Best Coast – The Only Place (Mexican Summer)
Please see my full review here.
Out of Trust – Healthy, Loud and Honest (self-released)
This is the new band of guitarist/singer Joe Rivas, who has been in band such as Ill Repute and Burning Dog and who was also Good Riddance‘s roadie. The other members are also Nardcore veterans. If the above mentioned bands mean anything to you, you need to hear this ASAP. I’m also reminded heavily of mid to late ’80s Dischord stuff along with more recent melodic hardcore stalwarts like Leatherface or even Lifetime. The lyrics have an angry, political bent, but they don’t come off as hectoring or excessively negative. Instead, songs like “Occupy the World” (which could and should be the anthem for the entire Occupy movement) seem inspired by positive energy and full of good vibes. You can listen to the whole thing here.
The Redettes – Ed (Phratry)
Although this mini-album made Jack Rabid’s Top 10 of last year, it took me a while to really check it out. I’m glad I did, though, because it’s really good. Though their bio lists The Only Ones, Joe Jackson and The Replacements as influences (and enough to make me listen since Joe Jackson and The Replacements are two of my all-time favorite artists), I hear that herky-jerky new wave energy more via early XTC in their sound. This is combined with a healthy mix of early ’70s David Bowie and T Rex influence as well (as a lyrical reference to “Ziggy Stardust” makes it explicitly clear). And don’t forget to check out their Live at Thump Studios session here.
Mazzy Star – “Lay Yourself Down” EP (Rhymes of an Hour)
The first new material from Mazzy Star in 15 years sounds pretty much exactly where they left off in the ’90s and I’m looking forward to hearing their upcoming full-length as well.
Lee Ranaldo – Between the Times and Tides: Alternate Mixes EP (Lazy8)
This is a 2-song 7” featuring alternate mixes of songs from Lee’s fantastic new album Between the Times and Tides. It’s being sold only on his current tour opening for M Ward along with an Lp of demos from the same sessions. Anyway, I really like both alternate versions here, but the highlight is the B-side. It’s an unbelievably gorgeous version of “Stranded” that demands listening and makes me wish this was more widely available.
Dead Ending – Dead Ending EP (Alternative Tentacles)
This is the new band featuring Chicago punk veterans Vic Bondi (Articles of Faith and many others), Jeff Dean (The Bomb and many others) and Joe Principe (Rise Against) and it sounds just about how you’d expect it to. That’s a good thing in this case as it’s a blazing, Articles of Faith-style recording with Bondi and company charging through one ripper after another on this 5-song EP. It’s quite comparable to the most recent Articles of Faith record, last year’s New Normal Catastrophe EP.
For their fourth album, Beach House continue with a very similar sound to 2010’s breakthrough and Sub Pop debut Teen Dream. Like their music itself, the pace of change here is gradual, even glacial, but that suits me fine. They could make a dozen Lps that sound like this and I’d take them!
Mike Watt – On and Off Bass (Three Rooms Press, 2012)
This is a book of photos that Watt took on the road. Some of these are beautiful even though the focus here is on rust and decay, particularly of ships and there are other nautical themes on display here as well along with Watt’s text (which often doesn’t directly relate to the picture at hand and is culled mainly from his many tour diary entries). Anyway, this is a nice quick read and (I’d imagine since my promo copy is a .pdf file) a good coffee table book to boot.
Against Me! – New Wave (Sire)
I don’t know why it took me so many years to check this band out, but I’m glad I did because this album (their major label debut from 2007) is great. Produced by Butch Vig, Against Me! shed their folk-punk roots here and made an album of stunningly catchy, political-minded almost arena rock with passionate, throat-shredding vocals by the artist formerly known as Tom Gabel (who is now becoming a woman and changing his name to Laura Jane Grace).
Cardinal – The Rotunda (Philadelphia) – May 13, 2012
Cardinal’s 4th live show ever was a success despite of how underattended it was being that it was held on Mothers’ Day and also on a Sunday night at a venue that doesn’t promote their shows at all. The focus was on the self-titled 1994 debut, though a few new songs were played as well (oddly almost none from the just-released Hymns, though). Richard Davies was backed by (among others) our own Corin Ashley on bass and Malcolm Travis (Sugar, Human Sexual Response, Zulus) on drums for this tour as well!
