( Editor's note: I just saw a commercial with John Thompson III talking about how much he sweats. I also recently saw a phone commercial with "Infinity Guitars" playing in the background. I am rapidly losing my ability to "relate to the modern world." ) There are a lot of things happening soon in Cleveland that we are super excited about. Some of them ( The Black Angels and Mike Watt in particular) we've either already told you about or will tell you about in the future. Today, we're digging in [...]
I'll give up my next two paychecks on a simple wager: White Denim is currently the best rock band in America. I'd win that bet, folks. Think about it. We've been on the White Denim train since the onset, and even new listeners should consider the sheer range the four album progression shows. Their first EP, Let's Talk About It, is the closest thing to prog rock the band has put together, and that only shifted to an infinitely more jazz inspired Exposion just a [...]
Our favorite little west coast record label, Hometapes , just released the second single from the upcoming All Tiny Creatures album, Harbors . The band has also released a cassette mixtape, available for purchase HERE through Hometapes directly. The tape includes two tracks from the debut LP continuously played in three different ways. It comes with a nifty cassette case, and in true Hometapes fashion, it also comes with the love of the label. As far as the [...]
This is my new favorite song. I would have loved it in 1986, and I will love this type of shit in 2058. I know next to nothing about the background/statistics regarding KAUF , which seems to be the moniker of Los Angeles' Ronald Kaufman. Google stalking suggests that Ron Kaufman is either an astute business man or a movie producer. I don't think these are either of the Ronald Kaufmans I'm looking for. The one I want to meet and shake the hand of is the Ronald Kaufman that [...]
I woke up this morning with "Another Sky" on infinite loop in my brain, which has been happening a lot lately. Akron/Family's February release, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT , is a vitamin-fortified, slick, and divergent smorgasbord of sound, and each listen only heightens my enjoyment. Folks that opine about the death of the album as an art form tend to forget albums like this one. I'm actually surprised people are talking about anything else as February comes to a close. Pop artists release tracks. Rock bands release albums, [...]
Putzing around the kitchen I heard a song on OPB's In House that sounded familiar, although I couldn't immediately figure out the song or artist. Around came the chorus: "Chew your meat for you, pass it back and forth, in a passionate kiss," and I was back on the bus in eighth grade listening to "Nevermind" on my Walkman and trying to avoid getting my ass kicked. Horse Feather's version of "Drain You" pulls the focus from Cobain's growl to a more intimate examination of whatever "Drain You" is about (mastication, parastic nature of relationships, take [...]
The Academy Awards are on this afternoon, and the Dicks are coming over to watch every minute of the carnage, from the red carpet walk of shame to the poorly delivered jokes. Good times will be had by all. Occasionally interesting music happens at the Oscars. For me the most memorable Academy Awards performance was Elliot Smith playing "Miss Misery" on the 1997 telecast. He performed after Trisha Yearwood and before Celine Dion as the meat in a diva sandwich. He looks ill at ease as he begins the song alone on the huge stage, but starts [...]
When the press release for Cameron McGill And What Army's self-released upcoming 4/12 album, Is a Beast read, "Much of the new album was written on a dead man's guitar in borrowed bedrooms and basements across Chicago," I was sold. The embodiment of the indie aesthetic is alive and well in this initial track from the album. "I Don't Believe in Magic (But All My Friends Just Disappeared) is a glorious little nugget of indie-folk with catchy and infectious pop at its epicenter. The Margot and the Nuclear So [...]
The Fresh & Onlys are following up Play it Strange with a quick-hitting 5-song EP, Secret Walls , on April 26th via Sacred Bones . You can stream the first released single, "Do You Believe in Destiny" below. The hazy and gritty pop sits beneath a canopy of echoes in the song with wicked wild-west guitar fills and trebly melody playing double-dutch back and forth. This is what I like to call garage-rock with a heavy dose of stain removal. It's well orchestrated, straightforward, yet [...]
I've already alluded to how much I'm into Akron-based Shivering Timbers' LP, We All Started in the Same Place , and now I'm pleased to place a blog post on the internet encouraging our Clevo readership to head out to The Beachland Ballroom to catch the duo open up for David Wax Museum tonight. I've posted "Nose Nose Nose" and "Crooked Old Man" and both of those are getting heavy rotation on my digital music player. Smooth as silk, the band has got to be [...]
