Please see my full review here.

This was my first time seeing They Might Be Giants since 1995 and though they only got half an hour (it was part of a two-band Free at Noon bill with the Scottish band Frightened Rabbit), they used every second of it to put on a great mini-set. Not being familiar with any of their post-_Flood_ output aside from a few select songs, I only recognized set closer “Istanbul (Not Constantinopole)” but enjoyed it a lot nonetheless!

It’s several months after this album’s release and I’m still playing it regularly. It will wind up as one of my favorites of the year for sure. Perhaps it doesn’t have the absolutely stunning power and aggression of their recent live shows, but the melodic dream-pop pleasures of “Waking Dream,” “Drift Away” and “Shades of Eternal Night” (just to mention a few) are undeniable and musts for any fan of the genre.

It’s not often that a band releases its best album thirty two years into their career, but then again Redd Kross is far from an ordinary band. Basically picking up right where they left off with 1997’s overlooked but great Show World, this one rocks like a hurricane with as much snark (just see the title track) and catchiness (“Stay Away from Downtown”) as anything in their back catalog, but with perhaps less silliness.

Please see my full review here.

This Bloomington, IN band appears to have at least two previous albums under their belt if their bandcamp page is accurate, but I only heard of them in the last week. I wish I’d come across them sooner, though, as they sound like nothing less than early PJ Harvey fronting a mean, ugly, sludgy yet hypnotic ’60s psych-rock band. If that appeals to you as much as it does to me, check this out and thanks to Jamie Touhill for turning me on to this.

Joseph Kyle‘s excellent review sums up this release quite nicely. I would add, however, that “The Scent of Love” (ahem) “borrows” the melody and riff from The Chameleons‘ “Less than Human” almost note-for-note (though it’s put to great use here) and that certain parts of this release remind me of female-fronted early ’80s post-punk greats Delta 5 and Bush Tetras. I also hear some Siouxsie Sioux in Hether Fortune‘s voice as well.

Sometimes (such as on this track, which is not the Steely Dan song of the same name) new-ish Philadelphia-based band Wrong World have a post-punk jones, sounding like a modern-day take on early Pylon, while at other times the guitar playing reminds me of Gary Lucas circa Captain Beefheart‘s Doc at the Radar Station or perhaps the most jittery of Robert Quine‘s playing. Check out their three-song discography “here”: http://wrongworld.bandcamp.com/.

What you’ve heard is true. Yes, these songs date back to 1979 and 1980 and the resemblance to some of the material that ended up on 154 is very strong. That’s a very good thing, of course, but with the current lineup playing these songs, it sounds more like 2011’s Red Barked Tree (their best album since 154 and one that also seemed inspired by 154 if not as explicitly as their new one is).

While this won’t rank among David Bowie’s finest albums (i.e. anything he released between 1969’s Space Oddity and 1980’s Scary Monsters), it is at the very least the equal of 2002’s Heathen and 2003’s Reality, his last two studio albums before this new one. Collaborating with Tony Visconti means that he’s not breaking any new ground here, but merely playing to his strengths. And yes, the lyrics do address mortality in a more straightforward light than in much of his earlier work.