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The Ascetic Junkies: One Shoe Over The Cuckoo’s Nest [Album Review]

The Ascetic Junkies

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]

Women: Women [Album Review]

Women the band

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]

Helvetia

Helvetia: The Clever North Wind [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: El Americano EP

Aujourd'Hui Madame

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

Wilderness: (k)now(w)here [Album Review]

Wilderness

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]

Cave Deaths: Glacier On Fire [Album Review]

Cave Deaths

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]

Thao: We Brave Bee Stings And All [Album Review]

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down

Written by bob_vinyl

We Brave Bee Stings and All by Thao With The Get Down Stay Down (MySpace) begins and ends like it may be a simple twee pop album. Both “Beat” and “We Go” have a thin, light pop sound that could be mistaken for a novelty. What happens between those two songs, however, is anything but. There is no doubt that a twee influence runs through the album, but there is so much more. Read More »Thao: We Brave Bee Stings And All [Album Review]

Anathallo: Floating World [Album Review]

Anathallo

In 2005 it was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s unprecedented sale of 25,000 plus self-released albums sold out of an apartment in New York that had the world ranting and raving. In 2004 it was Arcade Fire’s Funeral that had people talking. In 2002, The Polyphonic Spree took the stage with their countless numbered choir in creepy white or pastel colored cult-like robes. Those years have come to pass, but the bands remain prominent in the minds of music fans. So who will be the act to stun music fans in 2006? Let me introduce you to that band—the group everyone will (or should) be talking about in the years to come: Anathallo (MySpace). Yet this Mount Pleasant, Michigan group already has numerous releases under their belt, dating back as early as 2001. So why haven’t you, or I, heard of them before? Read More »Anathallo: Floating World [Album Review]

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