Archive for the ‘Record Reviews’ Category
Record Review: Soulo – Sun Valley
By Rebekah Goode-Peoples & Ryan Peoples
The first track on Soulo’s third album, Sun Valley on Plug Research Records, starts out with intermittent studio chatter, the nuts, bolts and aggravations of recording music, the underbelly of the polished finished product. Gradually the melodic finished layer takes over, growing from chaos into song. And the song “Up [...]
Record Review: Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement
By Alex Brenner
Just in time to coincide with the much anticipated Pavement reunion comes a greatest hits package from Matador Records. I don’t know if I’d call them “hits” but it’s definitely a decent best of compilation. For those of you unfamiliar with Pavement this is a great introduction to the band.
The tracks range from [...]
Record Review: OK Go – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
By Alex Brenner
While most people think of treadmills when they think of OK Go, I think of hooks. This band could always write a great hook like “Get Over It” or “Lately It’s So Quiet”, and while they never seem to be able to settle on a sound of their own, their albums are still [...]
Off the Shelf – Rare Metal Edition (Record Reviews)
By Alex Brenner
While transferring all of my CD collection over to my new 1.5 TB drive, I noticed that although I consider myself to be well-versed in all that is indie rock/punk, I own a lot of metal. While I know it’s not cool to like metal anymore, I’m talking about some real unknown metal. [...]
Record Review: Dawn Landes & the Hounds – Sweetheart Rodeo
By Alex Brenner
It’s hard to be a female singer-songwriter. Usually they fall into three categories for me. You have the quirky Regina Spektor type, the poppy Lisa Loeb type, or the introspective Tift Merritt type. Dawn Landes falls into none of the above.
While her sound is definitely familiar, she really puts a new [...]
What We Missed in 2009 (More Record Reviews)
By Alex Brenner
While it’s impossible to write about every record that comes out, I found myself reflecting on 2009 as not a great year for music. Looking at the top 10 lists of 2009, I almost wanted it to be 1994 again when people made mind blowing records and alternative was alternative (Crooked Rain, Crooked [...]
Record Review: Surfer Blood – Astro Coastal
By Alex Brenner
Surfer Blood has been getting some well deserved hype lately. From the opening chords of “Floating Vibes,” I have to say believe the hype. It’s about time another band came along and just played some good old fashioned 90’s indie rock. Why you ask? Because listening to a band sing harmonies over bloops [...]
Record Review: Spoon – Transference
By Alex Brenner
Spoon is just one of those bands that keep getting better and better as they go on; their seventh release is living proof. The progression from their 1998 major label debut A Series of Sneaks up to Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga has been just staggering. Singer Britt Daniels has always had that [...]
Off The Shelf Record Reviews (Built to Spill, Whiskeytown, & more)
By Alex Brenner
Ladies and gentleman my walk in closet is a mess. Shirts, guitar cases, blankets and random cat toys stuffed into one space just so it will be out of plain site. The other day I almost died in there when a box of CDs came plummeting down at my head. I caught the [...]
Record Review: Them Crooked Vultures
In an era when any band formed by Jack White is considered a super group, it’s a bit refreshing to call this line-up a super group – Dave Grohl leads Foo Fighters and played in an old band out of Seattle, Led Zeppelin had bassist John Paul Jones on bass, and Josh Homme fronts Queens [...]
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