The rumors are true. For months I'd been hearing from sources of varying quality that Guided by Voices had either planned to record a new album or were already knee deep in the process of recording. Those rumors hit a fever pitch during the Pitchfork Music Festival this past July when people who'd just attended GBV's yearly fan festival in Dayton, Ohio reported it as truth, there will be a new Guided by Voices album. Today comes word that the classic era Guided by Voices lineup of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos and [...]
Cave Neverendless Drag City Like their neighbors in Disappears, the Chicago outfit Cave have placed themselves at the forefront of the new Neu revival with the release of Neverendless. And while working elements of German electronic music into Rock 'N' Roll is hardly novel (Search this website for motorik or krautrock and any number of bands will pop up), what is different, is how reverential modern artists are treating their source material. It's as if they're trying to make careers out of variations on two songs - "Hallogallo" and [...]
Wooden Shjips West Thrill Jockey Over the course of three full length albums and two singles collections, Wooden Shjips have all but perfected their sound. Led by guitarist Ripley Johnson, this San Francisco quartet fuses boogie rock, 19602s, West Coast psychedelic rock, and krautrock into a warbling and wavering blur where the lines of form and function all but disappear. The jams may only be five, six, or seven minutes long, but under the right circumstances, they can pull the listener into a place where they can stretch on to infinity. [...]
While Cleveland's music clubs have not always had each other's best interests in mind, one issue has united them, and that issue is the city's 8% admissions tax on live concerts. Music fans were admittedly shocked when news came out in July that the Beachland was facing a $400,000 bill to the City of Cleveland on unpaid taxes . They knew all too well what would happen if the City demanded full payment. The Beachland would close. Others, outside of the music community, were understandably taken aback by the club's owner, Cindy Barber, and her [...]
Wild Flag Wild Flag Merge Indie Rock, that catch-all genre for all things underground, has had to fend off numerous criticisms over the past few years - Inide rock too white! It's too nostalgic! It's too safe! It's too smart for its own good! What is indie rock anyway?!? One criticism no one ever lobs, however, is that indie rock is too much fun. The reason is simple and can be seen with one's own eyes at indie rock festivals across the country. Many of these new acts are [...]
The Rapture In the Grace of Your Love DFA Records Similar to The Strokes, The Rapture are another NYC band who peaked during the early part of the past decade with their debut album, whose star gradually dimmed with each successive release, took a lengthy break, and who've returned in 2011. The Rapture were big names in the dance-punk craze. The Strokes, meanwhile, found similar success with their stricter reconstruction of 19702s NYC punk, of course. Those distinctions aren't necessarily important here, but do serve as a reminder of where underground [...]
Girls Father, Son, and Holy Ghost True Panther/Matador It's Tuesday. Let's talk about vomit. On Girls' Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the San Francisco band's second release for True Panther/Matador Records, there's "Vomit," the song, which, truth be told, is an absolute stunner - A thrilling six minute ride, epic in the way Pink Floyd or Guns 'N' Roses could be epic, with the dirtiest, and I mean unwashed, unkempt, sleeping on the streets of 19902s Seattle, raised on a diet of dumpster scraps, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana [...]
Ever since guitarist Nels Cline joined the band Wilco, and especially after 20072s Sky Blue Sky, my constant complaint with this current lineup of the band is that Cline is consistently under used. I remember being floored by the man's work during the Ghost is Born tour. His playing was loud and inventive. His tone was ragged, yet surprisingly clear, like Thurston Moore himself was shredding right there, next to vocalist Jeff Tweedy. And then came the aforementioned Sky Blue Sky, an album which took a more Steely Dan approach to rock music. Oh, there [...]
With a restless spirit, and various members spread across various bands about town, it's been a while since we've heard anything from the Cleveland, psych-pop band, The Dreadful Yawns. This video, here, for "F Song," is a quick reminder why they've been one of the driving forces in the Northeast, Ohio music scene over the past five years. While the track begins as a quaint, poppy strummer, accompanied by the slight plink of piano, it takes a couple nifty twists along the way - Seriously, check out that freak out around the minute mark - Yet, never loses [...]
Because indie rock does not have enough girls who rock. Because indie rock does not have enough rock kicks and windmills and fun. Seriously, when did indie rock stop being fun. "Romance" by Wild Flag is, more than anything else, fun. Yes, it's a supergroup of '90s faves like Sleter-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein and Helium's Mary Timony, but what makes the video and the song, is the free-wheeling nature of it all. Skittish verses lead to a full-on, Go-Gos chorus, and hi-jinks about town lead to more and more hi-jinks. VIDEO: Wild Flag - [...]
Wugazi 13 Chambers Self-Released Ostensibly, a mash-up of the post-hardcore band, Fugazi, and the hip-hop gang, The Wu-Tang Clan, Wugazi's 13 Chambers plays more like an old-school rap album, or a direct collaboration between these two legendary artists, than the work of two producers (Cecil Otter & Swiss Andy) hunkered down in the Midwest. The seamlessness of the source material is that striking. Another surprising aspect of 13 Chambers, in addition to the fact that this mash-up works at all, is the funkiness of Fugazi's contributions. They've been called [...]
