puDestruction Unit's "Sonic Pearl," is the type of track which got all stoked about these noisenik punks in the first place . It sounds like breaking things, with rhythm and guitars. Their album, the Void LP released earlier this year, unfortunately, was only half about breaking things and half about wanking to feedback. My message to Destruction Unit for the new album they have planned on Sacred Bones later this year is a simple one: More breaking things and less wanking, and your career will progress splendidly, with much [...]
Cleveland's Horriblefest has a reputation and most of it dates back to its first time 'round in 2005 when a near riot broke out after a member of the band Rot Shit tossed a live eel into the crowd. The Black Lips and King Khan and The Shrines were headliners. People tend to forget that part. Ever since that first year, however, the promoters have had a hard time hooking the casual music fan who thinks of Horriblefest as a binge drinking event with music. Sure, the bands and the fans will get wild, [...]
Mikal Cronin MC II Merge Records Should the career arc of Mikal Cronin follow that of his frequent collaborator, the San Francisco, garage rock wunderkind, Ty Segall, his early 45s could start paying down your mortgage and get the kids off to college. I exaggerate, but MCII is such a leap in quality, similar to the one Segall made on his Drag City debut, Goodbye Bread, that the next time a small rock label puts out a single by Cronin you'd be best to get in on the pre-sale with the multi-colored vinyl. [...]
Deerhunter Monomania 4AD Monomania Deerhunter's fifth album, Monomania, was announced with what was either the greatest press release ever or the most bullshit ridden piece of bullshit put out by an industry of bullshitters. How else does one interpret something like this? Mystery disc of NOCTURNAL GARAGE. rat tapes / NEW FORMAT is avant garde(?) but only in context not form (original intent of avant garde (1912-59) / before logic: FOG MACHINE / LEATHER / NEON At first, I went [...]
Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City XL Recordings Those nerds in Vampire Weekend, with their expensive educations and fancy words, J Crew oxford shirts and indifference to our indie rock insecurities, have gone and done it again. With Modern Vampires of the City they now have a second pop masterpiece on their hands and this one may be even more confounding than their debut. How does it work? How does their time-traveler, tourist pop which traverses continents, from the Caribbean to Sub-Saharan Africa, and spans decades, from traditional [...]
It's been one hell of a ride for the team of FLUME and CHET FAKER of late, tonight's Perth performance marks the final show of a completely sold out Australian tour. Congrats fellas! Warming up for tonight's gig at soundcheck the pair decided to jump on the Abelton live launch pad and do a little unrehearsed routine, elegantly blending FLUME 's massive single 'Holdin On' and elements of his remix for NEW NAVY 's 'Zimbabwe'. The duo performing their collaborative success 'Left Alone' together as an epic finale has become a staple of the tour. [...]
Dick Diver Calendar Days Chapter Music Listening to the album Calendar Days by the Melbourne quartet, Dick Diver, is like eavesdropping on conversation between two close friends at a cafe as the pair go over life's curious demands. During its course, they cover both the big issues, dreams and aspirations, regrets and failures, and the little things like the morning's breakfast or last night's television. And what makes these narratives by Al McKay and Steph Hughes so compelling is even as every tale is told with similar nonchalance (McKay could capably [...]
Georgiana Starlington Paper Moon Hozac Records One can file Georgiana Starlington's Paper Moon along side other low-key folk albums by Mazzy Star, The Dutchess and The Duke, or Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell. One can also file Paper Moon under pleasant surprise. Nothing in the recorded history of the brother-sister duo, Jack and Julie Hines, hints at the stark, confessional narratives and endearingly loose arrangements contained within Paper Moon's thirteen tracks. Not the time the duo plied in the sludge and scum punk outfit, K-Holes, and definitely not the [...]
Savages Silence Yourself Matador This record is so fucking intense, and so fucking intense is an uncommon way to describe a post-punk record of any era, especially one released in 2013. Yet, Silence Yourself, by British newcomers Savages is all those things usually associated with post-punk records, like precise, moody and introspective, tense, and, yes, so fucking intense. If there's one reason I keep repeating the phrase "So fucking intense," it's not that I'm aiming to be Moutain Dew's new internet pitchman, but because the dynamics throughout Silence Yourself [...]
UV Race hail from the same Melbourne, Australia scene which has produced The Eddy Current Suppresion Ring, Dick Diver, Total Control, Boomgates, Bits of Shit, and probably a whole mess of other bands cooler than American bands. Considering ECSR's Mikey Young was an early supporter of UV Race, a frequenter producer of UV Race, and a collaborator with Dan Stewart of UV Race in Total Control, it should be no surprise that they share take similar, back to basics approach to the whole punk-post-punk spectrum. "Glam," from their forthcoming Queens of Punk EP (on No Patience), may conjure [...]
