Soundtracks for animated series are typically a joke, with very little time devoted to the typical sets of bangs and whistles of which they are comprised. With JG Thirlwell, however, the man behind Foetus on board for Adult Swim’s “The Venture Bros.,” this was never going to be the case. Read more…
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X: The Human Condition is an audio/visual sensory delight from filmmaker/songwriter Michael Nova. The premise of Nova’s creation is two complete strangers going through life sharing exactly the same experiences, but completely unaware of each other, each feeling alienated from the world around them without realizing that there is someone who feels the same. Read more…
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Ween were probably far from anyone’s lips before the release of 1994’s Chocolate and Cheese, but the band were playing to half-filled rooms since 1987. Between ’87 and the album’s release in ‘94, Ween toured excessively throughout the US and Europe. Now, over ten years later, the band have released a recording of their 1992 performance, Live at the Cat’s Cradle. Read more…
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Deerhunter return with Rainwater Cassette Exchange, their first release since 2008’s Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. The band’s latest is a showcase of what remains of the shoegaze genre. It delivers poignant lyrics dripping in reverb and incorporates obvious influences from exponents such as Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, while adding a classic tint of ’60s surfer rock. Read more…
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Monomyth is Fin Fang Foom’s first full length release in six years, following both the death of their original drummer and founder Michael Triplett’s contraction of spinal meningitis which nearly caused his death. Following such an ordeal, any band would be forgiven for turning their backs on music forever. Fin Fang Foom, however, have returned with an album that destroys any suggestion of too long a wait with crushing precision. Read more…
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Holy Fuck return to the center stage after three long years with Latin, the band’s third full-length release that picks up where 2007’s LP left off. Holy Fuck create bizarre and often suffocating mental images transposed into music so intensely that listening to Latin leaves you in a post-nightmare stare, with cold sweats and fractured memories of your biggest fears incarnated. Read more…
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Mike Patton is less a musician and more a multi-instrumentalist crackpot of an institution. His signature style is an outlandish, ever odd take on popular music that has utilized outlets such as film soundtracks, video game voice-overs, and countless band projects. He is consistently extravagant and attracts a fan base through sheer eccentricity and a genial lack of control. Even his unfinished musical ventures and half-musings form interesting conceptual works. Mondo Cane has developed a veil of mysterious romance with fans of Patton, following a handful of live performances and countless delays. The premise of the album is to interpret Italian pop songs of the ‘50s and ‘60s with a 30-piece orchestra and choir. It may sound like overkill, but Patton unleashes a rarely seen lightness of touch to his Italian-language vocals that grounds any pretension that could have gone too far. Read more…
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Kuan is a Buddhist term that means wordless contemplation, and that is exactly what the Ohio quartet do. Their first release, On/Standby, is a double EP consisting of material recorded over a three-year period. They manage to communicate so much across an exclusively instrumental album that lyrics would just be overkill. Read more…
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Following her last release, Joanna Newsom faced quite a feat. 2006’s Ys turned her from a kooky San Francisco harpist attracting little attention from anything other than the cult fringe to a world-renowned songwriter. Have One On Me is enormous in scope, taking influence mainly from jazz and world music, while its lyrics are full of archaic poetry. Read more…
Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews
If a band only releases two studio albums in five years, they have to be pretty awesome albums to make an impact. Of course, Serena Maneesh have done this. S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor is the band’s first studio album since 2005’s self-titled effort. With S-M 2, the band has destroyed any preconceptions of them losing the passion of their first album after such a long absence between recordings. Read more…
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