Besides being a frequent cause for derision from my fiance, music that falls into the “ambient-drone” category is a staple for me. It lends itself to heavy headphone affairs in which I can be completely lost in washes of synths and looped guitar distortion to a diligent companion to late night War and Peace read-a-thons …
ANIMAL HOSPITAL – “GOOD OR PLENTY, STREETS + AVENUES” Read More »
Hymn to the Immortal Wind is a milestone achievement for post-rock. MONO puts to rest the somewhat justifiable lament that all post-rock are prisoners to their art form. How many times can ascending chords and towering crescendos be relevant or memorable when you have heard them a million times from a million like-minded bands? Don’t get me wrong …
MONO – HYMN TO THE IMMORTAL WIND (TEMPORARY RESIDENCE LTD., 2009) Read More »
Beasts of Seasons is a beautifully subtle, or a subtlety beautiful, record from Portland’s most precious singer/songwriter. Back from a whirlwind tour supporting Decemberists and Portland’s native George Byron, Colin Meloy, Laura Gibson seems to have taken a few cues from her much fawned over tour mate. But where Colin Meloy gets his kicks from overly verbose, thesaurus nerd browbeating, Laura’s …
While relatively short offerings the re-release of Carved by Glaciers and the recently released European tour split EP with Austin’s This Will Destroy You chronicle a band in it’s gradual evolution to one of the most creative groups putting out music today. I was completely floored by the Lymbyc Systym’s 2007 albums Love your Abuser and its subsequent remix …
Lymbyc Systym / This Will Destroy You – Field Studies (Magic Bullet, 2009) Read More »
So much of the reception of music is tied up in physical location and mood. Listening to The Antlers for the first time was one of those moments in which all four elements converged into a perfect storm that allowed an album like Hospice to seep into my soul. I was driving to Salt Lake City from …
t’s true, before I met my fiance Neko Case seemed like the woman of my dreams. While all of my freshmen dorm mates put up the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit model I had a page I ripped out of The Big Takeoverwith Neko in a long black dress reclining wistfully on a couch with her long red hair draped over …
About 10 people and I saw the Crystal Antlers play an amazing set last November at Kilby Court. While the set was amazing it was a pretty strange situation. Local tween pop band Kid Theodore for some reason was scheduled to play their album release show that night while opening for the Crystal Antlers. I …
CRYSTAL ANTLERS – TENTACLES (TOUCH AND GO, 2009) Read More »
Listening to Jasper, TX for the first time was a singular experience I had at a record store. 3 years ago I was perusing a local record store and met an employee who had similar musical tastes. We started chatting about musicians we found fascinating and then he paused, looked around, and whispered in a …
The Blood Brothers, love them or hate them, were undeniably talented. When these unlikely torchbearers broke up the reverberation around the music community was felt deeply. Although 10 years deep, The Blood Brothers still felt like a band in their prime, Young Machetes was an exciting step with more focus on percussion with their trademark math time …
PAST LIVES – “STRANGE SYMMETRY” (SUICIDE SQUEEZE, 2009) Read More »
This album marks the first of what I like to call the Triple Convergence: three of my favorite bands from my formative years, Appleseed Cast, Thursday, ….And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, have all released new albums hailed as their “comeback” after two mediocre albums. Appleseed Cast have reached a mythical status in …