Review: The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (or) talking with fireworks exploding
On their latest album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters Glaswegian quartet The Twilight Sad (maybe unsurprisingly) fuse the sounds of Scottish folk music with the swirling layered guitars of bands like My Bloody Valentine. It is a gloriously melancholy album that envelops you like a dense fog with waves of fuzzy droning guitars and the (Read more…)
Review: Maximo Park – Our Earthly Pleasures (or) hold my head up while I’m falling down
I think it was sometime last year when I said that Maximo Park is “yet another British group that plays that popular-with-the-kids melodic post-punk but this band is one of the best of the lot,” and I still stick to my guns on that verdict. Better than Franz, Futureheads, or Kaiser Chiefs. Maximo Park’s latest (Read more…)
Song context result repost
Awhile back I was asked to contribute to the fourth installment of the Song/Context/Result feature that runs over at the always excellent music blog Music Is Art. The gist of the whole thing was explained as, “Tell me about a moment, a song, and what it meant to you.” Here’s mine: Song: Tears For Fears (Read more…)
Review: Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (or) heimdalsgate like a promethean curse
For some reason I’ve never given the Athens, GA band Of Montreal much of a listen. I don’t really know why but I never did. But a month or two ago my wife Amy started going on and on about just how great the new Of Montreal album is. I was like “Yeah, whatever,” but (Read more…)
Meat and Potatoes for dinner tonight
Meat And Potatoes is one of the country’s finest design firms. They’ve done design work for Cabo Wabo Tequila, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and just about every major record label you can name. Well, what happens when designers of this caliber decide to venture into the realm of fashion? You get t-shirts. Not just (Read more…)
Review: Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger (or) picture of Jesus on the dashboard
The polarizing alt-country pretty boy Ryan Adams is set to release his 9th album Easy Tiger on June 26th via Lost Highway Records. The Cardinals (again) joined him as a backing band which is good since I liked Jacksonville City Nights more than virtually all of his post-Heartbreaker output. Easy Tiger (however) sounds like it (Read more…)
C’mon get moving (a mixtape)
It’s cloudy and a bit cool this morning here in Chicagoland and I need a little something to get me going. This mix/playlist taken directly from the ol’ iPod (along with a maniacal 19 month old little girl dancing and yelling along to Happy Feet) has gotten me just about there. All I need now (Read more…)
Review: Mary Timony – The Shapes We Make (or) small red lights shining in the blackness
The Shapes We Make is Mary Timony’s fourth solo album since she spent time in indie rockers Helium. It is (overall) a dark and moody record that oftentimes sounds like a back alley drug deal between Sebadoh and Sleater-Kinney. A proggy post-rock wet dream. Timony’s husky and Kim Gordon-esqe alto pipes are well-suited for the (Read more…)
The Dismemberment Plan escapes (again)
Here is the second of the two reunion shows that The Dismemberment Plan played about a month ago at The Black Cat in Washington, DC. The first one is two posts down. The shows were both put together to raise money for Callum Robbins. The exact date of this one was Saturday, April 28th, 2007. (Read more…)
