Joshua Geissler, the lone member of Worrytrain, has created an electronic orchestral sound bereft of words that is powerful and raucous yet at the same time delicate and reserved. Geissler’s third album, Destroy The Wall Street Sundial…
When I’m looking over the lists to find a new record to snag for a review, not a lot ever pops up in the Dub/Reggae section. In fact, it’s usually completely vacant. So, when something did finally show up…
The cover of Consolers of the Lonely, the much-anticipated followup LP from the Raconteurs, is some black-and-white job with the group posed as some turn of the 20th century group of minstrels…
The press release warns that partlycloudy threatens to dethrone The Ramones and The Clash. That press release should be destroyed. First of all, musically, why would this progressive rock band change any kind of history that The Clash…
How do you feel about your day job? Yeah, I thought so. The Austin band Paperwork makes a musical dissection of the dull anguish felt by so many in cube farms across the world. Just peer over the cube at your huddled-over co-worker…
Initial response: um, what? I’ve caught snatches of Goldfrapp over the past several years, alternately lulled into a Brave New World coma by the ’50s sci-fi lounge stylings and thrilled by the bumping, grinding robo-sex of “Strict Machine,” and now…this?…
Everyone knows hype can be a double-edged sword, especially for brand new artists; it gives snobby skeptics reason to dismiss a band without giving an adequate listen. The Epochs have generated a lot of hype with their self-titled debut, and now I know why…
I’d like to offer some advice to the guys in Danger Radio: trade in your vocalist/songwriter for a new one who doesn’t come off like a cheap Panic At The Disco rip-off. The lyrics and vocals on Punch Your Lights Out are actually worse than PatD…
While driving my usual commute to school, I was fumbling around trying to find a suitable radio station — or at least one that wasn’t depressing country — when I remembered about a little college radio station and automatically veered to it…
I won’t pretend to have known much about Scott Reynolds before listening to Adventure Boy, his solo debut as Scott Reynolds & The Steaming Beast. Upon doing a bit of research, however, I discovered that Mr. Reynolds…
Those that have been missing the power ballad and anthem-rock sound that has been MIA since the mid-’90s will undoubtedly find their fix with The Millions’ sophomore release, Disrespectfully Yours…
Ivoryline’s new Tooth And Nail label release, There Came A Lion, is their full-album debut, underscored by the success of a previous EP and over two years of extensive touring…
His Name is Alive has released music in a lot of different styles over the years, but new album Sweet Earth Flower breaks new ground for the group: free jazz. On the album, the band plays music by Marion Brown…
I’m sorely tempted to milk a well-worn cliché and call this a marriage made in Hell, but not only is that trite and overdone, it doesn’t really do justice to Saturnalia, the much-anticipated collaboration between two of rock’s rawest-yet-most-charismatic frontmen…
I was really jaded about new music for a while. Over the last year, I kind of woke from my trance and realized that music now is not all bad. One of the bands that helped me come to this realization is Fake Problems’ Viking Wizard Eyes, Wizard Full of Lies…
In 1999, when up-and-coming group The Autumn Offering was formed in Daytona, FL, most of the local music scene was apparently nothing but radio-friendly pop-rock crap. Thankfully, The Autumn Offering was about to change that repetitive scene…
I requested this album based on two considerations: A) I heard one song a long time ago and that, combined with the groovy name, kept them stuck in my head, and B) I figured that any group of people that could formulate such a nifty name could certainly provide equally nifty tunes…
Self-proclaimed “dustcore” band the Wormwood Brothers hail from Phoenix, AZ — I guess “dustcore” is the name given to these depressing desert/country drinking songs. Spider Lake is a safe release, as it does not try anything original, but what does these days?…
My foot starts frantically tapping from the first crashing guitar of “I Heart Lora Logic,” and it doesn’t stop ’til the very end of final track “Bound for Glory,” after which I have to shake my head, smile, and laugh at the ridiculously simple, plainspoken awesomeness of what these three Houston kids are doing…
For musical artists whose main influence can easily be pinpointed to a prominent style of thirty or forty-plus years ago, it’s easy to be criticized for just rehashing that decade. Kelley Stoltz’s sound has often been described as sounding straight from the 1960s psychedelic-pop era…
Refreshing funk. I’m not talking about the occasional whiff of your Old Spice-laden pits, but describing a modern dish of jazz/funk with an old-school garnish, and Lorrie Ruiz & Chewy’s first release, Chewy, serves it up just right. The disc gets funky right out of the box…
