Pre-emptive caveat time: the copy of Winter Wallace’s self-titled EP that a friend handed off to me isn’t technically her full four-song EP; all it has is the first two songs on the actual EP…
Ooh, finally an album of inspirational lyrics created (according to the press release) during a “vision quest” in the Mojave desert — the supposed endeavor highlighted in her song “Caves of Possibility”…
Straight out of the hipster bowels of Brooklyn comes possibly the most unassuming yet rawest garage-rock crew you’re likely to hear any time real soon. On I Blame You, Obits churn through…
It’s a daunting task to follow up a classic breakthrough album. Many bands take the route of making a copy of what got them where they are. Or worse, making an album that they think people will like…
Driven by many different muses, from an obvious fixation on the psychedelic occult to the ability to produce straightforward rock ‘n roll, the Fresh & Onlys have provided…
Fair to Midland were discovered by System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian while on tour; apparently, their live shows are sick, with tons of chops and energy…
A full generation after the first release of Culturcide’s Year One, I have the unfortunate ability of hindsight, with all my exposure to synth-powered sound, glam rock…
One of the more intriguing artistic trends in recent years is the reconstitution of the debris of mainstream culture and industry into forms standing at a substantial distance from their original intent. From the sardonic collages of advertising and news broadcasts by Negativland…
Fuck…has it been a week already? This week feels like it’s gone screaming past me, leaving me confused and behind on everything. Not good… Anyway, I figured I’d do a quick hit on what all’s going on this evening, Friday, April 24th, so here’s the stuff I think is going to be worth checking out; […]
At the end of the day, I have to admit it’s the accent that makes Fever Ray’s self-titled debut so strangely, darkly alluring. Fever Ray everything-woman Karin Dreijer Andersson, who’s made her name as half of oddball Swedish electro-pop duo The Knife, has that Scandinavian lilt to her high- (and low-, but I’ll get to […]
Talk about a tailor-made release… Seeing as — obviously — the world naturally spins around yours truly, I’m halfway tempted to think these two bands, The Eastern Sea and News on the March…
Starvin Hungry’s Cold Burns comes across less like an album of individual songs and more like one not-very-exciting song reworked a few times. Sure, it’s okay to have a signature sound, but when everything remains at the same volume and tempo for almost forty minutes…
On Don’t Be A Stranger, Seattle band The Moondoggies aim squarely at what The Byrds tried to do way, way back in the day — grafting a psychedelic haziness onto subtle, rootsty folk/country. They take things a step or three further, though, by injecting a heavy dose of gospel-revival sound…
Mista White has been making a troublesome nuisance of himself in Houston since 1996. Since then, he has released albums, protested, spouted off, and otherwise bothered the people who have suits and pens and things like that. His music, when broken down the way Mista White himself surely will be…
Fucking Awesome. Those two simple words are the perfect description for Wrath, the new release from Lamb of God. Wrath is a return to form that allows the Richmond, Virginia, quintet to reclaim its crown as the new kings of metal…
Popular bands always influence up-and-coming musicians. For every Radiohead or Coldplay, there’s a Starsailor or South to counter them — bands that make decent music but that don’t quite reach similar levels of success…
First thought: dumb, dumb, dumb name. Second thought: damn, this is good; why the hell didn’t I listen to this before now? Tangential (and mostly inconsequential) third thought: what the heck’s up with the weird-ass comic book?…
I have to admit, sometimes it’s nice to not have to think too much about this stuff. I mean, c’mon — this is Chicago wildman Andre Williams, the dirtiest, funkiest, nastiest soul singer you’re ever in danger of mistaking for one of your grandpa’s old-timer friends…
You have to love that the band Teith explains that their name is pronounced “Keith,” as in Carradine, Richards, and Sweat. Makes me laugh everytime. The Oak City EP is the re-release of the band’s demo that made the MySpace rounds a while back…
Considering the band sounds just like him, Old Ghost should be glad Bob Dylan hasn’t sued for copyright infringement. Okay, so they don’t sound exactly like Bob, but unfortunately, that’s because they’re missing his songwriting ability…
With the music market now offering paths that circumvent the mechanisms of the music industry entirely, bands have the option of sidestepping the dog-and-pony show of glossy 8x10s and vapid music videos. By the same token, it doesn’t hurt to have some quirk, kink, or outright gimmick…
