You Can’t Go Home Again
Perhaps it’s the distance between band members that makes this album so confusing or maybe it’s what they were striving for. Aloha’s album Home Acres gushes out a whirlpool of emotions at once with no conceivable plan or intentions. Each of the four members in Aloha are scattered across Cleveland, Brooklyn, Boston, and Washington D.C. To create this album, they did everything via the internet. In their defense, it does work out nicely coming from that standpoint. Read more…
By Kaylyn Study Posted in Reviews Aloha
The Big Easy
There’s nothing better than fitting album names like The Morning Benders’ latest release, Big Echo. The album is 10 tracks of indie pop that the Facebook generation has come to love: 25% spacey ambiance, 20% softly strum guitars, 30% Beach Boys-esque vocals, 15% Ringo’s thumpy and stumbly drumming, and 10% fitted denim. Of course, it’s not to say that Big Echo isn’t original, but just enough that it might take a listen or two to distinguish it from the recent flock of post-punk and folk fiends. Read more…
By Terence Calacsan Posted in Reviews The Morning Benders
Life’s a Beach, and Then You Die
Collaboration is the name of the game for Gorillaz, the ever-changing virtual band fronted by cartoon characters and rooted to reality via Damon Albarn, the group’s creative director, singer, songwriter, and producer. Plastic Beach is the third album released under the Gorillaz moniker and goes beyond the previous two in bringing together a diverse assembly of artists, most notably Snoop Dogg, De La Soul, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, and Lou Reed. The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonen even make a rare, if subtle and un-Clash-like, appearance. Read more…
By Alyssa Fried Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Damon Albarn, Gorillaz
Living in a World of Liars
Only Liars could collide romanticism and desolation to create an album so beautiful that it sends 100 little waves rolling down your spine. Sisterworld, the band’s fifth album, pulls no punches yet is still able to appear lovable and controlled. Read more…
By Tom Gayton Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Liars
Patriotism: A Little Distorted
The second album from New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus just hit the shelves (previously being available for free on their MySpace) and the American Legion couldn’t be prouder. Titled The Monitor, their heavy distorted shoegaze rock album is rich with American Civil War references, even named after the first ironclad warship produced by the U.S. Navy. You’ll find more than the usual gritty anthem vocals and literary allusions on The Monitor; the album also features guest appearances by Ponytail, Wye Oak, The Hold Steady, Hallelujah The Hills, Spider Bags and Vivian Girls. Read more…
By Ryan Stabile Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Patrick Stickles, Titus Andronicus
Air and Space Museum
No matter how hard they try to hide in the purple haze of flower-child stage names and prog-rock positivity, Black Moth Super Rainbow are suddenly, obviously a sham. The quintet from Pittsburgh fooled listeners once on 2007’s Dandelion Gum, but made the mistake of trying to do it again on their latest LP, Eating Us. Read more…
By Adam Blyweiss Posted in Reviews Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco
Let the Wild Rumpus Start!
The leading lady from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs knows exactly how to have fun in her side project Karen O and The Kids. Her soundtrack for “Where the Wild Things Are” is exactly on point. She knows that happy medium when it comes to her music. Karen O and The Kids actually have children singing along to this folksy and fantastical album, which takes you on an adventure from start to finish. Read more…
By Kaylyn Study Posted in Reviews Karen O and the Kids, Soundtrack, Where the Wild Things Are
Former Queens of the Stone Age/Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri has been labeled a lot of things: a reckless musician with no limits, a serial abuser, a stoner rock pioneer and a sociopath. By way of an enlightening one-man tour which stopped at The Khyber in Philadelphia recently, he can add troubadour to the growing list of ways he chooses to occupy his time. Read more…
By Seano Barry Posted in Reviews, Show Reviews Kyuss, Nick Oliveri, Queens Of The Stone age
Beats Make Doom Sound Fun
It’s all about the rhythm with These New Puritans. Head honcho Jack Barnett, responsible for songwriting, vocals, and production, claims Wu-Tang Clan as a hearty influence on his band’s sound. Good thing New York’s grimiest hip-hop titans made their way across the ocean, as the beats presented on These New Puritans’ second LP Hidden are merciless. In fact, Barnett (whose twin brother, George, provides live drumming) has said he intends there to be refrains in his records, both individually and as a discography. And if there’s one refrain it’s percussion, both synthetic and physical. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews These New Puritans
Interchangeable Parts
If you aspire to critique music, here’s a piece of advice: Never let your first listens to an album be on shuffle. Doing so threatens to undercut artists’ vision or story to be told, and misdirects both writer and reader. Without catching this particular faux pas early in the editorial process, the review you’re reading now of The Whigs’ new album In the Dark might have been vastly different. Read more…
By Adam Blyweiss Posted in Reviews The Whigs