BAMBARA's approach to punk rock is like an everything bagel - Keep throwing more and more stuff into the recipe and see what sticks once its cooked. The noise on a track like "Nail Polish" is relentless. There's the unhinged guitar screech and industrial clatter of A Place to Bury Strangers and the mad professor array of electronics used by the likes of Parts and Labor. The drums are big and booming and played at a breakneck pace. There's so much going on that "Nail Polish" becomes unsettling at times. Matters aren't helped any by each and every [...]
Nude Beach is a band that received tons of coverage from us last year with their incredible album II . Hell, a spot on the top songs list AND the top albums list in the same year basically means you are ATH approved for life and can do no wrong. The band may be in for another big year and are kicking things off with this new song "I'm Giving Up". Of course it's a rock n roll tune with some super slick guitars that don't seem to quit jamming until the song is done blasting through its 2 [...]
Milk Music are bringing guitar heroics back to indie rock. They released their debut album, Cruise Your Illusion (yes, that is a tongue-in-cheek GnR reference ), last month on Fat Possum. In an indie climate increasingly dominated by clean-cut 20-something Brooklynites churning out pleasant yet safe folk and pop tunes, this Olympia, WA quartet brings visceral and life-affirming slacker-rock back into the limelight. Milk Music successfully appropriate the tone and aesthetics of 80s and 90s indie rock bands like Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, Archers of Loaf, and Built to Spill, while offering an original spin on a [...]
Guided by Voices English Little League Rockathon Records Nostalgia has its limits. While the past ten years has seen practically every big name alternative rock and indie rock band round up the mates for another go at it, there has been a gathering sense of late that '90s nostalgia rock is nearing its end. Everyone seems to have a tenth or twentieth anniversary to celebrate. Or, in the case of the Dandy Warhols, the thirteenth anniversary of their album 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia was perfect excuse to separate aging gen [...]
Thee Oh Sees Floating Coffin Castle Face Records Did you find The Flaming Lips' latest album, The Terror, lacking the the kind of wonderfully weird vibes Wayne Coyne and company had built their career upon? Yes? Well read on, because the San Francisco garage rock outfit, Thee Oh Sees have a dandy of a record for you. Featuring the same over-sized, blasted-all-out-to-hell guitar aesthetic as The Lips, Thee Oh Sees' Floating Coffin is gleeful, loud, and endearingly strange where The Terror was meek, and only scary in the way a hotel [...]
The last time the long-running, Canadian power pop act, Sloan , came through Cleveland, they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 1992 album, Twice Removed with a two set show which included the album from front-to-back and a second set of their greatest hits. Inspired by how well the anniversary tour was going, they mentioned how they'd record a new album and then do a similar event for the follow-up to Twice Removed, One Chord to Another. This made the Sloan fans happy. "It's In You It's In Me," is neither from an album of new [...]
Rolling Stone says its been over 15 years . Pitchfork says 16 . Pitchfork likes to be exact. Either way, it's been a long fuckin' time since the Oblivians released their last studio album, Play 9 Songs with Mr Quintron, a rough-edged set of punked up southern soul, gospel, and rhythm and blues music which should be required listening for any rock artist who thinks they have soul. Nobody, neither an established act like the Black Keys, nor hyped up-and-comers like the Alabama Shakes, could rival their determination, their energy and their attitude. Here's exhibit A , [...]
As of this afternoon, approximately 712,000 people have listened to The National's new single, "Demons," on Youtube . I was not one of them. I may have sampled a few seconds here and a few seconds there, but I never really settled in with it. The National need your time, like that. "Demons," from their forthcoming album, Trouble Will Find Me ( 4AD on 5.12 ), like much of their best work, isn't the type of track to awe on a sample or even a single listen. It takes a little time for the deftness of their craft [...]
Supercharged psych rock from Nashville’s Penicillin Baby ! Over the past year the quartet have been releasing EPs in their ‘Jam’ series, culminating in the final instalment, ‘ Jams: Volume III ’ ( available now through Favorite Face Records ). Penicillin Baby - 'The World's Not Waiting' [...]
Tonight, Ft. Lauderdale’s downtown nightlife will host the inaugural Block x Blog Music Festival brought to you by Consequence of Sound , Subculture , and 3-J Hospitality. This one-night, landmark event celebrates the 8-bit analog culture through the city’s thriving local arts scene spread over three premier venues all under one roof: Revolution Live , Green Room , and America’s Backyard . Brooklyn DFA royalty Holy Ghost! will headline the event with a festival bill rounded out by the best of the best in local talent including the Jacuzzi Boys, Krisp, Lil Daggers, Millionyoung, Ex Norwegian, TeePee, Plains, Suede Dudes, [...]
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