Athens, GA is a hotspot for new talent, and one of the most promising acts in quite some time is the sometimes experimental, sometimes shoegaze greatness that is Venice Is Sinking (MySpace). AZAR is the quintet’s second; it’s an album packed with connotations like sometimes and conceptual and maybe even dreamy. Read More »Venice Is Sinking: AZAR [Album Review]
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really care for Vetiver (MySpace) the first time I heard them; at least I thought I didn’t. At the time, they just seemed the standard folk-rock-pop artist blend, fronted by generic vocals. But Tight Knit is none of that. And after listening to it a few times, realization dawned on me that I was thinking about a different band. Vetiver possesses none of the negative terms I associated with the other V band: generic, monotonous, lacking endearment. Instead, Vetiver’s music is filled with traits that make fellow Sub Pop artists like Daniel Martin Moore great. Read More »Vetiver: Tight Knit [Album Review]
There are two general categories of movie music: the kind that is composed specifically for a film and the already released kind that was selected by someone for the film. As for which works better, it is up to the director or whoever else makes those big decisions (and if you know anyone who needs someone fills that roll, contact me). Then there’s the music that, while not in any film, sounds like it was written for a film—sometimes, better yet, a particular scene in a film. I always thought “Fear Not My Friend For Tonight We Ride†off You Should Be At Home Here by Carissa’s Weird would have fit well in an indie-flick scene of someone driving through the country. Black Heart Procession released their Tropics of Love album as a murder mystery film. Norway’s classically-based, 22 person orchestra Kaada (MySpace) has produced a full album of such music but without the supporting images, allowing the listener to conjue the images themself and making Kaada’s musical imagery a listener-induced audible cinematography. Read More »Kaada: Music For Moviebikers [Album Reviews]
OK, so this album originally came out in 2001, making this a reissue. The official name extends beyond Self-Navigation to include a hidden (Remastered/Expanded). Crushed Stars frontman Tod Gautreau even re-recorded some of the vocals – reasoning that the first time around the group had only time for a few takes. Thus, what’s heard now is the same album, minus the first issue’s “shortcomings”, as Gautreau puts its. Read More »Crushed Stars: Self-Navigation [Album Review]
The Ascetic Junkies are folk, punk, bluegrass, or maybe even indie, respectively. But, what sticks out most is the fun they create no matter how slow chords move or how quick the spoons clap. One Shoe Over The Cuckoo’s Nest brilliantly comes off as vocalists Kali Giaritta and Matt Hammon’s ultimate love letter to one another. Their trade offs of vocal duties work as well as their collaborative efforts. Their leadership roles in this new wave folk group is obvious, yet they still portray great appreciation to what every member brings to the table. Read More »The Ascetic Junkies: One Shoe Over The Cuckoo’s Nest [Album Review]
Listening to Women’s Women reminds me of—other than the female form—Person Pitch by Panda Bear and Cryptograms by Deerhunter. These albums, like Women, can be difficult for the standard pop fan. But I’m not your standard pop fan (how can someone who enjoys the noise-hype that is HEALTH be your standard pop fan?) as my tastes stray beyond the pop borders quite frequently. Read More »Women: Women [Album Review]
Today is just a dreary day–the perfect type of day to listen to dreary music. Ten minutes ago I discovered a fellow coworker passed away last Friday. The news swept the office Monday but I had spent the majority of that day elsewhere. I found it odd that, when asking coworkers how their day was, they had negative replies. Yet no one explained to me why. Thus I was left clueless of last Friday’s events. Though I did not know Tory well, I knew he was a good guy, intelligent and kind. And quite young, merely 28. But he had a “bum ticker” so to speak. He was plagued with a bad heart and was often away from work in pain or the hospital or both. Enter Helvetia. Perfect music for such a day. It’s morose. Frantic but calm. The pause before the storm.
Read More »Helvetia: The Clever North Wind [Album Review] 
Aujourd’Hui Madame split their songwriting between English and French vocals, but the instrumentation is always pop. El Americano EP is the perfect representation of what makes international indie pop music great – it’s upbeat in all the right ways, and while there’s an obvious predilection toward France, it’s not really distinct to any particular nation. Read More »Aujourd’Hui Madame: El Americano EP
Written by bob_vinyl
Over the years, the term art rock hasn’t had a real solid definition, but it has consistently included bands that push creative limits even if some sacrifice the raw ability to rock in the process. To not call Wilderness an art rock band would be a mistake, but to limit them to the trappings of any single era of that shifting genre would be just as incorrect. Read More »Wilderness: (k)now(w)here [Album Review]
It is just after 7am and I’ll soon be getting ready for work. As I’m writing this review it’s starting to hail outside. It is startling because the impact of each little ball of hail is quite loud on the roof and the shed outside my window. I have never seen such large hail. I have always wondered if there is some complex mathematical equation that would explain the weather, life, and everything in general—an equation like the one pondered by the brilliant but paranoid mathematician in Darren Arnofsky’s Pi. Cave Deaths also reminds me of mathematical equations. Read More »Cave Deaths: Glacier On Fire [Album Review]
