bands you feel sorry for, knowing that this is their passion but that it’s probably time for them to hang it up; the bands that get you fired up and make you want to put your fist through something…
Oppressed by the Line, Kiku
There’s something fascinating to me about the ties between music and place — how a certain sound, song, or voice can immediately evoke somewhere you’ve been, something you’ve seen, and immediately pull you inexorably back to the exact moment when you first experienced it…
One Small Step For Landmines, If You Could Get Over Me
It’s hard to resist the temptation to compare Floridians (er, Floridian, at this point) One Small Step For Landmines and the significantly better-known Dashboard Confessional. Beyond the geographic kinship, both are shifting band/solo acts focused around punk-rock-bred guys playing hearts-on-sleeves…
Franz Ferdinand, Tonight
Franz Ferdinand’s Tonight is the Scottish rockers’ third release since their inception in 2002. Released in January of this year, the album is at best hit-and-miss. I have to admit that musically, it’s worse than I expected. While at times there are some solid jams on display and somewhat creative rhythms at work…
Does It Offend You, Yeah?, You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
If you’re a fan of The Faint, you’re either going to really love this album or really hate it. The sound is actually so similar it kind of freaks me out at times; however, I’d say I fall into the category of Faint fans that really love this album…
Judas Priest, A Touch of Evil: Live
Judas Priest’s new live CD, A Touch of Evil:Live, is a nice little payoff for diehard fans. The 11 tracks that make up the release are all songs that have not been previously recorded live, and this is saying something considering that the band has something like 30 live albums in their career…
Patrick Wolf, The Bachelor
Patrick Wolf is back, with his quirky music and colorful image (he’s currently a bleached blonde), and his new album is sure to impress his loyal fans. The Bachelor is filled with Patrick Wolf’s characteristic violas and voice with vibrato…
So Many Dynamos, The Loud Wars
The Loud Wars is one of those albums that makes me want to go dig out an album I used to play ’til it felt like the CD player laser would burn out; in this case, the album they make me want to go grab is The Dismemberment Plan’s 2001 classic, Change…
Reel Big Fish Fame, Fortune and Fornication
Reel Big Fish’s Fame, Fortune and Fornication is no Born to Run or Pet Sounds, it’s true, but so what? There’s nothing wrong with having a little fun, and I enjoy a good ska cover song as much as anybody…
Oh No Forest Fires, The War On Geometry
Have you ever had someone tell you they saw a great live band, and you’re like, “what the hell does that even mean?” Well, I’ve been watching YouTube videos of Oh No Forest Fires after receiving their The War On Geometry EP, and I think I’ve found the definitive answer on that…
