Month: May 2013
Review: Lower Plenty – Hard Rubbish
The Aussie quartet Lower Plenty seem to muster up some characteristically American blues tones in Hard Rubbish. Recorded solely on eight-track reel-to-reel tape, the album has a very raw but warming feel, despite its overwhelming melancholia. … read more
Review: Legs – Pass the Ringo
Pass the Ringo sounds like vintage British Invasion rock put through a broken tape deck in a car with all the speakers blown. Using lo-fi techniques can add grunge and soul elements to an album, but Legs create a fuzzy washout of their music, making any distinct instruments difficult to pick out. … read more
Review: Lauren Mann & The Fairly Odd Folk
Over Land and Sea starts out with a force that immediately captures your attention. … read more
Review: Lonesome Leash – I Am No Captain
The first time I attempted to listen to I Am No Captain, I got 30 seconds into the first song before pausing in a frenzy and stowing it away for two weeks. … read more
Review: Junip – Junip
Behind the ghostly voice of Jose Gonzales lie the subtle psychedelics that define Junip’s new album. Gonzales’ voice never soars, but is more of a “killing them softly” approach, with light reverb. … read more
Review: John Cale – Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood
John Cale
Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood
Double Six
Street: 10.01.12
John Cale = Bauhaus + The Velvet Underground x Brian Eno
Stand back, kids … at 70, sporting pink dye in his white hair, legend John Cale (The Velvet Underground and too many others to name) is rockin’, and not in a rockin’ chair, son. This album is chockful of his smooth and unmistakable voice––like the voice Jim Morrison might have grown into––his standard drone and his louche lyrics that rival Leonard Cohen’s for their depth. You don’t so much listen to Nookie Woods as you get grabbed and bodily hauled in for some very shifty adventures, indeed. The opener, “I Wanna Talk 2 U,” a collaboration with hip-hop producer Danger Mouse, explodes out of your speakers. The masterful “Hemmingway” rattles you with its building intensity, while “Face to the Sky” is a gorgeous melding of electronic and organic elements, a swooping, woozy nod to Dali’s Car and Bowie. But lest all this ancient name-dropping makes you think the album is a throwback, worry not: there’s nothing old-fashioned about it. Cale seems committed to moving forward with music, playing around with over-processed autotune on “December Rain,” but he’s not afraid of organic acoustic sounds, as on “Mary.” If you don’t already know Cale, it’s time you met him, and a trip to the Nookie Woods is a fine place to start. –Madelyn Boudreaux … read more
Review: Judy Kang
A comparison to Bjork is not the way to my heart; her music is like listening to a fax machine have a nervous breakdown. … read more
Review: InFiction – When I’m With You
I think naming their EP New Original Dance was a pretty bold move by InFiction. There really isn’t too much of anything that is original on this track list. I have this theory that once you’ve heard one or two electronic dance/trance/trip/techno/whateverthefuckyouwanttocallit songs, then you have basically heard them all. … read more
Review: Horsehands
Boston-based Horsehands are an experiment with an old, familiar sound that is miraculously unlike anything you’ve ever heard. … read more
Review: Hypocrisy
With a new record, Hypocrisy hits the road this spring in the ol’ USA to support it and all that goodness. … read more