More than anything else, on Summer Us, Jody Seabody and The Whirls feel like a band out of time. Sure, the trappings of more straightforward, radio-friendly alternarock are in there, definitely — especially in the opening tracks of the album…
Okay, so this feels a little strange. Back in the spring of 2011, I reviewed an album called Unite, by a band called The Wheel Workers that I’d never heard of before but which had seemingly popped, fully-formed, onto the scene…
If the only role Channing Tatum is capable of bringing anything like charisma, humanism, and likeability to is that of an aging male stripper, we still get a good movie out of it with Magic Mike, and that’s almost worth all…
It’s been a little while since I’ve run across The Wild Moccasins. I dearly loved 2010’s Skin Collision Past, but I’ve been sorely missing them in the intervening couple of years, not even managing to catch the band live at Summerfest this year…
You’ve got to love a band (and EP) that makes its mission statement clear right from the word “go.” Weird Party’s new 7″ EP, The Secret Lives of Men, does just that, blowing the quasi-artiness of the title apart with an introductory frenzied…
While Fleet Foxes have already made a name for themselves on the music scene (whatever that means), their second album immediately struck me, because it’s called Helplessness Blues. That name alone made me curious…
When first listening to The Mowgli’s, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. Here came these songs with male and female vocals trading off in a Johnny Cash-June Carter style. There are a lot — and I mean a lot — of group background vocals…
The musical landscape continues to evolve as genre-blurring artists ply their trade in a valiant attempt to create the next big thing. Terms like baroque-folk, moombaton, chillwave, and the ubiquitous and often hollow “indie-rock” have all worked their way…
Having heard nearly everything recorded by The White Stripes, I was more than a little bit intrigued as to what a Jack White solo album would sound like. The majority of solo albums that I can think of (not naming names) sound mostly like the way the band…
Leave it to the Linus Pauling Quartet to come up with something like this, seriously: a monolithic, fuzz-drenched, utterly badass chunk of headbanging stoner-psych-rock all about Cimmerian gods, post-Apocalyptic wastelands, playing D&D, and (of course) somebody else smoking all your pot. If you think I’m kidding, well, you’ve probably never heard the LP4 before…
In the modern American cinematic garden, annual harvests continue to grow ever more bountiful. The Soderbergh and Aronofsky trees, well-rooted and stoic, perpetually plop ripe fruit from their branches. One tends to enjoy a lazy stroll down…
I’ve been sitting on this album for a while, because I was hoping that if I went back to it I might like it a bit better. The first song, “Loverboy,” is catchy in both the lyrics and the music — it’s got a great toe-tapping beat that makes me wish the whole album was like this…
There once was a band called Black Flag. This band had an original vocalist named Keith Morris, who would later go on to form Circle Jerks, whilst Black Flag would become more known as being a vehicle for Henry Rollins. Then a bunch of time passed, as it always seems to do, and Keith Morris came out with this band called OFF!. When I was growing up, I didn’t know a whole lot about hardcore punk. I guess in some ways I knew what it was, but didn’t, really…
I don’t like to do lists. I think it’s a cheap way to get out of writing a review. However, as you can tell by the title of this album, Marisa Monte does not sing in English. This — in my opinion — makes the music harder to relate to, because I have no idea what she’s singing about, no matter how well she sings. Thus, I bring you some items you probably don’t know about this album and Marisa Monte (and life) in general…
I’d always wondered what happened to the guys from once-iconic, ultra-political Houston hardcore band Die Young (er, sorry — Die Young (TX), that is; I completely forgot about that idiotic lawsuit). They were one of those bands that I always meant to…
Miike Snow is not what you think he is (er, they are; sorry). To call the band “poptronica” would be the most accurate genre to pigeonhole them in, but the music they make is not that simple. In ways, the sound reminds me of Peter Gabriel or…
With Gasconader, the guys in Denver band Flashbulb Fires have seemingly abandoned their previous orchestral indie-rock tendencies aside in favor of sweet, sweet, candy-lush indie-pop that floats and bounces along through the ether…
At this point the history of music, cross-pollination between the U.S. and the U.K. is nothing new; hell, it’s been going on pretty much since that first baker’s dozen of colonies split off from The Old Country way, way back when…
I was first introduced to Kimbra the same way that I assume most people were. One night, my wife turned to me and asked me if I had heard the song “Somebody that I Used to Know” by Gotye on the radio with her. I gave her a confused look and said I was pretty sure I would have remembered…
