She & Him return with their spectral (or Spector-al) 70′s AM pop rock radio sound in Volume Two. While the “singles” don’t carry the same weight as the first album, the record, in its entirety, is a stronger, more well-defined effort. They resurrect this vintage sound and ambience not for retro kitsch, but because it [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
AIR is from France. They don’t come here much. That was enough reason for me to go. Being Frenchy’s and all, you would think they would be the fashionably late type, but doors were at 8 PM and AIR was on by 9PM. Needless to say I missed the beginning. It was mostly predictable – [...]
“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 [...]
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club might change their name to Black Conformist Motorcycle Club because of the slavish attention they pay to 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 [...]
Avi Buffalo was a band I was interested in checking out because of one song really. I wasn’t sure if I’d like any of the other stuff from them. It sounded sort of juvenile at first, but when I settled in to watch the show it was really good. Their last two songs showed a [...]
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 [...]
What happened to the days when metal shows played late into the night? Maybe they still exist, just not when Firestone has a hip-hop club night to host. I was excited to hear Prong do classics like “Prove You Wrong” and “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” live as I missed them the first time [...]
With a bold statement in your name like The Phenomenal Handclap Band you better be good. TPHCB brings an electronic tinged, spacey, psychedelic disco sound on their debut album. “You’ll Disappear” backs up the name and is The Coolest Song Ever! … Right Now. [media id=32]