November 2013
Review: Cosmic Psychos – Go The Hack
Go The Hack was the Cosmic Psychos first album to gain any kind of momentum here in Yankee-land, seeing an initial limited release on Shagpile in 1989 and then Sub Pop in 1990. … read more
Review: Chrome – Half Machine From The Sun – The...
Helios Creed and Damon Edge cleaned out their pockets, gathered funds and purchased their music rights back from corporate grasp to release a piece of lost post-punk history. … read more
Review: Circus Devils – My Mind Has Seen the White...
What makes it all quintessentially Pollard is he doesn’t forget the rock: Amid all the dream sequences, there’s “Deliver Ice Cream (You Must)”—as if the ‘Emperor’ of Wallace Stevens’ poem was throttling an ice cream truck that cranked out a wicked riff. … read more
Review: Circus Devils – When Machines Attack
The second of two Circus Devils, released two days before indie-rock statesman Robert Pollard’s 56th birthday, is much more jagged and jarring, but still bears the warped rewards of Pollard’s twisted stream-of-consciousness wordplay, not just in subjects like “Arrival At Low Volume Submarine.” … read more
Review: Cold Summer – Self-Titled
Starting the album with “Car Crash (In Progress),” featuring the only funky bass rhythm on the album, Cold Summer’s debut album is rough and extremely unpolished but still manages to leave me wanting more.
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Review: Chimaira – Crown Of Phantoms
I just can’t get behind this album as much as I’d like to. I’ve been a fan of these dudes for years, and it’s not that the album is poorly played or written—it’s just not as dynamic as I’ve heard them prove to be in years past. … read more
Review: Brianna Lea Pruett – Gypsy Bells
The sparse sounds of Pruett’s voice with her acoustic guitar reflect the topography of the West, with her folk tales coming across as a lone traveler passing through those vast landscapes. … read more
Review: Broken Hope – Omen Of Disease
There’s been a lot of waiting and anticipation for this record—though maybe misplaced anticipation, because there are quite a few death metal bands from the 90s that I feel did a lot better than what Broken Hope ever did, but that’s just my taste. … read more
Review: Carnivores – Second Impulse
A drumbeat just shy of lo-fi, a thin, spineless guitar with a tone so frail and twangy it feels cute (which is not a bad thing) and a 60s-sounding synth unite Second Impulse despite the vocalists switching from one track to the next. … read more
Review: Black Books – Self-Titled
Black Books write big songs confined to small places. There is an epic and anthemic quality to Black Book’s cloistered little pop songs: a driving, pulsing urge to express something too huge for words written in broad brush strokes of soaring choruses and the diffused light of atmospheric passages oozing out of guitars and synths that blend ambient colorings into vital, crunchy power chords. … read more
Review: Black Hearted Brother – Stars Are Our Home
After fronting the legendary shoegaze band Slowdive, and then moving on to the delicate folk on Mojave 3 and his own solo output, Neil Halstead has returned to the free-floating psychedelia of heavily affected guitars and synthesizers with his new band, Black Hearted Brother. … read more
Review: 3:33 – Bicameral Brain
While listening to this, I realized I had been taken on a journey into deep ambient darkness. The sounds of rain, thunder, hollowed echoing of the drumbeats, sizzling snare and pulsating bass had carried me into a sort of void. … read more
