Elemental Zazen stuck himself with a really bad name. There may be worse rapper names out there, but he’s got one of the worst ones I’ve ever heard. On his second album, The Glass Should Be Full, Elemental Zazen demonstrates a casually virtuosic flow reminiscent of Aceyalone…
Canadian rock music has a relatively long and impressive history and includes a whole host of recording artists who have successfully spearheaded and maintained careers that have produced extremely memorable songs…
This is not a Bright Eyes record. Don’t believe the critics who tell you it is. Because it isn’t, not even close. There are things very specific to Bright Eyes recordings, beginning of course with guru producer Mike Mogis. He’s not here this time around, and it shows…
Out of the wilds of H-town’s indie scene comes…well, shit, the absolute weirdest, rawest, most uncompromising, and most intriguing hip-hop I’ve heard since that Justin Broadrick/Alec Empire collab, Curse of the Golden Vampire…
Athletic Automaton’s album A Journey Through Roman’s Empire starts like an angry car, gets into a bruising pace, and doesn’t shift from that gear. What partially deflects the bullying effect of the music is that it’s performed by two guys in jerseys…
For me, after having been submerged in a whirlpool of repetitive lyrics and overdone production, Seattle-based musician Aaron English truly brings music to my ears. His latest release, The Marriage of the Sun and the Moon…
I was listening to The Delta Block’s A Sleeping Nation in the car when, in the middle of one of the songs, the CD started skipping. But I didn’t realize it until maybe thirty seconds later, when I stared down at the display…
Just two words: “Loved it.” St. Louis-based Autovein’s debut album, Bullets and Bruises, is the end result of a great many twists and turns of both bad record label timing and sheer fortitude in pushing forward…
The Willowz. I figured that any band popping up on the Eternal Sunshine soundtrack was worth a listen. Top that off with a turn-of-the-century American controversy for a title, and it gets even better…
If you don’t know Paul Weller, then you’re not really listening to music. If you’ve been alive for more than 15 years and still don’t know who Paul Weller is, then you’re beyond help altogether….
My god, I miss the ’90s. What’s that you say? They’re back? But which ’90s is it, the Pixies ’90s or the Gin Blossoms ’90s? Gin Blossoms? Sweeeeet. Seriously, I’m glad to have bands like This Holiday Life bringing back to life oldies but goodies Toad the Wet Sprocket…
These folks are an enigma — on the one hand, they can be crushingly heavy, with thundering guitars, surging basslines, and neck-snapping drums, but even at their heaviest, Sharks and Sailors remain tranquil, almost serene…
It’s the warmth that does it. New Tales feels soft and gentle and — most of all — somehow warm throughout, like a well-used blanket when you’re really needing one. There’s barely an offensive note here, just delicately-balanced harmony vocals…
The resurgence of Nirvana-tinged roots rock is alive and well in Greenville, TX. Melba Toast’s self-titled debut brings heaps and heaps of grunged-out guitars and sometimes sweet, sometimes heavy-handed lyrics that appeal to the lovelorn and lonely — think Mudhoney meets Kings of Leon…
I specifically requested Onebody by Los Doggies from the myriad CDs available for review under my cursor because they seemed, for lack of a better phrase, cuckoo for Coco Puffs. I have since amended my opinion. They are not insane…
Flashback time, boys and girls: I’m a short, fat, four-eyed, thirteen-year-old kid who still listens to Nirvana and wears flannel. Life is good until some guys from Knoxville decide to light up a few cigarettes with twenty-dollar bills…
Cardinal Trait’s latest release, You Already Know, signifies the next coming of Southern-based soft rock. With every track there’s a show of talent, care, and an ability to cohesively carry a tune…
The Kindness Kind has an unusual sound. On their debut album, A Novel, they combine a sort of Strokes-style dance-pop with acoustic instruments, electronic loops, and classical instrumental lines. The group shows a lot of talent and potential…
Ah, “Best Experimental,” that perennial catch-all category. For the past few years, it’s felt like the Houston Press Awards throws anybody it can’t easily categorize as going in one box or another into the category, with the end result that the “Experimental” label becomes a joke…
Leonid Maymind has done some traveling in his day. Born in Latvia and having lived in various parts of the U.S. from New Orleans to New York, the now-Brooklynite makes music that changes genre as often as he has changed addresses. Maymind is at the center of the musical constellation known as Spanish Prisoners…
