This is the most I've had to say about anything music-related in a long while. My crisis of rock critic faith may still be ongoing, but on this topic at least, I certainly know what I think. Many thanks to Stomp and Stammer , as always, for letting me say whatever the hell I want to. (This album is good but absolutely doesn't deserve a 9.5, Pitchfork . Sigh. Chill out, already.) Bon Iver Bon Iver [...]
For Stomp and Stammer : Royal Bangs Flux Outside [Glassnote] Though perhaps no other moment on the record can equal the frenetic, harried energy of the leadoff track, Flux Outside , the third LP from Knoxville's Royal Bangs, barrels relentlessly straight through to its finish. "Grass Helmet," the aforementioned leadoff, peaks the record early with its stuttering percussion, screeching sound effects and emphatic vocals. It's a slap in the face of all navel-gazing, nonchalant delivery, and it's one the trio performs without [...]
For Stomp and Stammer a couple months back: Lia Ices Grown Unknown Jagjaguwar I never thought I'd actively think about Paula Cole again. When she stopped wondering where all the cowboys had gone – when I grew out of my teenage obsession with a certain Mr. Dawson Leery – I thought Paula and I were through. And though, admittedly, I'm not one to seek out the female singer-songwriter over other musician types, I heard my fill of [...]
Oryx & Crake is an nine-person Atlanta music collective made up of SCAD grads and English teachers, parents and friends. They celebrate their record release this Saturday at The Earl with Venice Is Sinking and Book of Colors. For Stomp and Stammer : Oryx & Crake Oryx & Crake Self-released Is there such a thing as quietly epic? Caught somewhere in the twilight in-between that isn't quite post-rock and isn't quite folk and isn't quite pop, [...]
Last year, I interviewed Luke Temple for Stomp and Stammer about his self-titled Here We Go Magic debut. It never made it to the web (it ran in print only), but we talked a lot about his commitment to analog recording and what it means to suddenly have four talented bandmates when he'd been a solo musician for so long. He was thoughtful and serious, and seemed more than anything to believe in music itself, in the way that's so thorough that it sounds almost casual. I loved Here We Go [...]
Ah, he was wonderful live... For Stomp and Stammer : The Tallest Man On Earth The Wild Hunt Dead Oceans ...And that's the moment, too, when Matsson's Swedishness becomes really surprising; because in his singing about "salvation" and "white knuckles on a wheel," in his detailing of how the highway makes him think about God, he sounds so quintessentially American – or at least the kind of American dudes with guitars have always told us exists but that we've never quite [...]
For Stomp and Stammer 's Tales From The Moshpit : Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bear In Heaven @ The Earl 3/11/10 At first, I thought Joseph D'Agostino might be crying. The Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman is recently famous for his profuse sweating, but during the New Jersey band's second song, the first drop of water running down his cheek seemed to drip sorrowfully from the corner of his eye. By the end of the next number, though, it became clear that it wasn't so much misery [...]
Night of the Living Dead Atlanta’s Carnivores Rise From the Grave By Julia Reidy The first time I saw Carnivores play, they were members of a band that is now dead. In early 2008, the four were still playing around Atlanta as Chainestereo, and I had low expectations. But when they opened for The Ruby Suns and Throw Me The Statue (two much more pop-inflected groups) at the Drunken Unicorn, from the first few damaged chords, I was hooked. Keyboardist Caitlin Lang started singing and whipping her hair around – one of my photos [...]
For Stomp and Stammer : Alec Ounsworth Mo Beauty [Anti-] There's never been a voice quite like Alec Ounsworth's, one part slippery like a mud wrestler sliding around on himself, one part crunchy like rusted gears grinding to a halt. When I first heard his debut LP with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, his vocal style was so idiosyncratic that part of me thought he must be kidding. Then I realized how dead serious he was about [...]
Two Kurt Vile posts back-to-back?! Geez, this guy must be good. For Stomp and Stammer : Kurt Vile Childish Prodigy [Matador] With a dirty buzz and a watery echo on every vocal, Kurt Vile, Philly's self-proclaimed "Constant Hitmaker" has released his second LP of fuzzed-out noise pop, this time via Matador. It's the follow-up to his debut, uh, Constant Hitmaker , and it's the kind of music that's got both bile (that's "bile" with a B!) [...]
