Record Reviews
The Books - The Way Out (Album Review)
Travis Walter Donovan :: Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 2:30 pm
The Way Out is the fourth full-length album by The Books, and the first they have released in five years. A hodgepodge of genre-dodging songs, The Books mix organic instrumentals with a diverse variety of samples to create a collection that is impossible to cohesively define, traversing a unique but challenging road of risky ideas. MORE »
Record Reviews
Review: 22-20s Shake/Shiver/Moan
Amy Dupcak :: Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 4:15 pm
22-20s
Shake/Shiver/Moan
TBD Records
The British band 22-20s have deep roots in the blues, originally performing as a blues cover band before writing their own material.
They broke up in 2006 and then reformed two years later, now offering Shake/Shiver/Moan on TBD Records. The album is still dripping with the blues, but the opener “Heart on a String” also screams old-school punk with a gritty pop nature.
Everything about “Bitter Pills,” from the vocals to the drum beat, sounds drunk and weary, like a traveling musician hopping freight trains. And with songs like the title track, bearing a Doors meets Yardbirds demeanor, it’s hard to believe this album wasn’t recorded decades ago, and released only on vinyl.
Record Reviews
Wolf Parade: Expo 86
Nick Nicoludis :: Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 1:30 pm
Wolf Parade
Expo 86
Sub Pop
Expo 86 is Wolf Parade’s third full-length album, and it seems they’re still interested in the manic noise and bizarre song composition that garnered their popularity in the mid-2000′s.
The Canadian outfit, which consists of members from the Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown/Swan Lake/Frog Eyes, have hit their stride on their latest release. Their songwriting has evolved some, and they’ve created well-crafted tunes that lean towards indie-pop rather than rock. MORE »
Record Reviews
Ratatat: LP 4 Review
Johnny Sanford :: Monday, June 14th, 2010 11:30 am
LP 4 is the new album by New York City electronic duo Ratatat, and the bland title doesn’t shed much light on the electronic symphony that it encompasses. The album is a patchwork soundscape of infectious beats, strange vocal samples and shredding guitars, which results in a strange but beautiful beast of a record. MORE »
Record Reviews
Hooray For Earth: MOMO Review
Johnny Sanford :: Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 12:00 pm
Hooray For Earth’s new MOMO EP is a taste of what’s to come in the current music landscape, and it’s out today. Broadly inspired by the classic 80′s new wave movement, the album is poppy and relevant. The album is considerably layered, and the band put the two strongest tracks at the beginning. “Surrounded by Your Friends” and “Comfortable, Comparable,” are both inspiring tracks that will be a great addition to your roof-top afterparty mix this summer. MORE »
Record Reviews
Album Review: Avi Buffalo’s “Avi Buffalo”
Amy Rose Spiegel :: Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 12:00 pm
You should probably ignore any of the envy-laced praise that specifically concerns Avi Buffalo’s members’ diminutive ages. Yes, everybody loves a good prodigy or four, but that shouldn’t be the focal point of reception of their impressive debut, out today on Sub Pop. Instead of listening to each track as if its quality can be quantified by the number of years that its creators have lived and thinking “I could never have done this” or, conversely, “I could have done this better,” it’s best to forget all that nonsense and turn your attentions instead to the subtler details of each song’s construction. Most notable are their jangly guitar riffs and oddball lyrics (e.g. “you are tiny and your lips look like little pieces of bacon”). As I realized how personalized and unique this group’s songwriting style is, any thoughts of ageism, either for or against the band, dissipated quickly. MORE »
Record Reviews
Caribou: Swim
Nick Nicoludis :: Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 12:00 pm
Caribou, aka Dan Snaith, have ended the inexplicably long gap between the newest release Swim and the 2008 Polaris Music Prize winning album Andorra. The Canadian songwriter has used his time absorbing himself in the carefree dance music world, and Swim plays as a regurgitation of driving house beats, overly layered synths and Snaith’s own widely imaginative artistic touch. His vision was clear, and he set out to create “…dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water, rather than made out of metallic stuff like most dance music…” MORE »
Live Reviews, Record Reviews
Freelance Whales Wail Away on Weathervanes
Johnny Sanford :: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 1:30 pm
