Key of K manages to pack some major dynamics into seemingly simple songs. A beautiful, mellifluous and dark recording that should hold most listeners happily rapt.
The deceptively loose, rambling rawness of The Demon’s Claws ‘ music wraps everything we love about spooky psych rock and roll and sets it all on fire.
NOFX packages up the last 20 years with a 30 song compilation.
If dreampop is the sound of one’s subconscious hallucinations during sleep, then lovelisecrushing is the ambient wash of those phantasms filtered through the waking light of day, the specific images slipping away, leaving only the vaguest of feelings.
Recorded between the dissolution of the Stooges and the ignition of Iggy Pop‘s solo career, Kill City was at the time an anomaly in Iggy’s catalog, a collection of demos with an odd (for the Ig) sound that has been accused of being exploitative of its singer’s uneven mental state at the time.
The Jett Black Heart Attack bring it all the way to the days of classic hard rock.
A ten-song album with five (mostly) unqualified successes, Hurley is, by this math, at least half fresh, maybe better.
The self-titled debut album from White Noise Sound is another example of an LP that makes it obvious what the band has in its record collection.
Back in the early 90s, when everyone else interested in underground rock music was singing its praises, I dismissed Superchunk as a third-rate Hüsker Dü wannabe after hearing a couple of songs, and never looked back.
I hope fans and newcomers alike can exercise some patience when hearing this. I think the average fan of No Age will be satisfied by the first half of the album but those who want something more will be pleasantly surprised by the second and plenty of Everything In Between.
Led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Ian Underwood, the quartet distilled the underground Australian rock & roll of the 70s and 80s down into a potent, guitars’ n’ melodies attack that’s catchy and exhilarating.
The first Swans album in nearly 15 years, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky encompasses all the original band’s many moods.
Tour-only vinyl single rocks out with covers of the Television Personalities and “The Boss”.
“Jesse Malin, isn’t he like Ryan Adams II?” someone asked me the other day.
In Malin’s defense, I offered a stumbling summary of his die-hard career…
As a music town, Austin is known for lots of things: blues, country, psychedelia, Spoon. What’s not usually celebrated is River City postpunk, of which there’s a lot.
Veteran New York rock & roller Kevin K teams with L.A. spitfire Texas Terri for eight songs of piss, vinegar and tattoos on Firestorm.
Mark Kozelek’s fourth album under the Sun Kil Moon moniker is by far the most sparsely arranged, but to call it simply a guitar-and-voice album is misleading, given the fullness of his singing and playing.
His debut with the Dead Peasants is slick, shiny roots pop, with easily accessible melodies, bright production and nothing even close to threatening.
Serrano/Faust creates a set of covers and originals in what’s essentially a tasteful, rootsy rock vein – excepting his ragged sing/speak, there’s nothing here that would sound out of place on your local triple-A radio station.
Mu’s Way is the debut of Woom, an album that seems simple and offers rewards with each listen.
Fans of Barone’s prior recordings know to expect sterling, quirky modern pop, and that’s exactly what the songwriter/guitarist delivers.
Blonde Redhead return with their eighth and most listenable album. It comes across as a soundtrack to a movie not yet made or background music to everyday life.
The group’s sixth record, Play Chess refers not the strategy game but the blues label, with the setlist consisting of covers from the catalogs of Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley and other Chess staples.
Let’s get right to the point: Film School does nothing that hasn’t been done before during either the original shoegaze era or on your average episode of 120 Minutes.
I Love J-Rock features 5 girl fronted Japanese bands (including the mighty Shonen Knife) for a great primer in the awesomeness of Far East rock and pop.
Collins doesn’t fornicate around here – he just whips out nugget after nugget of catchy, melodic, chiming guitar pop with two guitars, bass and drums.
The mild shock of this song’s titillating title, sung by the smooth voice of Gnarls Barkley’s worldwide smash “Crazy,” is probably its first hook. There’s a different reason for endless repeat plays, however. Naughty or not, you’d have to spin the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” to hear a catchier pop-soul single.
The primary difference is that the band pays even closer attention to melody than before – no unfocused jamming here.
In today’s musical climate of regression and huge-fonted neon infantilism, where even the more esoteric labels are trying to put forth vapid beats to please and increasingly ADD audience you have to despair if you’re a music fan with any degree of patience and focus. Luckily the independent composer will never die, and Dora Bleu’s latest CD-R, Earthly Bombs , stands in direct opposition to the fast-food market of ipod commercial ready bands.
Sure, the album is going to be, in general, strong, but how will it stack up against his own best work?
Even if the prospect of yet another covers record gives you the hives, you’ll likely find your pants charmed right off by Two-Way Family Favorites.
I have to confess that though I love NEGATIVE APPROACH, I’m disappointed with the release.
Gone are the ominous atmospheres on the third full-length from the team of former member of Belle And Sebastian, Isobel Campbell, and the Screaming (and uprooted) Tree, Mark Lanegan. What is left is a more sparsely textured album that is honest and occasionally beautiful.
From the opening salvo, the ubiquitous Sam Shalabi ’s ELO draws you in to a cloistered, textured world of Egyptian modality and freeform experimentation.
Shonen Knife comes stateside with English language versions of two albums.
Rancid bassist Matt Freeman releases the hard driving Devil’s Brigade
Yet another band emerges to prove that Montreal is still producing real, top notch rock n roll bands. Desert Owls explodes out the gate with this scorching collection of raw, attitude laden tunes.
This record is bound to increase The Sword’s profile and expand their audience into hard rock territory, but not at the expense of the headbangers who have been fans from the beginning.
No effects pedals, no complicated song structures, no tongue-twisting metaphors – just good songs, played well.
Are You My Mother? is Calder’s appropriately and off-puttingly titled solo debut. It was recorded at a home studio built so that she could record and care for her ailing mother, Lynn. As expected, there is a ton of emotion. But the album is less a eulogy than a tribute. This New Pornographer strips naked…emotionally.
A song cycle inspired as much by loss as by living, Neon Mirage strips his signature sound down to the bare essentials, while still remaining as eclectic as always.
This new noise pop duo may have been raised in a boarding school secretly operated by Slumberland Records, where the only classes are rudimentary music lessons and the only homework is the complete recordings of Black Tambourine.
The Gruesomes blew up on the mid-80s Canadian scene, almost single handedly rekindling the 2nd wave garage revival with their teen beat striped sweater stomp that spliced the fuzz with some ragingly caustic punk maneuvers.
With their fifteenth studio album, The Final Frontier, Iron Maiden follow their tried and true blueprint of the three aforementioned chords and triplet-heavy riffs. But the album, like the last three, is too slick. Blame Kevin Shirley, blame Steve Harris, blame Pro Tools, the result is the same. This time, the songs just aren’t as good.
It sounds like Hammer created this record under the influence of several hours of 120 Minutes, circa the mid-‘80s.
Chris Arduser’s songwriting is strewn with knowing winks and personal pratfalls, for which the best consolation would probably be “at least you got a song out of it.” “Bad Decisions” is classic Arduser, a summery pop-waltz full of recrimination, wherein the protagonist is thwarted by his own worst intentions.
Pere Ubu is back with a live album combining all of their classic “The Modern Dance” with early singles.
Ottawa, Ontario’s The Polymorphines are holding down the fun tent as part of Canada’s criminally under-appreciated gonzo garage rock scene. Their first album, Transistor Sistor is an unabashedly trashy rocking ode to joy, speed and sex that blissfully shakes a greasy tambourine in the faces of the jaded.
Six years have passed since Autolux spearheaded a shoegaze revival. But now that the revival is going full bore, is there still a place for Autolux?
