Authors: Taylor Hale
Reviews: Smoke Fairies – Self-Titled
Calculating and sterile, Smoke Fairies’ eponymous new album opens with an old-school pop song wrapped in a Feist guise, called “We’ve Seen Birds.” A solid song to be sure, though perhaps a bit misleading, as none of the songs afterward reach its delirious heights and joy. … read more
Review: Woods – With Light and With Love
Brooklyn “do everything” folk band Woods return with a bright album full of quaint little pop songs with no edges and hooks so sugary they make Teenage Fanclub look like The Ramones. Woods are probably the least freaky of the “freak folk” acts, but definitely the most consistent (as long as Devendra Banhart keeps making shitty albums). … read more
Review: The Shilohs – Self-Titled
Vancouver’s The Shilohs position themselves adjacent to power pop trail-blazers Big Star and Badfinger, though their sound more closely resembles another band indebted to the Alex Chiltons of the world: Olivia Tremor Control. … read more
Review: The Apache Relay – Self-Titled
The Apache Relay, despite sporting a pretty badass (I don’t use the term lightly) and foreboding name, are actually twee in nature. As such, they are subject to the usual comparisons: Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, and to some extent, Blitzen Trapper. … read more
Review: Sherman Baker – Self-Titled
Is it just me (it usually is), or are our soundwaves over-saturated with quiet, reflective singer songwriters, playing the kind of bland folk that attracts men who use mustache combs and apprentice beekeepers? Sherman Baker might quell this problem. … read more
Review: Rudi Protrudi – Unfuzzed (Live)
Rudi Protrudi = Howlin’ Wolf + Bo Diddley … read more
Review: PEP – My Baby and Me
Not sure if this is parody or homage, as My Baby and Me is clearly indebted to girl pop groups like The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las, but it brings absolutely nothing new or modern to add anything fresh to what those groups started. … read more
Review: Natural Child – Dancin’ With Wolves
Is this the Return of the Grievous Angel? Not quite. While the broad strokes of Cosmic American Music are present here, Natural Child come well short of Gram Parson’s territory, instead sounding like the fat trimmed off Exile on Main St. being gargled by Tom Petty. … read more
Local Review: The North Valley – Patterns In Retrospect
The North Valley are not afraid to leave it all on the table. They aren’t afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, either. That becomes obvious some 10 seconds into the first track, “Stones To Change,” which does its best “Tears of Rage” impression. … read more
Local Review: The Fission Breakers – Interaction
Just a turn right of psychedelic and a throwback to the crotch rock of the ’60s and ’70s, Interaction has swagger to spare, even if it is sometimes derailed by a harmful devotion to The Doors.
… read more