Spins
Dead To Fall CD Review
Dead To Fall The Phoenix Throne (Victory) Metalcore is dying. Or should we say it’s dead? Frankly, we’re surprised it lasted this long, and on their third Victory release, Chicagoans Dead To Fall try to avoid being part of the funeral.
The Five Mod Four CD Review
The Five Mod Four Whiskers (Contraphonic) Milwaukee’s resident wiseacres have some hometown Violent Femmes, but Whiskers picks up more on lo-fi, via Jason Loewenstein and The dB’s.
The Essex Green CD Review
The Essex Green Cannibal Sea (Merge) On Essex Green’s second album for Merge, third overall, they finally break rank with Elephant 6 psychedelia and foray into the testosterony Spector-pop world Belle & Sebastian currently inhabit.
Azita CD Review
Azita Detail From The Mountain Side (Drag City) This ultra-quick EP is a companion to Chicago playwright Brian Torrey Scott’s musical of the same name.
Geoff Farina CD Review
Geoff Farina Already Told You (Southern) No longer practicing Karate, Geoff Farina takes time away from his bazillion other obligations for this lonesome EP.
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.
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