Joetown, Pills and Ammo
Loud (well, mostly), guitar-heavy, grunge-influenced rawk with vocals that swerve back and forth between Vince Neil, Chris Cornell, and Rob Zombie; that’s Joetown (known to his ‘rents, apparently, as Joe Delaney) all the way…
I, Octopus/Metronome the City, Split EP
I’m still a little bit confused about why these two totally separate groups chose to share one forty-minute-long EP divided into two über-lengthy tracks. The best way to express their relationship is to list their commonalities…
Dillinger Four, Civil War
Minneapolis punk band Dillinger Four finally returns with their fourth album. Civil War is another slice of their Hüsker Dü-meets-Southern Califoria sound. If anyone was worried about the band’s six-year break between albums…
The Born Liars, Ragged Island
After a lot of thought, I’ve realized that the thing I like the most about the Born Liars, what makes ’em stand out from the crowd of loud, punkish, garage-y rockers, is, well, that they’ve got heart. It sounds sappy, I know, but it’s the truth…
Wilderness, (k)no(w)here
It was like walking alone in the mind of a person tripping on acid while hallucinating on mushrooms. The guitar strummed, and it began; the sounds hit like a wave of colors smacking me in the face, waking me up to a new world…
The Wild Moccasins, Microscopic Metronomes
I’m envious. Honestly, that’s what I am — I mean, how can I not be? With their eagerly-anticipated Microscopic Metronomes EP, The Wild Moccasins have distilled the essence…
Followed By Static, Demo*lition
Austin duo Followed By Static has been quietly gathering praise as their songs float through the music scene. The sound on their five-track Demo*lition EP may be rough, but their point of view is quite clear…
Strangers Die Every Day, Aperture For Departure
On their debut album, Aperture For Departure, Strangers Die Every Day play instrumental chamber rock, reminiscent of Dirty Three with the rock feel of Papa M. The use of the violin and cello gives the group a distinct quality…
Seasick, Seasick
As Frank Zappa & The Mothers so cryptically stated it in one of their early songs, “What would you do if the people you knew…were the plastic that melted and the chromium, too?” The only thing I can possibly imagine theoretically rising back up…
Pale Young Gentlemen, Black Forest (Tra La La)
Pale Young Gentlemen was founded in 2004 by brothers Michael and Matt Reisenauer, and has grown steadily over the last few years both in body count and musical range. Today, the critically acclaimed Wisconsinites travel…
Northern Liberties, Ghost Mind Electricity
Northern Liberties has been around awhile, playing up and down the East Coast and only recently getting as far west as Dallas. (They skipped Houston, for some strange reason. Or not.) Ghost Mind Electricity is interesting…
Masks Phantoms, …and All the Rest into a Sulphurous Horror
It’s almost impossible these days to classify bands — what’s the difference between hardcore and post-punk? The difference between emocore and plain old emo? Between grindcore and shit?…
Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy / Metallica, Death Magnetic
In 1988, while I was in high school, I received the Holy Grail from a friend of mine who prided himself on his collection of tapes: a copied 60-minute Memorex with Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction on one side and Metallica’s Ride the Lightning on the other…
Matt Duke, Kingdom Underground
My cynical side wants to sneer at Matt Duke’s Kingdom Underground, tossing it aside as just another Adult Alternative-ready singer-songwriter. Fortunately, that cynicism ends up being undermined by Duke himself…
Woozyhelmet, Get Down
Dang. I’ve had a hard time getting a handle on this one; it makes some sense, though, since Woozyhelmet’s Get Down is the latest by a band that has vexed me in the past, where live performances left me reeling…
XX Teens, Welcome to Goon Island
Listening to XX Teens’ debut album, Welcome to Goon Island, it’s quite obvious that they’re British. This five-man band of London college friends have crafted a collection of songs so delectable that you want to call your travel agent and book a trip to Goon Island yourself…
Ume, Sunshower
This one was somewhat of a surprise. Based on Austin band Ume’s past releases and live show, I went into their new self-titled EP fully expecting to be knocked out of my chair by the sheer sonic force coming out of the speakers. They have a well-deserved reputation of being a heavy-ass band…
The Starlite Desperation, Take It Personally
Was it around 2003 when there was an explosion of bands reviving the ’70s bluesy garage-pop thing? Well, the Starlite Desperation has that sound down to a T, and if they had released Take It Personally five years ago, they would have been at the forefront of that movement…
Something Fierce, There Are No Answers
It may sound crazy, but when I listen to power-pop/punk crew Something Fierce’s new full-length, There Are No Answers, I feel like I’m getting a peek at the heart & soul of guitarist/singer Steven Garcia; everything’s laid bare, raw and bleeding and heartfelt…
Eivind Opsvik, Overseas III
Eivind Opsvik is a Norwegian bass player currently based in New York, and he’s assembled some excellent sidemen for his “Overseas” jazz project. His latest album, Overseas III, features Tony Malaby on tenor and Kenny Wolleso on drums, as well as pedal steel player Larry Campbell…
The New Frontiers, Mending
So, it appears that I’m once again too late. The New Frontiers, the quintet out of Dallas, has disbanded and frankly, it’s a shame. Another promising band calling it quits too early — and not just too early, but one week before I listen to their album…
Gospel Gossip, Sing Into My Mouth
Sing Into My Mouth, by Saint Paul, Minnesota’s Gospel Gossip, begins, in classic Butthole Surfers’ style, with ambient guitar strums and jangles as parentheses around a series of recorded samples. It’s nothing new, I’ll admit, but neither is the “Star Spangled Banner” before a baseball game…
The Eastern Sea, The Eastern Sea
There’s a sweetly pastoral, serene feel to The Eastern Sea’s debut(?) EP that I can’t help but love. The songs all sail along like musical interludes in an intricately-plotted play, probably set in a bedroom somewhere — for some reason, these songs have a dreamlike quality to them…
News on the March, Glory Be! (the EP!)
