Spins
Back In Black
Gus Black Autumn Days (Cheap Lullaby) On his second solo album, melancholy Brit Gus Black makes a Beck album.
If Hope Dies CD Review
If Hope Dies Life In Ruin (Metalblade/Ironclad) Combining metal and hardcore? Shit. Why didn’t someone else think of this?
Magneta Lane CD Review
Magneta Lane Dancing With Daggers (Paper Bag) “The female Strokes.” Gawd, that sounds awful, doesn’t it? With truth dripping from the likes of Sleater-Kinney, who needs a salty box of caged rage?
State Radio CD Review
State Radio Us Against The Crown (Nettwerk) State Radio’s Chad Stokes grew up in a seemingly carefree manner. Coddled by musical parents in Massachusetts, he was allowed to travel to and live in Zimbabwe after high school and then went to college in Vermont. So, of course, he makes protest music now.
Crystal Skulls CD Review
Crystal Skulls Outgoing Behavior (Suicide Squeeze) We can blame MTV all we want for instant gratification, quick cuts, and making “artists” give us what we pay for, but it’s worked out pretty well for the consumer. Crystal Skulls aren’t handing out anything, however.
Massive missive
Massive Attack Collected (Virgin) Massive Attack were never the most popular band in trip-hop, but they were its best. Though this collection might arrive prematurely — four albums plus singles — it’s a commendable attempt to capture these easily defined yet highly elusive pioneers.
Eternally Yours
The Eternals High Anxiety EP (Aesthetics) Having gone their first two albums with an asterick overemphasizing their Trenchmouth lineage, Chicago’s Eternals let outsiders remix them and break the separations game wide open.
Float On
Anathallo Floating World (Nettwerk) Unsettling near-Sufjan Stevens, anti-showtunes grandeur hides in corners only to be drawn out via uplifting instrumentals.
Flag Bare
Anti-Flag For Blood & Empire (RCA) Taking cues from Green Day’s wildly successful American Idiot, supposed “important” punks Anti-Flag get the sloganeering machines firing.
May we holler at you?
Frog Holler Haywire (ZoBird) Somewhere in the boonies, outside Philadelphia, Frog Holler lurk with Americana reshapen for Dutch Country living.
Come To España!
Spain Colored Orange Hopelessly Incapable Of Standing In The Way EP (Lucid) Well now’s the time to be a Cuban jazz fan and in an indie rock band.
Playing The Field
Field Music Field Music (Memphis Industries) Apparently there’s only 10 or so musicians in Sunderland, England, and they’re in either The Futureheads, Maximo Park, or Field Music here. Sometimes more than one.
The Elected CD Review
The Elected Sun, Sun, Sun (Sub Pop) Rilo Kiley’s other side project doesn’t have the “indie tart stepping into the world on her own” angle. On its second album, The Elected preaches more from the gospel according to the West Coast.
Essential George
George Benson/George Duke The Essential George Benson/The Essential George Duke (Columbia/Legacy) Columbia/Legacy’s “Essential” series has been taking the easy way out lately, instead of distilling the essence, hard choices are not made and two-disc sets have become the norm. A pair of Georges, jazz great Benson and lite-funk pioneer Duke, test the new boundaries.
The Slackers CD Review
The Slackers Peculiar (Hellcat) Admittedly, we’re suckers for album titles that fit, be they unintentional (Ashlee Simpson’s Who I Am) or spot-on (this here Slackers album).
Recent Comments