“They’re trying to betwitch us,” I thought aloud as a siren song came on moments before the Freelance Whales took the stage at Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night. It was the soft, melodic wail of all five members of the band. There was a tune, but nobody could sing it. Such is the call of the Freelance Whales. The sold-out crowd roared when moments later they donned their instruments. They began with a rousing rendition of “Generator ^ Second Floor,” and tore into their most well-known track, “Hannah” a track later. The band seemed restless yet unable to comprehend their new found success. “We’d really like to thank you guys for our new job,” lead singer Judah Dadone proclaimed midway through the set. They were supporting the same-day release of their new album, Weathervanes, on French Kiss Records. The album itself is a fresh take on a style created mostly by Arcade Fire and Death Cab For Cutie. MORE »
Record Reviews
The Candles: Between the Sounds
Colm McAuliffe :: Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 10:30 am
The Candles is essentially a vehicle for Josh Lattanzi’s muse, a man who has spent time touring with the likes of Ben Kweller, Albert Hammond Jr. and Adam Schleisinger (Fountains of Wayne). Between the Sounds is his debut release and enlists the help of not only fellow Ben Kweller acolyte John Kent but also erstwhile Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha. MORE »
Record Reviews
Record Review: Dum Dum Girls’ I Will Be
Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 3:00 pm
I Will Be, now out on Sub Pop, finds Dum Dum Girls usurping the head position of the countless ’60s-inspired girl bands who are currently singing about surfing and heartbreak. So many bands’ interpretations of the burgeoning genre can be similar to the point of blandness, but this isn’t the case on this new album. Dum Dum Girls manage interesting ways of differentiating their music from the basic tidal-wave fuzz drone that characterizes low-fi mediocrity. MORE »
News, Record Reviews
Happy Birthday Debut on Sub Pop
Colm McAuliffe :: Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 9:30 am
The fine musical legacy bequeathed to us from Sub Pop Records needs no introduction, so what were they thinking when they signed Happy Birthday? Their eponymous debut is as unimaginative as their name suggests. MORE »
Record Reviews
Titus Andronicus: The Monitor
Nick Nicoludis :: Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 3:00 pm
Titus Andronicus have carved out a niche for themselves with their latest album The Monitor, which debuted today. Their debut release The Airing of Grievances was filled with boozy, self-loathing, “I hate my hometown” lyrics reminiscent of early emo bands coupled with frenzied guitar riffs and driving melodies. They had no qualms about expressing their hatred for New Jersey, where they are from, and conquered that dive bar sing-along quality early on in their career making them a garage-pop hit. It is clear that the guys in the band are literate and intelligent and with their latest album The Monitor, they prove their mastery of song writing and the ability to create infectious, heart-felt tunes that every suburban kid can relate to. MORE »
Record Reviews
Acrassicauda: Only The Dead See The End of the War
Colm McAuliffe :: Friday, March 5th, 2010 9:30 am
I flirted with the notion of thrash metal as an enjoyable way of passing my adolescence for a few months in late 1994. As the winter closed in, I found myself ‘enjoying’ the likes of Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven, Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. and presumably similar artifacts before discarding it all, probably to bow down at the feet of Pulp or something,
Anyway, sixteen years later, here I am listening to Acrassicauda’s EP Only The Dead See The End of the War, and musically, hear little change or development from what I heard all those years ago. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing - who says metal, as a genre, has to be constantly in a state of flux? It’s form, like that of reggae, is so fixed, so final, that it is difficult to tamper with it without changing it’s DNA entirely.
Record Reviews
These New Puritans: Hidden
Colm McAuliffe :: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 9:30 am
These New Puritans sophomore release signifies their shift in genre-terms from the typical post-punk touchstones (Gang of Four, The Fall) to a much more sonically advanced landscape. For those who like their records deep in thrall to mysticism, the band’s debut Beat Pyramid was a gift from the heavens but Hidden is an altogether more expansive, theatrical, even classical beast, deceptively opening with the relatively calm woodwind led “Time Opener” which gives way to the lead single “We Want War”, possessing a processed bass line worthy of Timbaland, a move which is shadowed in “Attack Music” (a chantalong, replete with what sounds like a children’s choir) the band’s song titles proving onomatopoeic throughout. MORE »
Record Reviews
Clogs: The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton
Colm McAuliffe :: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 9:30 am
Are Clogs the future of contemporary music? Are they the harbringers of a whole new genre combining resolute indie ideals with the mystique and expanse of classical song cycles? MORE »
