Month: June 2013
Review: The Besnard Lakes – Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
This album would pair best with a morphine drip. This shoegaze sonata is lush and minimalistic all at once. The chorus for “The Specter” sounds like it came straight from from Veckatimest. … read more
Review: The Black Angels – Indigo Meadow
I don’t really understand Salt Lake City’s love for The Black Angels. Phosphene Dream was decent at best and people here were going nuts for it. With Indigo Meadow we see The Black Angels moving away from Psych-rock and toward garage rock. … read more
Review: Small Black – Limits of Desire
In the supposedly genre-less world we live in, being pigeonholed into a nascent musical genre is probably the biggest challenge a 20-something Brooklynite will ever face. Enter Small Black. … read more
Review: Small Multiples – Self Titled
No songs on this EP, put out by Craig Hartley and Eli Friedmann, sound like they belong on the same album together. … read more
Review: Starkill – Fires of Life
The debut album promises a big and bright future for this Chicago-based band. Blending elements from several different subgenres, including power and melodic death metal, this is an album full of blood and fire and battle (which I now dub “warrior metal”), free of clean singing, arranged with occasional symphonic and piano elements that really bring out cinematic properties in the sound. … read more
Review: Streetlight Manifesto – The Hands That Thieve
Their fifth album in the last ten years, The Hands That Thieve is a catchy and encouraging sign that ska has gas left in the tank. Like with all ska reviews, if you’re not a fan, just quit reading right now and kindly fuck off, we don’t care. … read more
Review: Sharks – Selfhood
There is a certain blissfulness that comes with simple music. UK-based Sharks’ latest release, Selfhood, is a record that reminds me of a simpler time in music. … read more
Review: Shannon And The Clams – Dreams In The Rat...
When Sleep Talk came out two years ago, it managed to blend forced nostalgia with something fresh. … read more
Review: Red Hare – Nites of Midnite
“Don’t want to not fit in in the wrong way” sings Shawn Brown on Red Hare’s debut, kicking style over substance square in the balls. Nothing less should be expected of a punk veteran like Brown, or the rest of Red Hare. Although technically a debut, Red Hare is essentially Swiz/Sweetbelly Freakdown with a new drummer, the raging Joe Gorelick (Bluetip). … read more
Review: Royal Canoe – Today We’re Believers
This album starts right off sounding a bit like a carnival: a spectacular explosion of energy and sound, music and noise. In line with some of the best in the experimental rock genre, … read more
Review: Royal Trux – 3-Song EP
The utilitarian title of 3-Song EP (originally released in 1998) contains no lies and no lollygagging. The EP contains 3 songs. “Deafer Than Blind,” the minimalistic first third of the EP, begins with a slow, heavily reverberated drumbeat that remains steady to the end of the song. … read more
Review: Radiation City – Animals In The Median
As the first track, “Zombies” began, my imagination pranced to a breezy field of poppy blossoms in the Pacific Northwest. … read more