The Men Leave Home Sacred Bones Punk, post-punk, post-hardcore, noise, scuzz, fuzz, pigfuck , Leave Home by The Men is an album that could wear any number of labels. The guitars are loud, way loud, to the point of blistering distortion. The vocals are bloodied, throaty and rough. The attitude is confrontational from side one, track one on through to the end. And, there are times when all of this becomes unpleasant for the listener. It's unpleasant in a good way, but unpleasant, nonetheless. Yet, those adjectives and [...]
Cymbals Eat Guitars Lenses Alien Barsuk One thing Cymbals Eat Guitars does not lack on their second album, Lenses Alien, is ambition. This East Coast act has more ambition than your average indie-rock outfit times ten. Hell, "Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)," the opening track on this, their second album, runs over eight minutes and recalls Built to Spill, and of all things, Janes Addiction's Ritual de lo Habitual. It's the type of track most would build to. Not Cymbals Eat Guitars, they use its grand movements, bursts of static, and [...]
Tuesday, September 6th: The Justice Tour with Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, Tim Mcllrath (of Rise Against), Wayne Kramer (MC5) @ The Grog Shop. Wednesday, September 7th : DJ Kevin Saves @ The Happy Dog. Black Moth Super Rainbow, Marshmallow Ghosts, Red Falcon Projects @ Beachland Ballroom. Kitchen's Floor, Puffy Areolas, Obnox, Fat History Month @ Now That's Class. Friday, September 9th : Dredger's Union Roar Along the Shore on the Goodtime III with Cobra Verde, American Werewolves, Cross Brothers, Filmstrip, The Stereo Workers Union, Uno Lady, JJ Magazine and [...]
Male Bonding Endless Now Sub Pop Now that Male Bonding have ditched that lo-fi style of their first album, we can finally see what this young band of English punks are capable of on this, their sophomore album, Endless Now. Granted, at the time of their debut, the shit-shine was the new pro-tools, and lo-fi the new hi-fi, but their blend of American pop-punk and UK shoegaze was done absolutely no favors with that shit-shine, no matter how in it was. When their songs should have popped they were [...]
The War on Drugs Slave Ambient Secretly Canadian The roots of Slave Ambient, the new album by Philadelphia musician, Adam Granduciel, and his band, The War on Drugs, can be traced back to Bob Dylan and classic albums like Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Grandaddy's Sophtware Slump. If album reviews were based on references alone, then Granduciel's Slave Ambient would be a ten out of ten, end of story. The roots of Slave Ambient can also be traced back to one of Granduciel's old bandmates, Kurt Vile, and the [...]
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks Mirror Traffic Matador When one considers Stephen Malkmus, once of the much-beloved indie rock group, Pavement, spent much of 2010 on a very successful reunion tour with his former band, it's not totally surprising that this album with The Jicks would sound like a long lost collection of Pavement tracks recorded circa 2002. What is surprising is that two of the '90s biggest alt-rock icons (Malkmus and Beck, who produced Mirror Traffic), could work together in the studio and only come up with an album that [...]
After taking in Hot Cha Cha's recent performance at the Rock Hall with The Joy Formidable a few things were immediately apparent. One, and this one was very obvious, Hot Cha Cha are no longer a girl band. Mandy Aramouni has moved from guitar to bass, with new boy, Greg Gebhard now on guitar. Two, lead-vocalist Jovana Batkovic is still one of the area's premier performers, even when she has to keep her act to a PG-13 leve l, as she had to do on that night. And, lastly, whether inspired by those recent lineup changes, or not, Hot [...]
I'm starting to get the feeling that The Flaming Lips collaboration with Lightning Bolt involved a lot of drugs. First, there was the video for "I Wanna Get High, but I Don't Want Brain Damage," and now a second video from their recently released collaboration has hit the nets. This one is for "I'm Working at NASA on Acid." It begins with a high as shit Wayne Coyne lamenting how he pushed the wrong button, and, well, it just gets weirder from there, as three minutes of slightly strummed, totally spaced out rock lead [...]
When Nick Lowe originally penned the track, "I Love my Label," it was a showing of gratitude to Stiff Records , the small English label with a wicked sense of humor, that proved influential in launching the career's Lowe, Ian Drury, Wreckless Eric and Elvis Costello amongst others. The song takes on a different, somewhat confusing meaning with Wilco covering this track, singing about their own label, dBPM Records. So, Jeff Tweedy basically loves himself and he loves Tweedy? Hmm...Maybe a less literal approach is in order. Let's say Jeff Tweedy and Wilco [...]
I Rock Cleveland
Lana Del Rey’s “Blue Jeans” Used In A Nespresso Commercial
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Video: Jay-Z and Kanye West – “No Church in the Wild”