For Stomp and Stammer : Nurses Apple's Acre [Dead Oceans] We usually reserve words like "polarizing" for things with moral gravity like political policy or public behavior. When applied to a Portland, Ore. psych-pop band like Nurses, such terms start to seem less applicable. But the trio's debut LP, Apple's Acre , is without a doubt one of those albums for which your ability to tolerate the sonic texture alone dictates completely whether you can like it or not, all discussions of [...]
FOA proudly presents: The Most Overtly Negative Thing I've Ever Written For Publication! or Wavves @ The EARL 10/4/09! For Stomp and Stammer 's Tales From The Moshpit section : There's a fine line between damaging for the sake of shock value – for effect – and just plain terrible. A band can affront its audience, like so many live musicians do, to involve them, to let out some aggression that's [...]
For Stomp and Stammer : Throw Me The Statue Creaturesque [Secretly Canadian] How cute is too cute? Is there such a thing as just cute enough? Seattle's Throw Me The Statue has made a career out of staying just this side of the line between winningly sweet and disgustingly saccharine. Their sophomore release Creaturesque is by no means all bounce, though the music can definitely be crisp, and often bright. Between skipping, upbeat numbers, Secretly Canadian's pop darlings insert [...]
For Stomp and Stammer: Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer [Jagjaguwar] If you can stand Spencer Krug's voice long enough to get through this whole album, then man, are you in for a treat. The solo recording project that has evolved into an honest-to-god band returns post-breakthrough with Dragonslayer, the follow-up to their 2007 release Random Spirit Lover . RSL was a leap forward for the band, compositionally, and while Dragonslayer demonstrates [...]
For Stomp and Stammer 's Tales From The Moshpit : Akron/Family @ The EARL, 8/13/09 I wish Akron/Family were my family. I wish my family screamed and wailed, but also crooned and hushed and harmonized. I wish they played guitar, bass and drums but also chains of bells around their necks and egg-shaped shakers and sampling boards and recorders and penny whistles. I wish they drew a crowd that filled the room at The EARL, half of whom were rapt with attention and danced with [...]
After writing a Paste Band of the Week on Bowerbirds at the re-release of Hymns For A Dark Horse last year (in which I got to interview Phil Moore), reviewing their follow-up LP was a bit of a challenge. For one thing, their style hadn't vastly changed on this sophomore effort. Many of the same elements were still there, to the point that it risked monotony. But once I listened enough, I got to experience the ways the band was growing. In the end, Upper Air is a satisfying, if not list-topping, effort from [...]
So far, Veckatimest is one of my favorite records of the year. Seeing Grizzly Bear for the first time at Bonnaroo was a complete thrill; I was so happy! Ed Droste is a hypnotic vocalist, and Christopher Bear's live drumming is formidable and overzealous and fantastic! When I came back, I got to agonize over a review of the album for Stomp and Stammer . What came out was unintentionally kind of a thesis. Hope you like! Grizzly Bear Veckatimest [...]
I saw Bon Iver play twice, six days apart. The first was at the Variety Playhouse ; the second was a hot, packed, mid-afternoon tent show at Bonnaroo. It was almost the exact same set. Both times, I almost cried. They're that good. If you ever have a chance to attend a concert of theirs, don't think about it. Just go! For Stomp and Stammer's Tales From The Moshpit : Bon Iver @ Variety Playhouse, 6/7/09 I don’t know how it happens. I can’t [...]
Jeff Clark of Stomp and Stammer gives us his ultimate mixtape
Appearing in this month's Stomp and Stammer : Wavves - Wavvves [Fat Possum] Nathan Williams is certainly not the first artist to center his work around damaged guitar riffs, malaise or the woes of beach life, but he just may be the very best one this year. Wielding his anguish about “going nowhere” (“Beach Demon”) and being “so bored” (“So Bored”) like weapons, and with his penchant for pop punk hooks, Williams as the entirety of buzz band Wavves is making….you know…with his second [...]
Fear of Arthropods
Crib Notes
MP3: Daft Punk – “Horizons” (RAM Japanese Bonus Track)
Akabu feat. Alex Mills – Everybody Wants Something (Joey Negro Strip Mix) [New Release]
Giorgio Moroder's first-ever DJ Set
Seven Lions: Fevers (Feat. Minnesota and Mimi Page)
M.I.A. – Boyz (gLAdiator Remix).
