Category: RECORD REVIEWS

Record Review: Itasca’s “Spring”
Spring is like a chronical of a solitary road trip. It was written in New Mexico, recorded in California and

Record Review: Drahla’s “Useless Coordinates”
Utter certain words in a sequence, and the world deems you either a prophet or a madman. Since 2015, the

Record Review: Sporten Är Död’s “Sporten Är Död”
Scrape down through the layers of rock history and what do you find? More layers—it never ends. This LP represents

Record Review: Writhing Squares’ “Out Of The Ether”
Space comes in a box, and all you need to do to get some is stomp on it. Writhing Squares,

Record Review: Lena Hessels’ “Billow”
Lena Hessels is not the first 17-year-old to lock her self up over the summer and make a record. But

Record Review: Upper Wilds’ “Mars”
Concept-record fans, take note. Mars is a space/rock opera concerning an alternate history in which humans have already settled elsewhere

Record Review: Various Artists “Freedom Of The Press”
Music and journalism have this in common: They’re both means to communicate what’s going on. That means that both can

Record Review: Mako Sica & Hamid Drake’s “Ronda”
It may take a village to raise a child and two record labels (Feeding Tube and Astral Spirits) to put

Record Review: The Skygreen Leopards’ “The Jingling World Of The Skygreen Leopards”
When Donavan Quinn and Glenn Donaldson started the Skygreen Leopards in 2001, they agreed upon some ground rules. They would

Record Review: Titus Andronicus’ “A Productive Cough”
The shift that Titus Andronicus makes with A Productive Cough shouldn’t catch us off guard—long have Patrick Stickles and Co.

Franz Ferdinand: All My Friends
Franz Ferdinand is playing at James Murphy’s house. One of the best Franz Ferdinand performances is on an LCD Soundsystem

Record Review: Franz Ferdinand’s “Always Ascending”
Franz Ferdinand seems to have a thing for laziness. In addition to the Glasgow band’s generally louche persona, there’s a

Record Review: The Decemberists’ “I’ll Be Your Girl”
Anyone who’s been cussed out by “Ben Franklin’s Song” knows Colin Meloy still has some poison left in his quill.

Record Review: Weezer’s “Weezer”
Weezer, the 10th album by Weezer, is about as good (or bad, your call) as Weezer, several measures worse than

Record Review: The Late Greats’ “Kids You Knew”
Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream and Jesus And Mary Chain fame is often noted with the phrase, “A band is only

Record Review: Erroll Garner “The Complete Concert By The Sea”
Sixty years ago today, explosively melodic jazz pianist Erroll Garner lit a fire in a Carmel By The Sea, Calif.,

Essential New Music: Thee Oh Sees’ “Mutilator Defeated At Last”
I have no doubt that John Dwyer and the occasionally rotating crew of musicians he calls Thee Oh Sees are

Essential New Music: Ryan Adams’ “Live At Carnegie Hall”
According to William Blake, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom … you never know what is