Got another pile of reviews up too-late last night, just in time for this sure-to-be-insane weekend. I’ll be hanging with the fam this weekend, myself, but if you’ll be out & about, well, you’re in luck. First, we’ve got two reviews for two different badass-sounding shows tonight, The Gary & Many Birthdays… The guys in […]
Side Two by Hail The Size is a comical, light-hearted take on dysfunctional relationships, explosive farts, and addiction. The whimsical and witty lyrics remind me a bit of Weird Al or even Flight of the Concords, but country music-style, if you can imagine…
On Chub, Austin band The Gary (none of the members of which, it should be said, are actually named, y’know, Gary) manage to take hold of three of my favorite elements of late-’90s indie-rock, the flat-sounding vocals and understated but still powerful guitars…
Looking for a new album to put on as you slowly drift to sleep? Or maybe you really wish Enya would one day pick up a guitar? If so, Foreverinmotion may be your next favorite band…
No, this wasn’t what I was expecting to hear coming from a bunch of guys who’ve made their names playing raw, punkish garage-rock in bands like The Monocles and American Sharks…
To celebrate its twenty-year anniversary, Sub Pop released a compilation album called Happy Birthday To Me, comprised mostly of tracks from 2008. Judging by the songs and the roster of artists, it’s clear that for all its grunge beginnings the label has, for better or for worse…
It’s insulting to think that one word could sum up an album. With the new CD from rap-metal pioneers Stuck Mojo, the one word is obvious: laughable. Decibel Magazine has already given The Great Revival the honorable distinction…
Working on a Dream may seem unfinished to many people. Bruce Springsteen has spent 40 years plumbing the depths for us; the hopeful, escapist youths of Born to Run and the prideful would-be laborers of Born in the U.S.A. spoke without metaphor to our struggle…
This Austin, Texas-based band has brought a tinge of country, rock, and blues on their latest recording, Let’s All Go To Bed, creating a pleasantly surprising sound even to a country novice. The album starts out with the rockin’ “Dynamite”…
Yep, we’ve got a pile of new reviews up online as of late-late-late last night, so I figured I’d better point ’em out, esp. since one of the bands reviewed, Austin’s Grady, is playing tonight (Fri., April 3rd) up at The Continental Club. I honestly hadn’t heard of these folks ’til this Houston visit, but […]
I’ve heard bands before that blur the line between Southern-fried rock and the blues — hell, Stevie Ray Vaughan rode that line at times — but few obliterate it as completely as Austin’s Grady. They grab hold of a fistful of downhome Delta blues licks, drown ’em in cheap whiskey…
In my book, Austin’s Cotton Mather were one of the most sadly underrated bands of the late ’90s; while good-but-not-great people like Fastball got the hype and the spotlight, Robert Harrison and company’s absolute gem of a magnum opus, Kon Tiki, languished in obscurity…
How do you come up with what’s bound to be one of the rawest, most crushingly addictive rock songs to come out of this just-started year? If you’re American Fangs, you begin with a stomping, challenging rhythm and some guitar scrapes and throw on slurring, snarling, semi-threatening vocals that’re kin to Tim Armstrong…
The site-watchers out there (yeah, I know there’re a few of you) may’ve already noticed, but just in case, we’ve got a new batch of reviews up on this here site, and we’re pretty darn proud of ’em… First and foremost, yours truly reviewed the debut self-titled full-length from Canadians Women, who happen to be […]
I’m not completely sure what to make of the intertwined, fuzzy (well, partly), messy knot of an album that is the self-titled debut of Calgary foursome Women. When it first starts, with the haunted voices, fucked-up guitars, and thwacking drums of too-short “Cameras”…
Those hoping for Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers Vol. 88 may not get exactly what they’re looking for, but this is a fine release from Urck nonetheles. It’s a two-CD (it was issued on vinyl a while back) set of avant-garde, traditional, psych and electronic sounds…
The Reel Banditos are an instrumental trip-hop duo based in Hamburg. On Indochina, their second album, the Reel Banditos incorporate lots of unprocessed sounds in their material, from guitars to keyboards to all sorts of percussion…
They always say to never judge a book by its cover. That’s never been truer with the new CD by Rahway, Snitches Get Stitches. The cover looks like a Photoshop project that a band member did in school. Ten years ago…
Miss Autopsy is the one-man experimental rock band of singer/guitarist Steve Beyerink and is most definitely an acquired taste. There is nothing that I like about this Chicago-based musician’s third full-length release, The Hill…
