The Dead Science Bird Bones in the Bughouse Absolutely Kosher The drummer plays in a jerky, attacking motion that reminds me of Tori Amos. The vocals are hushed, falsetto and reaching for a dramatic beauty that falls between the dissonance of the guitars and stand-up bass. It’s mutant jazz on downers twitching along in
The Cloud Room is a collection of finely crafted songs with great hooks and a sense of sincerity that is missing from the majority of this second-generation post-punk revolution. … read more
The Growlers = Not in the Face + Allah-Las + Beach Boys … read more
The Cannanes = Jem + Honeybunch … read more
The Cave Singers = Deer Tick + Delta Spirit … read more
Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh here, but I dreaded reviewing this album. Southern rock doesn’t have to be an homage to the dying art. I felt like I was overhearing a TV in the adjacent room playing one of those awkward Time-Life Singers and Songwriters commercials, but they were introducing a strange, assorted collection of ’70s and ’90s rock. … read more
What began as a labor of love for the Chapin Sisters has become a terrific installment to their catalogue, and even though the entire record is made up of Everly Brothers tunes, its almost as if the record is a collaboration of the two groups. … read more
Throughout Excavation, Bobby Krlic makes incredible use of his background in sound design. … read more
Psychobilly has an inherent problem in that the genre is a formula. Punk mixed with rockabilly decorated with horror imagery. Now by the time most bands have achieved those three elements they don’t seem to look beyond them, and that’s where the genre has become stagnant. Very few bands have been able to break the mold like The Brains. These Canadian psychos play at break neck speeds, but in some unholy way are still able to keep their songs highly melodic. … read more
The same rushed, distorted drumbeat for the EP’s short entirety might be too much without the simple and upbeat melodies played on a cheap-sounding keyboard or Catatonic Youth–style echoed noises—laser beams maybe? … read more
The Builders and the Butchers channel a dustbowl-era feeling in this itinerant carousal of the post-apocalyptic West. … read more
If there’s a curmudgeonly rotten bastard shouting at everybody to get off his lawn, Mark E. Smith is next door, shouting at him to just quiet down already—because he’s doing it wrong. … read more