What an excellent surprise today. While recovering from an illness, Foxes in Fiction (aka Warren Hildebrand) put together an instrumental digital 7" to tide us over for a little while. According to Hildebrand, this is a mini-release created just for his fans. and to keep the creative muse flowing despite being restricted for awhile. It is being distro'd through Hildebrand's Orchid Tapes, and is available now for free download at his website . Both tracks are essentially wide open aural canvases with subtly pulsing splatters of sound loosely woven within. [...]
Loch Lomond just released Little Me Will Start a Storm yesterday via Tender Loving Empire . The Portland act has garnered plenty of buzz since they toured with The Decemberists and we've been fairly Loch Lomond-less on this here blog. While I've yet to give the album a full detailed analysis, this cover of "The Chain" was just dropped into my mail bin. I gave it a wicked sneer as soon as I read it....until I listened to it. This is an honest and sincere [...]
Evan Moran's Ten and Six is a self-produced act from right here in Cleveland. He fired over the Ten and Six self-titled EP two days ago and It's providing plenty of intrigue this morning. The EP was released in May of 2009, but the band is currently still supporting it as they work toward new material. The 5 track EP can be downloaded at the band's bandcamp site by clicking HERE . Ten and Six is a mixture of art rock and folk with a healthy dose of indie [...]
Upon joining the CD staff I was diappointed not to find a review of Kanye's latest and greatest. Seems like it would have been worth a few hundred words. I saw Mr. West on SNL (Runaway, also a great song) promoting My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and was confused and disgusted. The perfomance was, in the parlance of our times, a hot mess. The ballerinas were too distracting. Themetically confusing. I wrote off the song until I acquired the album. "All of the Lights" is representative of the entire album. [...]
( Editor's note: I know that it is Friday. But, I don't have work today and I am spending the next 36 hours in the Kelvin Smith Library. In what's become something of an annual tradition for me, I'm barricading myself in a cloistered academic setting to bang out a big chunk of my doctoral work. I'm on target to defend my proposal around spring break and then (if it all breaks right) defend my dissertation sometime in October. Then you'll all have to call me doctor and I'll never have to tell you I'm taking [...]
Editor's Note: I'll start off this review by mentioning that I didn't write this one. This review is brought to us by our new Portland-based contributer, Dave. Dave is, perhaps, going to be the figurehead of our Citizen Dick Western Campus. One thing's for sure, he knows him some Bright Eyes. Join us in welcoming Dave in his opening contribution. We're looking forward to hearing more from the Wild Wild West as our journey marches onward. Onto his review on the new album. [...]
In the wee hours of the morning before The King of Limbs hits the ether, Radiohead sent out a quiet tweet about the first video from the record. "Lotus Flower" is below. As nearly half of the planet already knows, there are several ordering options for the album. You can get the MP3 version, or can order every format, including the vinyl which will be made available for RSD 2011. In any event, I wanted to get this out there as quickly as possible. My email with the album link awaits. Happy [...]
People in our RSS feeds probably just got confused. No, I'm not refering to Barzin, the talented musician who leaves me sad and bitter about bad breakups, but Barzin , the insanely talented British instrumentalist/hip-hop/remix/ mashup our pals at Slowcoustic , along with Dev at Hype Machine Radio , humorously stumbled upon last night via twitter mishap. It's really a pretty important choice this morning to head over to his busy, but easy to figure out website . [...]
The Stand-Ins , and its predecessor, The Stage Names , are essentially integral parts of my record collection. Will Sheff and company have long been creating mini-masterpieces of unique pop/folk/rock and even if the band released an album every year, it still wouldn't be enough for me. In the hiatus in between albums, Okkervil River hasn't been idle, and have actually been a part of two of my favorite albums from last year, including Roky Erickson's True Love Cast Out All Evil , and Shearwater's The Golden Archipelago . When I Am Very [...]
SXSW is still in flux for me, but rest assured, if there was one act I'd crawl through taco grease and bar sludge to see, it's T he Megaphonic Thrift . We've posted a lead track from the band's upcoming March release, Decay Decoy already, but they've "officially" released the first single for the record as of this morning. We've put our ears to this album, and we're 100 percent amped about its release. The quietly crowned 'best show at SXSW 2010' has a got a grab bag full of bombastic [...]
Citizen Dick
Avicii – Two Million
Scissor Sisters’ “Baby Come Home” Video: Watch The Band Get Animated
Yellow Magic Orchestra edit from Chrome Canyon
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