At its core, Glory Be! (the EP!), the latest release from quintet News on the March is, well, backwoods bedroom-pop. There’s countrified sincerity dripping from every note, alternately echoey and jangly, rough-yet-pretty guitars, down-at-the-heels lyrics that’re perfect to mumble along to…
AIDS Wolf, Cities of Glass
Like many other completely annoying Canadian artists/bands (Nickelback, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion), with their lates release, Cities of Glass, Canadian noise-rock band AIDS Wolf is hardly even worth taking the time to write about…
Trapt, Only Through The Pain
Very rarely do you run a cross an album title that perfectly sums up your feelings about the music. The latest from Trapt, Only Through The Pain, though, fits the bill. The only way I was able to finish this review was to persevere though the pain…
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!, Be Yr Own Shit
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! moves fast. The Italian post-punk trio has been together for just over a year and already has an album to show for it. Be Yr Own Shit is their unimpressive debut, sounding like a senior thesis project at The Rapture School of Music…
Second Day Red, Gallery of Strangers
After roughly five years of playing and performing together, Austin-based band Second Day Red has released a new bevy of engaging songs under the album heading Gallery of Strangers. Fronted by singer/songwriter Stephen Clarke, this five-piece group interacts marvelously…
Oxford Collapse, Bits
Oxford Collapse has got to be one of the happiest bands out there. Everything about the band is upbeat — from the happy vocals to the not-too-agressive guitar to the groovy drums. Even when the singer is shouting and the drums are pummeling, the band still doesn’t sound intense…
Halcyon High, to be infinite
Like Kevin Shields going acoustic, singing campfire songs about the end of the world. This is the soundtrack to bad things happening in the distance; it’s pretty, and it makes you nervous. It should be the soundtrack to the movie version of The Road…
Fight Bite, Emerald Eyes
Fight Bite, who currently calls Denton, TX, home, is an ambient-ish duo composed of Leanne Macomber of The Snowflakes and Jeff Louis of Teenage Symphony. Their debut album, Emerald Eyes, is…something else. If you’re one of the lucky few…
The Born Liars, “Don’t Tell Me, I Know”/”I Don’t Know Why”
Loud. No, really — loud. I’m discovering that if you don’t listen to the Born Liars’ latest 7″ with the volume cranked to levels likely to piss off the people around you, well, you’re honestly missing out. You’re missing the scraping, raw, garage-rawk fury…
Caddywhompus, Caddywhompus EP
Okay, so I love that somebody finally used the word “Caddywhompus” for a band name (I mean, how can you not like a word that evokes both pimp-daddy Cadillacs and whupping up on somebody?), and am therefore predisposed to like…
Coldplay, Vida La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Coldplay is a band that listeners either love or hate — there’s rarely any middle ground. Thankfully, Viva La Vida… — with obvious help from über-producer Brian Eno — is enough of a departure for the band…
Parts & Labor, Receivers
So, let’s say you’re a member of this noisy (yet majestic), ear-destroyingly loud, static-soaked, sorta conspiracy-minded noise-rock band. You put out two albums’ worth of anthemic noise bombast…and then what?…
Lords of the North, Lords of the North
Emerging from the “steam caves” and “swirling ice storms” of the Pacific Northwest come Lords of the North…wait, what? Steam caves? Ice storms? Wait, Iceland is part of the Pacific Northwest, right?…
Kingen, Ride With Me
My initial kneejerk reaction to Kingen’s Ride With Me was, well, pretty negative. I fully expected to be snickering within a few minutes of putting the disc in the player; I mean, Kingen (aka Torgny Karlsson) is a Sweden-born/-bred singer, pianist, and songwriter…
Jadewood, In These Walls
Back in 2004, three local Houstonians were fortuitously brought together in one of their personal homes to experimentally mesh their musical talents for the day. As a result, the band Jadewood was born, and the group has kept this name ever since then…
Evenstar, Through the Seasons
My life could be this band. No, really — listening to Evenstar’s Through the Seasons is like remembering what the long-dead band I used to be in sounded like in my head, before the involvement of actual people and instruments…
Blitzen Trapper, Furr
In the search for a photo of Blitzen Trapper, the first stop was obviously their artist page on Sub Pop. The tagline next to the Sub Pop logo read, “We’re not the best, but we’re pretty good.” Coincidentally, this is exactly how I feel…
