I reviewed the latest album from The Lodger, Flashbacks, for Dusted:
Siddall’s voice is in the same melancholy vein as Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars mainstay Robert Wratten, and the Lodger’s music suggests that that influence goes beyond the vocal approach. The Lodger takes a restrained, austere approach to uptempo, jangling rock — though …
Up today at Dusted: a review of My Education’s Sunrise.
If you’ve read any recent think-piece about how the lines between rock bands and classical ensembles are blurring, you could pretty easily swap their name into the list of case studies provided without sacrificing accuracy. Besides recording their own compositions, they’ve also …
In a similar vein to the post below, I also have two new “Delorean” entries over at Tiny Mix Tapes.
Samuel: Lives of Insects
““Sideways Looker” closes out the EP by essentially pushing one mood for two minutes and segueing from there into somewhere much more grim. Essentially, it’s the sound of a band teetering …
At Flavorwire today, I have reviews of a quintet of recent albums that defy expectations of what a retro-inspired sound might be. Specifically: Clogs, Jack Rose, Evelyn Evelyn, The Tallest Man on Earth, and Eluvium.
My first encounter with Curtis Harvey’s music came via Rex’s C, around 1996 or so. Musically, I was starting to explore work that was outside the boundaries of the hardcore and alt-rock I’d previously obsessed over. It’s a fine, textured album that’s held up remarkably well, as has their followup to it, 3.
Rex vocalist Curtis …
Eight bands, representing selections from the lineups of Hardly Art and Sub Pop. And thus, short takes on each.
Unnatural Helpers: Like Idle Times, with whom they share members, it’s solid, unpretentious garage rock. Dean Whitmore’s vocals sound like a more ragged Craig Finn circa-Lifter Puller, which is a plus; the sole downside was their 7 …
Arrived at the Music Hall of Williamsburg a few songs into Headlights‘ set. Last year’s Some Racing, Some Stopping ended up earning an unexpected amount of listening time — it’s a solid, enjoyable pop record, at times reminiscent of Saturday Looks Good To Me, but with less of SLGTM’s overt nostalgia and evocations of fading …
The latter part of last Thursday night was spent at Don Pedro’s, taking in an Impose-curated night of noisy rock music. Girls at Dawn took the stage shortly after I arrived, and it took me longer than expected to realize that they were not the three-piece that I took them for; there was, in fact, …
The Press came highly recommended via friends of mine, with suggestions that their sound was a more accessible, rock-oriented take on the improvisational/ambient-fueled pop currently beloved in many circles of this city. I’m not sure I agree — the sound I heard recalled, in places, recent Modest Mouse and The Walkmen, albeit with a distinctly …
Friends who had heard The Seedy Seeds previously told me after their set at Trash Bar had wrapped up that the space’s sound system had done them no favors, that certain elements of their sound had been lost in the mix. For my part, I still liked what I heard, even knowing that certain instruments …
Despite a fondness for the bands in which Bradford Cox plays, I’ve listened to both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound far more in their recorded versions than in the live setting. Tuesday’s show at Le Poisson Rouge was my first time seeing the latter, and while I found myself nodding my head to the most direct …
Up now at The Rumpus: some thoughts on the work of Le Loup, examining their evolution from solo project to full-on band.
In the summer of 1995, shortly before leaving my hometown for college, I went to a house party in Middletown, New Jersey — memorable in part because that was where I heard numerous bands who would later become personal favorites. Seam in particular, but also the Louisville post-rock ensemble Rachel’s. All of which is prelude …
Two new Delorean reviews I wrote are up at Tiny Mix Tapes: one, on the reissue of Sunny Day Real Estate’s LP2; the other, on Sharks Keep Moving’s 1998 Desert Strings and Drifters.
The Albertans: Legends of San Marco
(Ernest Jenning Record Co.)
The restrained pop of “Marie,” the song that opens Vancouver-via-Brooklyn-via-Alberta group The Albertans’ album Legends of San Marco, is a good indication of the sensibility to come: a subtlety that calls to mind The Go-Betweens, interplay among multiple vocalists, and a sense that this band’s inspirations include …