At first blush, it’s tempting to shrug and dismiss these five North(?) Houston guys as just another wannabe alt-rock band, taking its cues from Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, and all the other bands currently swirling around out there…
Over the past decade and a half, Bill Callahan has gradually evolved from his roots as a lo-fi weirdo into one of the most confident and recognizable voices in the freak-folk movement. With Woke on a Whaleheart, Callahan has stepped, finally…
Is it possible at this point to create a new form of pop-rock that is more serious than the norm, maybe even adult? With its debut album What Is It About This Place?, Secret Annexe makes a valiant effort but don’t quite hit the mark…
If Daft Punk and Weird Al took some X and collaborated and then the asshole-womanizing-cokehead-singer of Koufax and Herbie Hancock decided to get in on it, the result would probably sound something like Jascha Ephraim…
Cloud is a great name for Cyan’s new EP, since this album is soft, fluffy, and light. The love-saturated subject matter, the soft major chords, and upbeat singing made me think of Shakira and Cheyenne, and it would’ve made more sense to hear a poppy diva…
This is an interesting release by ’60s boogie blues band Canned Heat. Known for classic rock staples “Let’s Work Together” and “Goin’ To The Country,” this retrospective concentrates on legendary guitarists Henry Vestine and Alan Wilson…
Okay, so I know damn well The Pogues didn’t invent Irish folk, but they sure as hell dragged it kicking and screaming into the 20th century. Because of that, I find that I have a very hard time not holding up any band that plays Celtic-style folk mixed with rock…
One of the best things about instrumental music, to me, is that it lets you visualize your own little picture of what it’s all about, without any of those pesky lyrics getting in the way. Sure, I love lyrical music, too, but there’s something inherently cinematic…
Like Mono and Explosions in the Sky, Georgia’s Maserati interpret instrumental post-rock as a vehicle for the delay pedal. Though less famous than their artistic peers, Maserati have become masters of the genre in their own right. Inventions for the New Season is easily Maserati’s best album…
Wasn’t Lisala an American Idol finalist? I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case, because she can really belt out those vocals. Or she can really layer those vocals, at least; she seems to enjoy doing that. She layers them on every song…
Hey, all you Asian fetishists: Mummy the Peepshow just put out their first full-length album, School Girl Pop, in the U.S., on Records of the Damned! There’s Maki, who sings and plays the guitar, Naru the bassist, and Mayu, the drummer. Three lovely, bubbly Japanese women performing poppin’ tunes…
Alcibiades Jones is a power trio that plays instrumental rock. Although a lot of the music on Refraction Mirage is funky in sort of a John Scofield vein, harmonically it’s pretty straightforward. With instrumental music there’s no singer to make or break the songs…
Naming your band Black Metal Jacket is a pretty bold statement. Not only are you borrowing from one of the greatest movies ever, you’re implying that your music…
You know Julie Doiron. I don’t mean you’ve heard her music before, mind you, either solo or from her time with Canadian indie-rock superstars Eric’s Trip. On her most recent full-length release, Julie sings like the best friend you haven’t heard from in years…
A funny thing happens to me when I review the albums editor-guy Jeremy sends me. I’m an old stodger, hate everything that came out after Lateralus, believe music is terrible right now, etc., etc. So I invariably start every session…
The obvious starting point here is the band’s name; who ever came up with “Complicated Shirt” needs to be taken out and beaten within an inch of their life. Following that, frontman Drew Benton needs to have his vocal chords surgically removed so he can never annoy anyone ever again…
I’m the most secular person you’re likely to meet, these days, especially down here in the almost-South. My parents distrusted organized religion, so the only times I went to church growing up were for funerals or weddings. And in my adult life, it’s never been something I’ve really felt…
Spacey, thoughtful, and — dare I say it — pretty, Setting Sun’s music is perfect for watching sunsets from a balcony while taking long drags from a licorice-flavored clove cigarette. Their sophomore release, Math and Magic, finds the band…
It’s fitting that the images on the liner notes are a rifle and a sniper, since the music on Mismo’s …and to the Republic is rather scattershot. The music ranges from a 311/Incubus style on “Fade Away” to mall-core on “Tears Of Ash”…
With The Streets, The Sounds, and The Love, the debut full-length from Jersey’s New Atlantic, the band lunges out of nowhere to join the crowd of thankfully-growing emo-pop bands currently smiling their way across America. New Atlantic run with that small-ish crew of bands…
