Wow. As simple as that. “Wow” is all I can say about Old Pride, the latest CD from Pianos Become The Teeth. In their press kit, they’re referred to as “screamo,” whatever the Hell that is, but they remind me of a metalcore band…
Henry Diltz shot the photo for The Doors’ Morrison Hotel album cover. He tells a great story about that photograph in the liner notes to his DVD Legends of The Canyon, detailing life in the Los Angeles music scene in the late 1960s…
I guess it’s kind of redundant to say that some pretty great bands come out of Austin; hard rock progressive bank Knights are no exception. On their EP Age of Revolution…
First things first: no, this isn’t the next “real” Linus Pauling Quartet full-length. Per the LP4 guys, that’ll be the Bag of Hammers double-LP(!), which’ll be out sometime next year. So, what the hell is Horns of Ammon, then? Well, it’s a mixed pile of odds ‘n ends…
There’s an intriguing British-ness to most of Regular Dreams, the debut full-length by The Fox Derby, a kind of cool, distant, almost New Wave-ish feel to the bulk of the songs that’s amplified by the intricate, often baroque arrangements…
What is it that makes Tax the Wolf a man among boys, yet still so youthfully refreshing? They’ve been compared to early Radiohead and Mars Volta. They’ve been called progressive, indie, and all manner in between, but you know what I say to that?
The first time I heard about Helstar was in the pages of Hit Parader. The magazine had a feature on new bands, with Houston’s own Helstar there, and the first words mentioned were “Jose Elliot Chupa Los Huevos”…
It’s refreshing when a rock band isn’t afraid to mellow it out, groove a bit, and be emotional. I had heard of Another Run, and before I had a chance to listen to their music, I had this image of them in my head…
With the release of their debut full-length album, Sing Into My Mouth, in 2007, Gospel Gossip put themselves on the list of young bands to watch out for. The three-piece band from Northfield, Minneapolis, recorded Dreamland, a lengthy 6-song EP, two years later…
I can’t say whether it’s the song/album titles or the fact that I’ve been reading far too much about the battle of Thermopylae lately, but when I listen to Co-Pilot’s The Course of Empire, I find myself consistently thinking about war — about some long-ago clash between two rival armies…
With the explosion of social media and the mainstreaming of virtual relationships, it was inevitable — and maybe even necessary — that someone was going to try and document (in fiction or non-) what that explosion’s actually like and how it affects us as human beings…
Hey, Houston — we’ve got another Seattle pop-rock/grunge/punk band, only they’re striving for a more formidable approach and tackling issues of drunkenness, cop cars, last call, and party-crashers. Definitely “keen observations of human behavior,” you know…
It’s a little weird, but with all of the backwards-pointing, ’60s/’70s-loving bands I’ve been hearing lately, from The Dutchess & The Duke to Wolfmother, have forced me to at least attempt to re-learn as much as I can about the music of those two long-past decades…
Now, this is what vinyl’s really meant for, as far as I’m concerned: two sides of badass, heavy, bang-your-head rock on one solid slab of wax. Of course, in this case each side’s by a particular band, but since the bands in question are both heavy and raw…
Well, you have to hand it to the Red Rocker: he refuses to let Father Time slow him down. He recently headlined the festival circuit, then got together with former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony, guitar whiz Joe Satriani, and Red Hot drummer Chad Smith and released the excellent Chickenfoot CD…
I really liked this one. At first, when I heard this, it reminded me of Local Natives; kinda your singer/songwriter style. I can imagine myself seeing these guys live and bopping along with all the cool kids singing along to “The Story I Heard”…
Up until a few years ago, I was turned off by the recent slew of indie-rock heroes. The Bon Ivers, Beiruts, and Vampire Weekends were a little too ethereal and a little too dainty for my taste. They seemed to lack the creativity and, frankly, the balls to do anything interesting. I wanted my mind blown with incomprehensible, abrasive instrumentation and dark, obtuse lyrics…
Stereo Alligator’s self-titled EP is a pretty cool offering from a 1980s-esque electronic duo. They sound like Interpol or She Wants Revenge, but with less monotonous vocals and, honestly, more interesting music, too. They have so many different synthesizer parts laced into one another that it takes a pretty powerful voice just to be heard from over them…
Although Lungs of a Giant aren’t new on the indie rock scene, their new album Headfirst Handshakes sounds like a first effort, and that’s not so great…
Children are creepy. That’s the main thing to keep in mind while watching Let Me In, the English-language remake of Tomas Alfredson‘s fantastic vampire film Let the Right One In…
