Reviews »
Sindie 4 – Inside! Inside! Inside!
Sindie 4 tread everywhere from Wire’s concise punk to Roxy Music’s sophisticated touch of glam, from swirling organ-led psychedelia to hazy British Invasion. The trio turn their pocketful of influences into fiercely infectious art-rock
Read More »
Lambchop – Mr. M (2012)
Mr. M is Lambchop’s first album since OH (Ohio), which is now four years old. They are one of the most consistently extraordinary bands currently producing music, so it comes
Read More »
Explorers Club – Grand Hotel (2012)
It feels like decades since The Explorers Club released their stunning debut, Freedom Wind. Truth is, it only came out in 2008, but its timeless sound and remarkable consistency made the wait
Read More »
Silver Swans – Forever (2012)
Silver Swans are a duo from San Fran that excel in tightly constructed, electro-leaning pop gems. Despite the West Coast leanings, they sound like natives of the Swedish electro-pop scene, a highly versatile breeding
Read More »
Field Music – Plumb (2012)
Plumb, the fourth full-length from brotherly duo Field Music, sounds like one of their liveliest releases for two reasons. One is its clear and playful homage to traditional British rock greats like
Read More »
Karen Dalton – 1966
The selling point and historical significance of Karen Dalton has rested entirely on the uniquely haunting timbre of her voice and the restrained brilliance with which she employed it, bending melody and finding hidden
Read More »
Common – The Dreamer/The Believer (2011)
On his tenth studio album, nearly 20 years after he first hit the scene, Common is back with his best work since 2005’s Be. Some weak acting gigs and the abysmal Universal Mind
Read More »
Human Switchboard – Who’s Landing in My Hangar? (2011)
Human Switchboard’s Who’s Landing in My Hangar? is one of the few tenuously Cleveland connected punk/new wave classics to lack a proper reissues. Bar/None Records thankfully rescues this great album
Read More »
Wax Idols – No Future (2011)
Haven’t we all gotten tired of that generic tinny lo-fi garage guitar sound? Upward and onward to newer and more glorious fuzz, I say. Down with the old! Appreciate the garage records of yore
Read More »
Jules and the Polar Bears – Got No Breeding (1978)
New Wave before New Wave had really solidified. Sort of like Springsteen, but sort of not. Perhaps it’s most accurately described as an offering to bridge the Billy Joel-ers and the Rundgren-ites, a union
Read More »
Drive-By Proposals – Fall Into Shadow (2005)
Ish Marquez is the hidden light at the end of the otherwise tedious anti-folk tunnel. He has the melodic gifts of Arthur Lee, but without any of the failed lyrical obtuseness. Someday there will
Read More »
Styrenes – All the Wrong People are Dying (1998)
All the Wrong People Are Dying is not actually an album, but a collection of the earlier Styrenes album A Monster and a Devil alongside several 12”s and a compilation track. Somehow,
Read More »
The Black Keys – El Camino (2011)
The Black Keys kind of lost their edge last year with Brothers. While it was a good album, it didn’t reach the highs and lows that 2008’s Attack & Release
Read More »