If you read other reviews of What the Hell do I Know?, the debut EP by Pennsylvania indie quartet Illinois, you will find yourself barraged with a litany of comparisons to major player indie influences from the past five years or so…
I’ve never met a musician, from Houston or anywhere else, who can reinvent themselves as effortlessly from album to album as Arthur Yoria seems to. Just when I think I’ve got him pegged, he slips out the side and does something totally off the map from what he’s done in the past…
Austin’s Tammany Hall Machine might not earn points for originality, but they can certainly claim a win based on execution. Amateur Saw occasionally has the air of pastiche about it — it channels post-Beatles English power-pop with an uncanny accuracy…
Nice guitar…um…but, yeah. Indeed, there’s slide guitars and upbeat drums, and a voice that sings rough and ready. This is very Fabulous Thunderbirds-y; bluesy, rocky, and gritty and yet still, perfectly lacking something…
Ambient; the term conjures up horrible images of bands whose albums consist entirely of either atonal, single-note compositions or droning, repetitive static. It’s a challenge to find good ambient music, but if you can manage to accomplish it, you’re bound to hear something amazing…
Sedalia’s Growtheries EP is just what it sounds like — it’s a nursery for the before-beginnings of beautiful song. In this sparse, echoey, uncooked lo-fi outfit (which is basically one guy, Ross Nervig), you may just find an overgrown barn…
With Cinematic Americana, California’s Little Heroes prove amply that you don’t need to be flashy or over-the-top to pen (and play) incredible, thoughtful, often heartbreaking music. The band isn’t out to wow you by being the smartest or funniest, no…
When I was in my early 20s and finishing up my Masters, I fell in love with Poe. Her first eponymously titled album was a bong in the lightsocket, angry and grooved. Lots of loops and sounds and such, and it didn’t really have the sound of a pretty face…
There are several things that are noticeable upon listening to Strange House by The Horrors. The first is how come no one has already used this name for a band? Especially with all the metal bands out there and then the legions of mall kids…
Pyramids is Pit er Pat’s second full length album. It was recorded essentially live by John McEntire, whom you may know from such hits as Tortoise and The Sea and Cake. If you like the post rock sounds of either of those groups, you might like Pit er Pat…
Musique Concrete. Krautrock. Spacerock. These are some of the terms floating around in sound-bite bubbles above the collective head of Brooklyn quintet Alex Delivery. Certainly, these are some of the forces at work on their debut album, Star Destroyer…
So, what happens when members of Tortoise, June of ’44, and The Boredoms get together and form a band? Probably not what you’d expect. Atsu Nagayama of Boredoms fame is the mastermind behind Sur la mer, composing the tracks on the EP…
Okay, so there’s no way in hell that I’d claim any responsibility for getting somebody to improve musically, but even so, I’m happy to see the change. A few years back, recovering pop-punker and Chicagoan Kris Racer (born Kris Narunatvanich) sent us his last full-length…
It’s been twenty years since I last saw these guys play live– back then it was in Nacogdoches, Texas, at a place called The Market — and since then have maintained only a peripheral interest in their music, but I was curious to hear the difference…
I missed Hello Stranger when they played here almost a year ago; I will not miss them again. This is a great pop record, and I’m sure they’ll have some new offering by the time they tour again. “Take It to the Maxx” is all feel-good…
I think some wires got crossed up in the Space City Rock offices. An album like Alice Despard’s Vessel usually falls firmly in the stomping grounds of my esteemed associate, Marc Hirsh. I think he may’ve even reviewed one of Despard’s earlier releases…
Being a pop band in Houston seems to be a hard road to travel. I dunno what it is — the air, the water, the electromagnetic radiation from all the powerlines — but over the years, the bulk of the poppier bands I’ve run across in this town have been, to put it a bit harshly…
I hate to say it — and maybe it’s the sinus infection I’ve got talking, true — but Sucks Blood is mostly making the knives behind my eyes stab into my brain that much harder. I definitely admire Coachwhips/Pink & Brown guitarist John Dwyer for being able to funnel…
Dammit, I’m stumped. I’ve been wracking my brain to try to come up with what possibly could’ve been so big about 1997 the year that it would cause 1997 the band to name itself after it. And I’ve got no freakin’ idea. What, was it that Deng Xiaoping died?…
As you’ve no doubt been hearing, Low has recently been moving away from their trademark slowcore sound. Their previous record, The Great Destroyer, added distortion and rock elements, and their new record, Drums and Guns, moves into yet more uncharted territory…
