Alt-J Relaxer Atlantic Records/Infectious Music Leeds’ Alt-J reclaims their status as nerdy, literary indie-pop savants on their third full length LP, Relaxer. But before we talk about Relaxer, let’s talk context. Context is everything. As writers about music, we believe in [...]
U2 The Joshua Tree (30th Anniversary Edition) Universal Music Music feeds nostalgia, it places moments in time, and for a certain generation, few records documented a time and place more precisely than U2’s fifth record, The Joshua Tree, in March of 1987. Impossible details [...]
British Sea Power Let The Dancers Inherit The Party Caroline International Since the release of their 2003 debut The Decline of British Sea Power, the band has been one hit single away from “the bigtime.” What “the bigtime” means for an English art rock sextet with an eye [...]
Blonde Redhead Masculin Féminin 4AD You may not realize it, but Blonde Redhead’s been making music since 1993. Check that. Let’s do that first sentence over again. You may not know it or you may have forgotten but Blonde Redhead’s still a band. They make music – Grungy, Noisy, [...]
Broncho Double Vanity Dine Alone Records Broncho reached the pinnacle of their pop sensibilities with 2014’s “Class Historian.” The track commandeered Alt-airwaves with a catchy, nonsensical hook. Whereas most ear-worms recall Khan’s brain bugs from Star Trek II, “Class [...]
Everything Everything @ Mr. Smalls Theatre & Funhouse, Millvale April 10, 2016 After a minor setback over confirmed press status, my photographer and I entered Mr. Smalls, a converted church in the Pittsburgh hamlet of Millvale, just after Everything Everything had taken [...]
M83 Junk Mute Records In every major artist’s career there is generally a record ascribed “the breakout album” and then, naturally, something called “the follow-up” follows… eventually. The breakout album speaks for itself. It’s the moment an artist tasted success, an [...]
Woods City Sun Eater In The River of Light Woodsist Another day, another expansion of the discography from psych-folkers Woods. City Sun Eater in the River of Light represents the band’s 9th album in 10 years. The album title sounds like the result of a woozy late-night Mad [...]
The Zolas Swooner Light Organ Records Popular music in the 1990s was, for all intents and purposes, absolute mind-warping rubbish. There’s no other explanation for the success of 311. These broad swaths of negativity are irrefutable. I was there. I lived the madness at [...]
Neon Indian VEGA INTL. Night School Mom + Pop Music Neon Indian (Alan Palomo) is a man out of time, out of place. In 2015, Palomo remains an anomaly forced to the fringe of success despite pumping out resplendent records like VEGA INTL. Night School, an assemblage of tracks [...]
Autre Ne Veut Age of Transparency Downtown Records Autre Ne Veut, a.k.a. Brooklyn singer-soulwriter Arthur Ashin, opens his third full-length record with the challenging, atonal “On and On (Reprise).” The jarring introduction to Age of Transparency features Ashin’s vocals over [...]
Electric Six Bitch, Don’t Let Me Die! Metropolis Records Electric Six summons clichés like Taylor Swift summons gal pals to participate in her latest video shoot. Frontman Dick Valentine might have been a carny in a past life; his colourful persona amplifies the band’s [...]
Warm Soda Symbolic Dream Castle Face Records Warm Soda frontman Matthew Melton crafts tidy songs about summer. Actual lyrics be damned – the words themselves deemed irrelevant by the vibes, man. Warm Soda spins quick and catchy ditties meant to envelop you in a feel-good haze. [...]
Kathryn Calder Kathryn Calder File Under: Music Kathryn Calder is the space between sentences, the calm before the storm, the tether that grounds the otherworldly personalities of her band The New Pornographers. Originally brought on to perform touring duties with Neko Case’s [...]
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015 Mom + Pop Music “C’mon fellows, we’ve got pay respect!” Jon Spencer howls on “Funeral,” kicking off the Blues Explosion’s second post-hiatus LP. After 2007, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion went their [...]
of Montreal Aureate Gloom Polyvinyl Records Another year, another of Montreal release. Another smattering of discord psychedelic-funk-glam-breakbeat tracks that fascinate and confound in equal measure, with catchy melodies, sing-along hooks and bewildering pop experimentation. [...]
Drake If you’re reading this it’s too late Cash Money Records If there’s an Aziz Ansari equivalent in the rap genre, it might be Drake. But comedian Ansari’s swag lust and posturing comes off as personable and self-aware. Drake, however, presents himself with [...]
10Alison Moyet Minutes and Seconds – Live Cooking Vinyl Former Yazoo frontwoman Alison Moyet has the voice. Not just “a” voice but “the” voice, the instantly recognizable, iconic voice. Her bluesy, often husky contralto voice sold more than two million records as a solo artist [...]
Alvvays Alvvays Royal Mountain Records If Alvvays’ (pronounced “Always”) music sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve heard this band in The Smiths, The Beach Boys, Beach House, Magnetic Fields, Best Coast and Camera Obscura. The Toronto-based quintet wears their influences on [...]
The Mary Onnetes Portico: Labrador Records The Mary Onettes have strayed. The Swedish band’s self-titled debut doubled, seamlessly, as ‘80s jangle-pop. If you didn’t know it was new, you might have gone crate digging for some dollar vinyl. Think The Church or The Cure circa [...]
