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?
Nashville, Tennessee band Bad Cop ’s auspicious debut on the legendary ROIR label is an inoculating shot in the arm that acts as a sort of psychic painkiller. It’s an elevating, honest and transcendent album.
Blackshaw’s exchanged his acoustic 12-string for an electric, and the instrument’s trademark chime makes his circular melodies sparkle.
Gathering up everything the group recorded, including both EPs, the album, a pair of demos and a couple of live cuts, the disk makes the case for Carnival Season being a candidate for Great Lost Band of the 80s.
Nathan Williams channels his inner Jay Reatard along with Reatard’s rhythm section.
I don’t know how much Ragged and Right will do for Rose’s posthumous reputation, but it should alert discerning listeners to the potential of D. Charles Speer.
Last weekend I found a hidden gem for two bucks! For the price of this record I could have only downloaded the first two tracks from iTunes.
This two-disk edition collects all the recordings made during the three years leading up to the album’s release.
I spent a somber week falling under this album’s melancholy spell, and then found reason to rejoice. Melody, human emotion, a finely wrought story: all is right with the world.
Mylow both picks up where the Backsliders left off and begins a whole new chapter in the career of a songwriter some thought lost.
A crisp and bouncy release by this Montreal band.
One of the most genuine and exciting bands tearing shows up in the DIY scene right now.
If the EPs emanating from the Church‘s excellent Untitled #23 have proven anything, it’s that the band left many of the best tracks it had recorded off of what was already a strong collection.
With its timeless sound and excellent songs, Burning Like the Midnight Sun is not only a striking return to form but also a fine entry point to newcomers.
Devo is back with its best record in almost three decades.
San Francisco indie pop troop the Mommyheads had an illustrious if undernoticed career throughout the 90s, issuing half a dozen records treasured by enthusiasts and pretty much ignored by everyone else.
Straight outta Cleveland comes Back In The USSA, the debut disk from Prisoners.
Deerhunter and their friend Panda Bear release lovely new singles in advance of forthcoming albums. They dub these “7-inches,” though both are available digitally.
To call Best Coast lo-fi ’60s revival pop is putting it too simply. Imagine Liz Phair is the lead singer of the Vivian Girls and she’s been taking singing lessons from Neko Case and the album was written during heavy listening of Phil Spector-produced works.
The second album by British black metal troop A Forest of Stars, Opportunistic Thieves of Spring builds on the promise of its predecessor while also planting a foot more firmly in the traditions of its chosen genre.
Without playing for shock value, The Devil’s Blood weave a smoky cloak of cloven hoof and hook-driven rock ‘n’ roll.
Both a traditionalist and a restless soul, Paul Kopasz is an artist of enormous intelligence and keen insight, and he assumes his audience will understand his references and take his meaning.
Though the prospect of PETER MURPHY fronting NINE INCH NAILS is interesting on its own, what’s even more interesting is the song selection.
There’s simply something distinctly English about her songs and performances, a cultural thread that runs through The Quickening like a creek through a lush forest.
Acid King has always been one of the most consistently powerful beasts in the stoner rock biz, and that power was present from the beginning.
With his stalwart companions in D.O.A., singer/songwriter/guitarist Joe Shithead Keithley has stayed true to the never-say-die ethos of 70s punk rock, needing little more than three chords, an eye for social injustices and a bucket full of rage.
Best known to musical cognoscenti as the guitarist for the short-lived but much beloved Young Marble Giants, Stuart Moxham has 30 years of solo records to his name.
Presented in chronological order, the disks demonstrate that the work in the second half of his career is easily equal of that in the more celebrated first half.
The roots rocking sextet sometimes comes off as a marketing concept, but other times as possibly the most good-naturedly sincere band on the block.
Alejandro Escovedo has proven himself a true artist time and again, and continues to do so with his latest album Street Songs of Love.
Reality focuses on the band’s melodic pop side, with just enough acid glaze to keep the music firmly in the Cherry tradition.
The excellent Red Dissolving Rays of Light will be of interest to anyone who likes catchy, melodic rock & roll, not just 60s revivalists.
Tonight’s the Night is ragged, bleak, weird. It must have come as a complete shock to label executives hoping for more mellow classics along the lines of “Heart of Gold.” It sat unreleased for two years.
Now given a remaster and re-release, Medicine Show is finally given a chance to show its quality, minus the expectations heaped on it in the early 80s.
While the sound Religious to Damn create has aural antecents in Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, Fleetwood Mac and their ilk, there’s a more nuanced narrative playing out in the music.
Can the mastermind behind the seminal ghoulish hardcore and metal bands MISFITS and SAMHAIN still summon the demons like he once did?
