Russian Circle's third release, Geneva , starts out as such a damned promising record, coming out of the chute with 3 of their thickest, heaviest, and most memorable tunes yet. But through poor pacing and scatter shot stylistic change ultimately the album feels like a disappointment and a missed opportunity. Past albums have worked by gradually ratcheting down the pace such as Talking Heads' Remain In Light , but Geneva's diminishing returns don't pack much of a dramatic punch. [...]

Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out with some great people and witnessing an incredibly dynamic set of bands at the Middle East Upstairs. Each band set a different mood, showed different sets of musicianship, and rounded out this show line-up quite nicely. Without further ado, let's get to the bands: Opening the show was Borrowe d E y es & the Blood Red Road with a single guitar strumming and a four part vocal harmony. Already quite impressed, [...]

Semana llena de sets! Y hoy tiramos la casa por la ventana! Atento todo el mundo! Cuatro sesioncetas de la casa. Ojito! Exxpacio sideral En primer lugar, Blitz! nos manda su último set llamado "XXPace Mixtape", cuyo tracklist está al fondo, como la mayoría de veces! Todo un alarde de nu disco para quienes quieran llamarlo así! Grosso Morosso included (va a petar más de una pista ese tema y lo sabéis). BLITZ! XXPACE @ NOVEMBER 2009 by [...]
Morena Mix (DJ Gina Turner) For Nouveau Yorican 1.) "La India Con La Voe (Viva Puerto Rico) " - Masters At Work 2.) "Jacuzzi Games" - Loco Dice 3.) "The Boogieman (Downtown Remix)" - Gucci Vump 4.) "Boriqua (Douster Remix)" - Nouveau Yorican 5.) "The Lick (Derrick Carter Dub Mix) - Samim 6.) "I was drunk ft Noze" - Riva Starr 7.) "Calor en la Discoteca" - Isaac Rodriguez 8.) "Soy Boriqua (Sepa Mix)" - Lucci & Cruz 9.) "Cafe Con Leche" - El Presidente 10.) "Try Yazz" - Two Without [...]
Through the silent ambush of heavy snow Friday, three great shows were happening about town, and one that I missed while I was seeing Fanfarlo was Old Canes at the Hi-Dive. Signed to Saddle Creek Records, Old Canes are the project of Appleseed Cast frontman Chris Crisci. I've just stumbled upon their most recent album Feral Harmonic a day late, a dollar short, etc etc. The marvelously warm opening track on the album breaks exuberant and brightly colored - pounding and thumping with [...]
words by Andrew Frisicano , photos by Steven P. Marsh As its length [about an hour] suggests, this was a leisurely "In C," and it began [at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday] with a prelude of sorts: a rich aural haze surrounding a honking, spirited saxophone line that darted about for five minutes before the steady, pulsing C signaled the start of Mr. Riley's work. The ensemble, which included standard strings and woodwinds, as well as a few guitars, an accordion, a piano and percussion, moved between [...]

I keep missing Kasey Chambers when she comes through town, but it's not for lack of trying. The Australian singer-songwriter with the airy twang in her voice does heartache so well, it's a dream of mine to sit on the grass at some summery festival, eyes closed, letting the bittersweet music burn through me like the sunshine. Kasey's talent springs from growing up with music in her veins: the daughter of steel guitar player Bill Chambers , she picked up her first strings early, and spent an adolescent decade on the road [...]

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls & Rent Boys collects stories, poems, and essays by sex workers. Compiled by David Henry Sterry and RJ Martin, Jr., the book organizes this collection of refreshingly genuine and brutally honest writings by category (love, life, money, etc.). The New York Times wrote of the book: "From the unappealing title, you might think this is a truly trashy [...]

I recently spent a month in Los Angeles for work-related reasons. While Taylor and my other fellow Illinoisians were enjoying the gray skies and rain that is October in Illinois, I was out hiking in the mountains and seeing Craig Robinson at LAX. But before I left, I found out that a few things that are common knowledge about L.A., and will be told to you by people who haven't even been there before. These include: the weather is nice pretty much all year round, you'll probably see some celebrities, the air in the city is terrible and the traffic [...]
[ 8Bit ] ( buy vinyl ) ( buy mp3s ) From time to time I check out Resident Advisor's monthly Top 50 chart to see how wildly my tastes diverge from those of thousands of DJs who make up its voters. What caught my eye in October's chart was the unusual sight of one producer, Oxia, holding court from the top two slots with both sides of his "Sun Step EP" for Nick Curly's 8bit label. The French producer has been in the game since the mid-90s and can [...]