It’s almost inevitable that rock bands mellow out with age, packing up their drums and trading their overdrive pedals for acoustic guitars (or worse, philharmonic orchestras). And for whatever reason, it seems that the louder the band, the more mellow they become…
Two things struck me when I first listened to The Ed Mitchell Clinic, Mostly Bears’ debut LP. First, what’s the deal with bears?; and second, I hate the word “prog”…
You know, every record starts off with a review. It’s that little dirge the band writes describing their record and how good it is and how much better than the others so that I will review it and you will buy it. And usually, like New York-style pizza in Texas, it is all a lie…
Joe Mathlete, I underestimated you. Yeah, I did, and it’s damned embarrassing. How? Because I figured, stupidly, that any band that kinda-sorta made its name playing (admittedly entertaining) covers of people like My Bloody Valentine…
Timing plays a hand in every good thing, and bringing drummer Joe Shockley, and bassist John Tooker together with singer/guitarist Danny Ashe was no exception. Joe and John were in search of a lead singer when they happened across Danny…
In a world where every punk rock fan can safely emote themselves into outer space by way of special effects and a synthesizer, Driver Side Impact reigns as kings of the world with their release The Very Air We Breathe…
Do you like bone-crushing double-kick bass drums? Do you like finger-blistering guitar solos? Then you’re going to love Darkest Hour. They’ve just sewn up a new album…
I imagine living in Dallas would sort of be like living in an elevator. Nothing ever really happens there, everything seems to go by in a blur, and the entire city is a background. It’s only fitting that a lot of the music made there sounds like nothing; or maybe it sounds like everything…
It’s often tempting to characterize an album with a season, especially when its qualities are so reminiscent of a particular time of year, and even more so if the album is released around the season it recalls. Pomegranates’ formal debut Everything Is Alive fills both these criteria for a “seasonal” album…
Hello Tokyo has achieved a small amount of fame for the single “Radio,” produced by Wallflowers bassist Greg Richling. I personally think they should have taken the next baby step of an EP before trying a full-length album, though, because Sell the Stars is a trick…
If your one comfort in life is that some things never change, then you will love this album. Otherwise, you’ll be like me and loathe it. With fifteen years’ experience performing, you would think that Pain Principle would have a more professional sound, but on their new album…
These Kentucky rockers were mislabeled as a “Southern rock” band in their early days, but their last couple of albums likely appeal to hippies more than rednecks. On the band’s latest — their first full-length since 2005’s Brit-rock tinged Z…
Did cartoon dog icon Droopy try to step back into the limelight via the British indie music scene? Where is E!’s True Hollywood Story on this momentous event? More importantly, how did a cartoon character manage to step into reality? Nope, false alarm…
From the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, Eric Layer brings us his self-produced cd, The Fall. There are ten tracks here, ranging in sound from The Mammas & The Papas to Layer’s own complete inventions…
First of all, there’s really no need to read this review. Giant Princess isn’t even selling this album; they’re giving it away for free. You can download the whole thing with no jumping through hoops…
At this point, the only way that music can move forward is by becoming something other than what we think of as “music.” While this may seem contradictory on the surface, it’s a concept which has likely been seen (and heard) since man started making noise…
Paris, France’s Jordan would be on Dischord Records if they were from D.C., but, being as it is, they’re from France. It’s always a surprise to get something this good that I did not order or know about to review. With their debut Back To The Gym, Kid!…
OK, now. Close your eyes really tight and try to imagine Alice Cooper performing periodically with keyboards. That’s a pretty fair description of most of the material contained within the first self-released Jet Black Kiss album, Star Rock Lights…
The Soulshake Express’s self-titled EP is apparently an amalgamation of several different eras of musical style. The sound ranges from very late ’60s rock to rock with a modern edge — but never one single decade at the same time; there are elements of each present in almost every track…
The quartet from Iceland is back with their fifth full-length album. In an attempt to shake up the norm, this time Sigur Rós decided to solicit the help of Flood, producer of albums for Nine Inch Nails, PJ Harvey, and Smashing Pumpkins…
