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The New Pornographers: Continue As A Guest [Album Review]

Andy Fenstermaker
June 1, 2023June 1, 2023

To begin, I have an embarrassing admission to make: For the most part, I have been flat out ignoring The New Pornographers since their 2007 release Challengers. In this album review, I’m setting out to see what sets their new album, Continue as a Guest apart. What about it caught my attention compared to everything else they’ve done in the past 15 years? Does this album have staying power? Is it any good?

Let’s find out.

Camera Obscura Underachievers Please Try Harder Vinyl

Camera Obscura | Underachievers Please Try Harder | 20th Anniversary

Andy Fenstermaker
April 2, 2023May 19, 2023

Underachievers Please Try Harder is the second studio album by the Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura. It was originally released on November 11, 2003 on Elefant Records out of Spain. Since the original CD and vinyl pressings, it’s received worldwide release including Japan on Imperial Records, Merge in the US, among a few others.

Wye Oak Civilian 10th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Review

Andy Fenstermaker
November 16, 2021April 11, 2022

I remember when Wye Oak came on the scene back in 2008 with their album If Children. They followed it… Read More »Wye Oak Civilian 10th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Review

Wye Oak’s New LP is Far From What You Might Expect. And That’s A Good Thing.

Andy Fenstermaker
April 4, 2014November 21, 2021

I was apprehensive the first time I hear “The Tower” by Wye Oak. The new track, off Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner’s forthcoming LP Shriek, is so vastly different from their previous material, I was almost initiated the metaphorical reject button. Gave it a few days, and tried it again with better results. Read More »Wye Oak’s New LP is Far From What You Might Expect. And That’s A Good Thing.

King Khan & the Shrines: Idle No More

Andy Fenstermaker
September 16, 2013September 18, 2013

I’ve become hypnotized. Haunted. Unsuspectingly allured. There is darkness / In every inch of my veins / In every pleasure, in every pain, coos King Khan with a high-pitched and heartfelt falsetto in “Darkness”, a bluesy, jazzy, laid back garage-pop ballad. The words are gripping amidst blaring soulful saxophones and trumpets. It’s enough to melt you inside. Read More »King Khan & the Shrines: Idle No More

Telekinesis: Ghosts And Creatures

Andy Fenstermaker
January 10, 2013September 18, 2013

Telekinesis premiered their new track “Ghosts And Creatures” off the forthcoming Dormarion earlier this week on Stereogum, and I caught the post after main member Michael Lerner’s sister posted the link on a well known social network. The first thing I picked up in their premiere is that the album was produced by Spoon’s Jim Eno. That’s connection number two I have to this album. Read More »Telekinesis: Ghosts And Creatures

Amor de DÃÂas: Wild Winter Trees (Video)

Andy Fenstermaker
June 22, 2011June 21, 2011

Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele has a new project, Amor de DÃÂas and boy is it good! Like his other band, this one borders on bossa nova. But rather than pop, MacLean instead flirts with folk. “Wild Winter Trees” is soft and beautiful with a lightly strummed guitar and calming vocals. Similarly, the video is simple, showing grainy footage a family playing in the fields. Read More »Amor de DÃÂas: Wild Winter Trees (Video)

Telekinesis: Car Crash [mp3]

Andy Fenstermaker
February 18, 2011February 18, 2011

My buddy Jon wrote in an email to me yesterday: “Hey Andy, did you see this yet? That’s your ride too, right?” Sure enough, he linked to this great article from Michael Lerner on Aquarium Drunkard talking about his 1976 BMW 2002. Part of AD’s Diversions column in which artists talk about a passion outside of music, I simply felt compelled to leave a comment. Read More »Telekinesis: Car Crash [mp3]

Destroyer: Chinatown [mp3]

Andy Fenstermaker
November 24, 2010November 23, 2010

For those of you familiar with Dan Bejar and his work in both Destroyer and The New Pornographers, this song may come as a bit of a shock. It’s damn near electronic! This isn’t the Dan Bejar we know and love… or is it? Leave it to JC/DC to spend a solid year-and-a-half production time reinventing Bejar as an off-beat, near contemporary artist. Bejar has never been one to create normality, but “Chinatown” is about as strange as it gets because it lacks consistency with the man’s prior work. Read More »Destroyer: Chinatown [mp3]

Shout Out Louds: Walls [Video]

Ron Trembath
January 12, 2010January 11, 2010

There is a time and place for a band like the pop frenzied Shout Out Louds. And that time is obviously now. Their latest single “Walls” is a verbal demonstration and display of affection toward the ever-changing times being seen throughout the world. There is an independent spirit raging in the youth of now. Kids want action! They want hot-sauced moodiness and a deranged sense of anti-socialism. That’s just the way it is. And this band is the Swedish ambassadors to the new Greenwich or Ashbury crowds of yester-years. Read More »Shout Out Louds: Walls [Video]