The little college town of Athens, Georgia has a rich and varied history of progressive rock music – from The B-52′s and R.E.M to the musical collective responsible for the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel and Elf Power. Danger Mouse is also an Athens transplant who began his stellar career in the humble little city. This rock pedigree is alive and well in Athens natives The Whigs.
The Whigs are back with their third official release in In the Dark. This album continues to refine and expand the approach of the little 3-piece outfit with a huge sound. They embrace the indie, low-fi, garage rock approach, but amp it up to arena volume. The Whigs create an aural aesthetic reminiscent of The Replacements or Camper van Beethoven with a slight southern twist, but played through the Smashing Pumpkins sound rig with powerful, competent drumming and a thick, comfy sonic snuggie of guitar.
In the Dark tears through 11 songs with power and energy. The record starts with a hum rising from the din giving way to a circular drum pattern and the heavy, effects-laden bass guitar crunch of the hook-y “Hundred/ Million” and doesn’t relent through the screeching and stuttering effects at the end of “In the Dark” to the moody ambient intro of the closer “Naked.” The straight-forward garage sound is dressed up and made that much more alluring by doses of shoegaze bombast. Songs like “Black Lotus” are so raw and catchy, but the piling of guitar effects and overdubs elevate the delivery and overall appeal. This is an outstanding effort from a demure bunch of guys that let the music do the talking. The power of the music will keep Abraham Lincoln and Henry Clay from rolling in their graves and may be enough to get them to rock out.
Written for REAX Online March 25, 2010
Chali 2na is the bad-ass baritone from Jurassic 5 – the best hip hop outfit around right now. The first time I heard the “verbal Herman Munsta” was with Ozomatli way back and I’ve been a fan since.¬†The deep voice is something I thought would irritate me. but it works so well. Despite the short run time of “Get Focused” it still slams. [media id=37]
Lusk’s one and only album, Free Mars, was released in 1997. They are described as a “highly experimental psychedelic pop band.” Tool’s original bass player, Paul D’Amour left the band after Undertow to pursue something “more experimental” and Lusk is just that. “Backworlds” is the first song on the album and maybe the most listenable. It is actually reminiscent of current, progressive indie rock – along the lines of MEW. The song creates the clever parallel of sounding light and poppy while the lyrics and feel lend themselves to something darker. The 
I went to this show at the urging of a good friend in San Francisco – “Oh-mi-God, you will love this band. They are sooo good and you will totally walk out of the show with a crush on their singer, Yukimi Nagano.” She was right. They are from Sweden (though Yukimi speaks fluent, accent-free English) and they put on a hell of a show. Despite having around 70 people show-up, the music, the performance, the attendee’s good spirits, and more importantly, Nagano’s charm, exuberance, powerful voice, and Karen-O-ish antics made it feel like 250 people were there. They ran through an hour and 20 minutes worth of their future-indie-electro-proto-soul (I just made that up) with energy and charisma. It is like Morcheeba meets the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, then swallows Sade. They started quiet and worked the crowd into a frenzy. Part of this was due to the audience – we made Orlando look good. The scant few that showed up were grateful that LD was here. The crowd chanted, clapped in time, and even danced (poorly) on stage. The awkward smiles on the band’s faces showed they were giddy with the overwhelming response from our city.
“Wide Eyes” is this first song I heard from California band Local Natives. Their debut full-length album, Gorilla Manor, was released in England in 2009, then February of 2010 here in the States. This song mixes the vocal feelings of Fleet Foxes with the frenetic passion of Modest Mouse. Despite my annoying capacity to compare one band’s sound to another band’s sound, this song from Local Natives feels fresh. The vocal arrangements, solid drumming, and cool guitar work make it stand-out in the ever widening sea of indie-pop faces.
their genre. Beat the Devil’s Tattoo stays comfortably inside the fuzzy, retro garage that BRMC has painstakingly built and the album champions the same gritty, slinky, almost dark, sound they’ve always had. So what’s wrong with that? Nothing, I guess, if you’re good at it.
Ah, Modest Mouse and their penchant for clever song titles and even cheekier album names released the EP, No One’s First and You’re Next, a few months back. Another well-crafted notch in their belt No One captures all that is great about their sound – then and now and continues Isaac Brock’s witty, humanistic, if not nihilistic view of life through his lyrics. “Guilty Cocker Spaniels” could be overlooked with the catchy “Satellite Skin” and the Heath Ledger directed video for “