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
Review: The Haxan Cloak – Excavation
Throughout Excavation, Bobby Krlic makes incredible use of his background in sound design. … read more
Review: The Brains – The Monster Within
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
Review: The Hussy – Way With Words
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
Review: The Builders and the Butchers – Western Medicine
The Builders and the Butchers channel a dustbowl-era feeling in this itinerant carousal of the post-apocalyptic West. … read more
Review: The Fall – Re-Mit
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
Review: The Dodos – Carrier
The Dodos = Fleet Foxes / Cave Singers
Review: The Civil Wars – Self-Titled
The Civil Wars have been the breath of fresh air country music dreadfully needed … read more
Review: The Darcys – Warring
Employing a tame and swanky alternative sound, Canadian rockers The Darcys are modernizing—and, in my opinion, bettering—a sound that began in the ’80s. … read more
Review: The Breakup Society – So Much Unhappiness, So Little Time…
I had no idea how to put this band into a certain genre—this album had a mixture between indie rock and pop/rock, with little sprinkles of this and that in the mix. … read more
Review: The Claudettes – Infernal Piano Plot…HATCHED!
The Claudettes have produced an album that is a welcome throwback to old-swanky-time piano duels, jam-packed with soul and funk.
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Review: The Fire Tapes – Phantoms
Concert photos of The Fire Tapes show singer/guitarist Betsy Wright and guitarist Todd Milton both using Strats, yet I didn’t get that guitar nerd twitch. … read more