Hush Arbors: Yankee Reality On the self-titled first album, Hush Arbors' main man, Keith Wood, was aided by Ben Chasny (plus his usual foil Leon Dufficy); for the second, it's J Mascis. The effect is to add a Dinosaur Jr overdrive to a mixture of psych-folk and country-rock – which is pleasant enough on first hearing but has an insidiously compelling effect on subsequent spins. Mascis produces and plays on three tracks and his influence [...]

Kirk Degiorgio's name is not synonymous with minimal techno. Over the course of his 18-year career you could count on your hands the number of releases that would even qualify as club-approved tackle. Degiorgio made his name with multi-hued Detroit-inspired techno and went on to produce soulful music in a variety of genres, but rarely touched on straightforward dance floor-ready tracks. Today we see Degiorgio taking a new path that embraces this side of techno, both in terms of production and DJing. Degiorgio rebooted his Applied Rhythm Technology (ART) label this year and is focused on creating full sounding techno [...]

The true test of a pop artist destined for longevity is shown through their follow up release to such a successful debut. LADY GAGA departs from her obsession with fame and fortune and moves on to the darker side of slick produced pop/dance music on The Fame Monster . Overall the album sounds reminiscent of Britney's Blackout with a much darker twist. Her vocals sound much more consistent than the previous album. While she could easily cobbled together a re-package including just one [...]

Jadiid is an interesting band. If you asked me to give you their overall "sound," I suppose I'd say something about acoustic guitars, folk, soul, and the like, but it wouldn't be a fair description. The band's full-length, It's OK, Be Anxious , definitely has an acoustic bend to it, but it also features electric guitars, drums, bass, trumpets, strings, piano, and one of those world-weary vocal tones that commands your attention. With all these instruments comes the tendency for the songs to meander - none of the 11 songs on the album are shorter than [...]

MP3: Talkdemonic - Dusty Flourescent/Wooden Shelves #14 - Talkdemonic - Beat Romantic Arena Rock Recording Company 2006 Joey On Beat Romantic: Maybe the best band out of Portland currently. I love Talkdemonic. "Beat Romantic" is so fucking great and enjoyable and the song I posted is my favourite song from it. The part where it is strings and banjo is the most beautiful part of any song ever.

J-Live - The Best Part 1. Outside Looking 2. Intro 3. Got What It Takes 4. Don't Play 5. Vampire Hunter J 6. YES! 7. Them That's Not 8. Kick It To The Beat 9. Wax Paper 10. Timeless 11. Get The Third 12. School's In Remix 13. R.A.G.E. 14. True School Anthem 15. Inside Looking Outro 16. The Best Part 17. Play 18. Braggin' Write Revisited 19. Epilogue Check this out, J-Live, is possibly one of the most talented Hip Hop artists ever slept on. Honestly, he's a beast on the [...]
Kate Havnevik is releasing an exclusive EP ahead of her next studio album, You , slated for release in early 2010. The Me EP (see what she did there with the album name?) features five tracks: "Show Me Love," "Halo," "Think Again," "Disobey," and Soon." If you suddenly find yourself longing for some Frou Frou while listening to this record, there's good reason for it: Guy Sigsworth , the male half of the project, also happens to helm production of the Me EP . "Show Me Love," the [...]

[ Kompakt ] ( buy vinyl ) ( buy mp3s ) Wolfgang Voigt has rushed back in the spotlight recently, in part thanks to the release of the beautiful Nah Und Fern box set collecting his four ambient/classical Gas albums, as well as a reissue of the minimal techno inventing/perfecting Studio 1 CD on Profan. Gas and Studio 1 have always been, with Mike Ink, Voigt's most well known pseudonyms, but one must remember this is a man with 33 monikers other than his own listed on Discogs (counting only [...]

Before I get into my review of Brandi Carlile's new album Give Up the Ghost , I want to share a bit of my personal history with Brandi's music. I first became aware of Brandi back in 2005 when my Music Director at Morehead State Public Radio gave me a copy of her self-titled debut. My boss was already pretty excited about the album herself and wanted to make sure I didn't overlook it when I was checking out that week's new releases. She didn't have to worry. [...]

Generally, I tend to like weird. By weird, I simply mean something that's different than the status quo or something with a unique twist on the usual. That's what weird is, right? Outlandish and bizarre is a whole separate category and I can get into that in later reviews. But for now, let's discuss John Frazier and the 8 Year Olds . This band, for all intents and purposes, is weird . . . weird in that they approach their craft from a different place than you or I might do. Part rockabilly, part punk rock, part I don't [...]