Grrrl riot. No, but seriously. Grrrl riot. While I like the overall sound of Wild Flag, I can’t quite get past the notion that they are former members of other notable bands; most noteworthy, perhaps, Sleater-Kinney. So why couldn’t this just be a new Sleater-Kinney…
Perhaps what makes Houston such a unique hip-hop destination is its almost exact-center proximity to the coastal hubs that first created her. Like a dank hoagie from Geno’s in Philly, the meat of the H-town sound is slathered, lathered, and drenched…
[SPOILER WARNING: Reader beware, there are some fairly serious plot twists mentioned in the following review…] Some people never learn, and some people only have one trick up their sleeves. It’s hard to tell which you’re dealing with sometimes, and Prometheus is a perfect example of that
Sonik Kicks (as suggested by the title) starts off with a very electronic beat, which I believe will become the basis of the entire album. I am wrong. This is anything but an electronic album, as it has various elements of pop mixed in…
The New Frequency EP begins randomly, as if I’ve walked in on the middle of a song. The first song by speakers has the rapping style of Young MC mixed with singing that could be anywhere from Michael Jackson to Usher. The lyrics pretty much say it all, though…
Reign of Terror opens the very way that I like all my music to begin: with the roar of the crowd. Yes, the first song is seemingly pumping up the crowd, then turning into a short song about a guitar riff (“Super Shred Guitar”) that is quite pleasing to guitar enthusiasts such as me…
Sourpuss begins with a fast guitar riff that’s kind of distorted and leads us into a song of similar speed that reminds me of Blondie’s “Call Me” or a number of different Heart songs. The second track comes in slower and clocks in near four minutes…
I used to be able to complete an entire thought. That is, until a coworker gave me a copy of Lick Lick’s Good Touch/Bad Touch to write about. The second effort by Matt Kelly (Sprawl, Middlefinger) and Eric Roach (Baby Got Bacteria) has the ability to…
When I first put on The D.A.’s latest album, entitled You Kids!, my immediate thought was, “Yes! Finally! A new Franz Ferdinand album!” And as I continued listening to this album, I discovered that I wasn’t really that far off in that comparison…
I don’t recall the first time that I heard the name Alabama Shakes. To me, it sounded like some kind of condition you would get from either living in the state of Alabama for too long or perhaps simply by drinking their water. That’s just my personal opinion…
When you have a band named Cafeteria Dance Fever, you set a level of certain amount of energy for which your band must contribute to its songs. You simply cannot have a band named Cafeteria Dance Fever and have the songs come off as something…
Life is telling me to grow up. With a few extra degrees under my belt, it’s time that I end my life as a professional graduate student and land a real job. Goodbye, t-shirt and jeans; hello to the shackles of button-up shirts tucked into slacks…
Said the Whale is a band like far too many others I have heard, yet I am not all that turned off by them. They have this sort of rock-pop storytelling quality to their music that borders The Beatles, David Bowie, and Queen on one side, yet on the other side…
I’ll freely admit that I’m addicted to music; it’s the truth, and hell, I could definitely be addicted to worse. It’s not all music that gets me, though, but those certain special moments, those songs or albums where it all just clicks somehow…
The second full-length album from Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks opens with a furious guitar rumble and then comes out sounding like the bands Rise Against and Hot Water Music had a baby — a sound which remains throughout…
The Five Colors opens with a nearly six-and-a-half-minute song that’s all instrumental. This sets the entire pace for the album, which isn’t completely instrumental but definitely is for the most part…
My first and only question for this album is whether or not the title is said in an offhand manner to someone at random or if it’s a direct question to the son of God. In either case, The Illegal Wiretaps are back with a vengeance. Of these ten songs, the band explores through three different styles…
Marvel’s The Avengers isn’t the Second Coming — though it feels like it’s been in the works almost as long as — but as far as big summer entertainment goes, you’ll rarely get much better. For those who may not have been following along, the Powers That Be of the Marvel films…
Delicate Steve plays mostly instrumental music on its/his debut, Wondervisions. The band’s mastermind, Steve Marion, is a very creative (and skilled) guitar player, with a good sense of arrangement. He has a good melodic sense, as well…
I will be the first to admit that I had never heard of AWOLNATION before I heard the song “Sail” on the radio. I immediately liked the simple-yet-complex nature of the song and wondered if perhaps the band was either Muse or the new Cage the Elephant…
The last time I listened to a nine-minute song, someone had left their Tool CD in my car by mistake. I take my music in delectable bite-sized chunks, and if I so happen to want to hear them in a long-form format, I press “Repeat.” Taking that into consideration, I was directed to the first official release…