We’re probably going to be writing about Facebook forever. For the next generation, at least. It has become the symbol of 21st century interpersonal communication and the first generation to grow up fully in the information age. And that means, fairly or not, it’s also the symbol of everything that’s wrong with modern interpersonal communication, as well…
In 1968 Andy Mann was one of the only people in New York City with a video camera. He carried it every where he went, and he was treated like a god, an anchorman, or something in between…
You know it’s a good day to be a metalhead when there’s a new Slayer CD out. World Painted Blood is the latest offering from the “troo” kings of metal; Slayer’s a band that has managed to stay true to what they’ve done since day one…
Above lyric could not be more accurate. Hip-hop is like a beautiful cut of meat — in the right hands and with proper preparation, it will sizzle, marinate; look and taste great. Some chefs drown their steaks in competing flavors, use too much heat, or distribute it unevenly…
It doesn’t require refined taste or extensive background information to enjoy The Longed-For Season, the debut EP by When the Clouds. But this easy-to-like ambient music is more than just pretty sounds — it also holds up to an analytical listen…
At first blush, Street Sweeper Social Club sounds like, well, like Rage Against the Machine. And honestly, with Tom Morello’s signature block-y, sharp-edged guitars and riffs sharing the stage, how could it not at least resemble RATM?…
Metal stalwarts Iron Maiden have returned with the release on The Final Frontier. While most bands of their stature and age are content with releasing Best Ofs and taking the easy payday with summer concerts, these guys have cranked out another stellar collection…
It’s about damn time. I’ve been a fan of Bright Men of Learning and its various predecessor bands over the years, from frontman Marshall Preddy’s early Wholesome Rollers project on through the evolving lineups of Telluride, Chasmatic, and the current band, digging ’em live the whole time…
Salt Lake City natives — now Los Angeles residents — Kid Theodore are a band you may not have heard of yet, but one that you definitely should try to get to know. The band’s sophomore release, Hello Rainey (a follow-up to their debut, seven-song EP Goodnight…Goodnight)…
It’s been five years since the critically-acclaimed Broken Social Scene, and expectations are high for the eponymous band. So, how do you follow up your most successful album, and more so, how do you pull of the three-peat without rehashing your previous two albums in hopes recapturing the same success?…
What do you get when you combine five musically gifted musicians who play the fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, guitar, and banjo? If you’re thinking a bluegrass band, you’re wrong…
There are times when music can just be a side note, something you turn on because you’d rather deal with any type of distraction than the loneliness of oppressive silence and wonder why your life still sucks, even though that could just be me self-projecting…
There is that saying of what once was old is now new again, and it’s proven true by the newest musical export from Sweden, Sunaglare. This band draws its most obvious influence from retro-rockers The Hellacopters; it’s that sound of fuzz-laden stoner-rock, a la Fu Manchu or Nebula…
When KTRU Local Show co-host Ian Wells handed me a copy of KTRU Live Vol. 2, the second in the “KTRU Live” series (two discs wrapped in a cool, halfway-DIY cardboard sleeve with sweet, quirky art by DJ/artist Lindsey Simard), back at this year’s Summerfest…
I first saw Yvette Barwood and Devora F, the two ladies of Barefoot for Native, at SXSW, and then was fortunate to see them again as they came through Houston and did a show at Dean’s…
Seattle indie-rock trio Elba’s An Avalanche is a promising CD of eleven songs full of quick, bright-sounding guitars that carry on in a poppy way, along with the occasional more laidback number. The vocals are nice and complimentary to the music, and the songs are played in a major key…
Normally, I get pretty annoyed when a songwriter just comes out and tells you what a song’s about; to my mind, that takes some of the joy out of the music, removing the personal interpretation completely from the equation. I mean, sure, if you think a song’s about X…
Alex Brown Church – maybe more commonly known as Sea Wolf – and friends are back and just as good as ever with the release of “White Water, White Bloom,” last year. This album follows a very successful debut EP, “Go to the River before it Runs Too Low” and full-length “Leaves in the River,” both released in 2007, and follows in similar style and sound as previous releases…
More than anything else, From the Last Day I Saw You is a manifesto. And really, it feels fitting that as they make their final(?) bow and step off into the wings, Tambersauro should unleash something just like this, tossing aside the oblique lyrics and instrumentals…
Jimmy LaValle’s fifth solo album, A Chorus of Storytellers, is a calm trip into his soul. This CD will soothe you, but not in a reassuring, uplifting kind of way. LaValle started in the ’90s, and since then has appeared on The OC soundtrack…
