Music
Review: Lisa Papineau – Blood Noise
Often using the softer register of her varied instrument, songs like “Dream The Wild,” “Early Spring” and “Rainmaker” partially sound whispered and ghostly. … read more
Review: Lee Corey Oswald/Three Man Cannon – Self-Titled
The sound was very punk influenced, but captured more of a laidback, slower tempo and softer melody. The other side, Lee Corey Oswald, was a little bit more garage-band angst with less of the laidback feel. … read more
Review: The Last – Danger
The lineup is solid—when you pair the Nolte brothers with the powerhouse punk rhythm section of Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson, you end up with the sort of alchemy that is both pop-sensible and face-melting. Mike Nolte adds a garage-y organ to traditional pop punk hooks and layered backing vocals to give the songs a 1960s feel. … read more
Review: The KVB – Minus One
Minus One’s combination of shoegaze, post-punk and noise is quite an alluring brew. Its melodic sense is a break from the pure heaviness and darkness of their past recordings. Either way, these guys use synthesizers in a way that nods to Suicide and Silver Apples. … read more
Review: Kommandant – Stormlegion Reissue
The tunes are black metal blazers with tinges of war metal themes, ditching the atmospheric and going for the blast-beat-ridden jugular. Chicago’s metal scene is owning a lot of genres right now, and this serves as a pick-it-up-if-you-didn’t-have-it-already release … read more
Review: KILN – Meadow:watt
KILN’s exploration of the juxtaposition of the natural and the manmade is extended beyond the title and into the music of meadow:watt. KILN combine various guitar and bass lines with programmed beats and hefty amounts of post-production editing to create something wholly organic and wholly crafted. … read more
Review: Jonathan Rado – Law and Order
The opening track “Seven Horses” starts off with an odd, fluid, warbling synth line and morphs into catchy ’60s pop. Because of the simplicity of the lyrics (“If you feel it all, clap your hands”) and the weird synth noise, I thought it was going to be pretty similar to the MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, but by the second track it had completely changed … read more
Review: Jeffrey Novak – Lemon Kid
One assumes that the unintentionally yet appropriately titled opener, “Endless Repetition,” sounds like a first-stage demo on purpose, or that the title track is really dreadful, despite the briefly creative drumming that it starts with. … read more
Review: Iron Chic – The Constant One
“Whoas” and subtle vocal harmonies adorn these major-key pop punk songs that elicit emotion in a heartening way, as if Iron Chic’s M.O. was to purge our negative thinking by way of sonic chemotherapy. … read more
Review: Irish Moutarde – Raise ’Em All
A mix of alternating lead vocals—switching between nearly each band member—and representation of bagpipes, accordion and banjo, played to fast-paced punk rock, make for a really exciting sound. Like any Irish-style band, they include their drinking songs like the bittersweet “Farewell to Drunkenness” and the festive “Glasses to the Sky.” … read more
Review: Ills – Hideout From The Feeders
This album mixes aspects I’m fond of—catchy progressions matched on bass and guitar that give the rhythm a thickness I could move to—with aspects I could leave behind, like vocals that sometimes sound a little too much like Isaac Brock, for example. … read more
Review: The Icarus Line – Slave Vows
On this, their sixth full-length release, The Icarus Line deliver brain-straining intensity in the form of dirty, spastic guitar flares and embittered lyrics sung in an Iggy Pop kind of quiver. … read more