Giselle Webber is the kind of woman whose path you probably shouldn’t cross. She is obstinate in her presentation and has a voice that is strong and guttural and oscillates wildly as she belts out lyrics that are equally as brash and commanding…
Mom, wait — don’t throw out my hair goop, cuz I’m bringing back my Morrissey-styled pompadour that I tortured you and Dad with during high school. The Queen is not dead, lads, she’s just moved to San Antonio. Well, actually, it’s three young ladies that make up the band Girl in a Coma…
Talk about your split personalities… When I first heard A Wilhelm Scream’s 2005 release, Ruiner, it knocked me down, cracked my head open, and utterly rearranged the mental furniture before stitching me back together again. The music was (and still is, but I’ll get to that) smart and literate…
I have a love/hate relationship with this music — mostly hate — and So They Say epitomizes why with the release of Life In Surveillance. While sonically tight, the vocals are way overproduced, to the point of killing the music. So They Say would easily fit on the current roster…
Welcome to 1998. Or was it 1997? One of those years, for sure. I don’t know which, but Santiago’s Vest, the sophomore release from Seattle band Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity (that’s way too long a name, guys, for real) belongs there…
Before I begin this review, I feel it’s important for you to understand where I’m coming from. I’m not a bluegrass afficionado. Like some of you, I once thought of bluegrass as the music Appalachian hillbillies played while waiting for their moonshine to distill…
It’s not often that you run across a fairly new indie group that plays straight-up rock n’ roll. It’s even rarer to find one that demonstrates a real knack for doing it well. New Jersey’s The Milwaukees bring all of this — and more — to the table in their latest City Desk Records release…
Giant World Knowledge Bliss Control opens with a spoken-word and guitar noise piece called “Quixotic,” which sets up the story of a man who may be a legend in his own mind. Like Don Quixote, Gregory Padrusch (aka “LEK”) is a psychedelic-idealist…
A solo album, especially a first solo album, is the opportunity for an artist to create a different path for him or herself. It’s the chance to offer up another side of one’s musical personality, separate and distinct from the collaborative band experience. The solo album can be liberating and artistically exciting…
With Modern Mexico, Seattle duo Los Femurs (or “Femurs,” or “The Femurs”; they seem to use both articles interchangeably or not at all, depending on their whim) have created something that’s familiar and brilliant at the same time. Rob and Colin Femur pound away on guitars and drums…
Ahh…the ability to play your instrument well. Some musicians inspire their listeners with poetic lyrics, some through their unflappable discipline, and some are just hot. Cricket, from Louisville, can play. Fortunately, they also like to show off, and they’ve created a psychedelic monster in Sofa City Sweetheart…
Murder and death never sounded so sweet! But don’t let Arise and Ruin fool you — this isn’t your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill metal band…
Taken as a whole, country music is known for being the most utterly depressing of all music types. Not surprisingly, the Not So Quiet on the Country Western Front compilation showcases an array of country-ish songs whose subjects run the gamut from crying for the Lord to dying for a drink…
Inside the liner notes for the promo copy of Arrivals and Departures reads the line, “Many great bands have broken new musical ground over the years, SILVERSTEIN is ready to do the same right now with ‘ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES’.” Well, they’d better hurry, because the malls are closing…
That Jonah Matranga, he’s certainly come a long way over the years. He’s gone from fronting critically-acclaimed nu-metal act Far to sweet, romantic, emo-pop as Onelinedrawing to post-hardcore supergroup New End Original to…this? Honestly, die-hard Matranga fans are going to be somewhat thrown off…
Let me just start out by saying I guess I just don’t get it. I can dig some funk. I can dig some jazz. I can dig some metal. I just don’t like the mix that Little Brian puts out into the world. Small parts of the album are good, but then they switch parts, and it just sounds horrid…
In an interview I stumbled across the other day, Australian skronk-rockers Guns Are For Kids proudly declared that, “We don’t write chord progressions. We have hooks, but they’re more rhythmic.” Well, yeah — they pretty much nailed that one on the head…
By hook, crook, and sideways handshakes, I got a copy of this record just a few days before its official release date. I was biased going in — I had a grudge against the Crowes from the last time I saw them live with their beards and their jam-laden, meandering odysseys…
Is iPod-Rock an official genre yet? Jet, The Fratellis, that ultra-processed garage-glam-pop-rock sound…just close your eyes and picture those twitchy shadow dancers in monochrome hell. shudder It’s damn easy (and fun) to mock, but the music’s so undeniably catchy…
