Year: 2013
Review: Secret Policeman’s Ball – Teenage Crimewave
Don’t let the shoegazer cover fool you—this is not your traditional indie-rock record. … read more
Review: Sankt Otten – Messias Maschine
If you couldn’t tell from the band’s name, album title or album cover, this band is German. Waaay German. … read more
Review: Saprogenic – Expanding Towards Collapsed Lungs
Brutal death metal has a high redundancy factor in many instances. … read more
Review: Scraper – Self Titled EP
The heavy chainsaw guitars—emitting chord changes at a rate The Ramones might approve of—caught my attention last. … read more
Review: Shitfucker – Suck Cocks In Hell
All the profanities and vulgarities aside, and belligerent and unabashed as Shitfucker’s tunes are, they’re not quite as vulgar as the eye-catching band name and vulgar album title suggest. … read more
Review: Seams – Quarters
Quarters utilizes crisp, unadorned beats that snap and pop in crystal-clear hi fidelity. These simple chord progressions and beats are then added on layer by layer with buzzing synths and serrated arpeggios until the sum eventually outweighs its parts, but not without leaving a golden thread back to the beginning. … read more
Review: Seeker – Unloved
Knee-jerk reaction would lump these guys in with the somehow-still-prevalent deathcore genre, but Unloved lacks the breakdowns and the tech-noodling. What they do play is ferocious, syncopated rhythms where guitars serve as another percussive instrument, punctuated by slow interludes of open strumming. … read more
Review: Said The Whale – hawaiii
Hawaiii is an album that sounds exactly like what you’d expect radio-friendly indie rock to sound like. This means that it’s just as likely that a preteen girl will play their music as it is that your mom will. … read more
Review: Saxon – Unplugged and Strung Up
Over the course of a 36-year career, Saxon have proven themselves to be the undisputed masters of heavy metal songwriting. Unplugged and Strung Up is a cavalcade of re-recordings, orchestrations and acoustic takes on a selection of Saxon’s greatest material. … read more
Review: Schooner – Neighborhood Veins
Spooky country songs bleed into ’50s rockers and soulful harmonies accent slow ballads. Like I said before, this is what indie should be: With every chance they get Schooner exercise the freedom they’ve cultivated for themselves. … read more
Review: Savage Deity – Amulet of Sin
Savage Deity, from Thailand of all places, have offered up an album of classic death metal satisfaction. Amulet of Sin has the properties to appease the folks who listen to death metal for the heavy feeling of it all, as well as the folks who like to dissect albums. … read more
Review: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – Give the People...
After a battle with cancer this past summer and the subsequent delayed release of the album, Sharon Jones returns with her Dap-Kings, more powerful than ever, with the appropriately titled Give the People What They Want—the follow-up to 2010’s I Learned the Hard Way. … read more
