Rock

12 posts in 'Rock'

Hadouken! - Music for an Accelerated Culture — music review

If you love slick speak, thick layered sounds, quick synthesizer bender-ing (think electronic slide whistle), look no further than Leeds’ Hadouken!’s debut, Music for an Accelerated Culture.

The Orchids - Good to Be a Stranger — music review

So you say you want to listen to a grown-up lullaby. ‘I Need You to Believe in Me’ by The Orchids reeks of the soothing neutrality you seek, lilting guitar archipelagos and even a staccato-strummed rhythm electric guitar sounds sweet. And what the– trumpets? Gentle, happy trumpets, ahh. ‘Xylophone Song’ is [...]

CSS - Donkey — music review

Don’t you hate it when bands you like — and you like them partially because no one’s ever heard of them — are featured on TV commercials? CSS’ ‘Music is my Hot Hot Sex’ serenaded some spinning iPod Touch, making me quite sad for a quite long twenty seconds, but then, who can stay [...]

Classic Albums: The Doors — dvd review

Starring: Jim Morrison and crew
Genre: Rockumentary, rock
“Is he writing about death? Do people write about that?! It’s not like Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da!” - Henry Rollins on The End by The Doors
When the Doors came out in the late 60s, it was clear that they were a different kind of rock band, one that was [...]

Love Psychedelico - This Is Love Psychedelico — music review — early!

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to handle this review in a non-fanboy sort of fashion, and I realized I can’t. I love Love Psychedelico. They’re one of my favorite bands. In fact, they’re one of the few bands that have prompted me to purchase multiple albums in these days of rotten popular music and lossy MP3s. And, keep in mind these are import CDs (Yes, I dig Love Psychedelico that much.) [...]

Angels and Airwaves - I-Empire — music review

To give you an idea of how out of the popular music scene I am, when I initially received a notice about Angels and Airwaves’ I-Empire, I turned it down. I thought to myself, “Who are these guys? That dude with the glasses looks like he’s from Devo. And this 70’s throwback cover? I don’t [...]

Goon Moon - Licker’s Last Leg — music review — early!

Bands that do it all and do it well are totally welcome in my book. Criticized by people that like their bands to be predictable, off kilter but incredible bands such as Oneida and De Novo Dahl often flitter into obscurity, satisfying only a niche audience (like me — I love ‘em!). I [...]

Curve - Doppelgänger — music review

Yah, I won’t be the first to admit that Curve can be a wee-bit um, redundant, or do I mean consistent? Their shrieking wall of guitar fuzz, insistent bass, 120 minimum bpm, Toni Halliday darkly throating the epitome of whine-rock lyrics. And nevermind their internal bickering, their demise wholeheartedly encouraged by copy-cats like [...]

Sea and Cake - Nassau — music review

Call it “variations on a theme” that leads repeat listenings of Nassau, Sea and Cake’s second album. While each song is unique, you might swear you’ve just heard a tune on repeat for they all share the jangly-to-fret-tickled guitar of Archer Prewitt, the energetic basslines of Eric Claridge, John McEntire’s wacky tropical percussion and [...]

Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A — music review

Ah, fizzy J-pop with its perky jumpbeats and relentless optimism. Broadcasting from a technological mecca, laced with so much expected escapism from a turbulent, demanding society, pop music from Japan embodies either pungent cutesyness or the exact opposite– raunchy overuse of misused curse words –but only one thing can be certain: behind every foreign [...]

The Wolfgang Press - Everything is Beautiful — music review

“Right place right time, from Soul Boy to Punk in one seamless movement… The arrogance of youth is a wonderful thing and belief is everything. To say the answer to all of my inner turmoil and sense of isolation was found down a dingy cellar on Oxford Street in the form of one group who [...]

Ima Robot - (self-titled) — music review

I didn’t want to like Ima Robot, but just couldn’t help it. I blame it in parts: 1/2 due to its pristine new wave heavy pop-punk revamp with 1/4 devoted to Jello Biafra soundalike (and ex-rapper) Alex Ebert, 1/4 ‘cos it makes vacuuming fun. Worried it would be a one-hit wonder album, [...]

Liz Phair - Somebody’s Miracle — music review

Liz Phair was one of the artists I started listening to back in Junior High school. Not so much because her music was good, but rather because she was hot. In listening to her CD’s though I found her catchy alt rock sensibilities and sassy-nasty lyrics to be quite a nice compliment to my daily [...]