Review: The One AM Radio – This Too Will Pass
Somewhere between the the homespun electronic beats and the classical-meets-folk-rock mini-orchestrations created by multi-instrumentalist Hrishikesh Hirway lies the remnants of someone else’s life and someone else’s pain. Like the soundtrack to some old reel-to-reel home movies that don’t belong to you, it sounds like a haunting look back at happier times that you can’t help (Read more…)
Review: Caribou – Andorra
Can anyone tell me why Dan Snaith’s music has always seemed to get lumped into the folk-tronica genre? The man behind the Caribou moniker is an amazing producer and even though much of what he creates is sampled, chopped, and tweaked, it doesn’t (and really didn’t ever) strike me as truly “electronic” music, but whatever. (Read more…)
Review: Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam and company are back with a great new Iron & Wine record called The Shepherd’s Dog just in time for the dog days of summer. About a year ago when I saw Iron & Wine’s set at Lollapalooza, something was missing. The crowd was too frantic and the setting not at all right. (Read more…)
Review: Yellowcard – Paper Walls
Paper Walls is the latest album from the Jacksonville, Florida pop-punk band Yellowcard. It isn’t groundbreaking or even all that original, but I’ve always sorta liked Yellowcard. Maybe its because they are the only pop-punk band around (to my knowledge) that prominently features a violin player or maybe I just really like that “Ocean Avenue” (Read more…)
Review: The Gunshy – There’s No Love In This War
After being part of the Chicago Blogapalooza, I was really really excited to hear the new record from Matt Arbogast’s alter-ego The Gunshy. It is titled There’s No Love In This War and although it isn’t officially released for another six weeks (on Latest Flame Records), we’ve been playing it a ton ‘round these parts. (Read more…)
Banner Pilot rocks our world
Last year I raved about the Minneapolis punk band Banner Pilot and their debut release Pick Your Poison. It was a delicious slice of gruff-but-catchy punk rock in the same vein as Jawbreaker, Crimpshrine, Dillinger Four, Lawrence Arms, etc… You know, the good stuff. Anyhow, the band has a new split 7” out with The (Read more…)
Review: Travis Morrison Hellfighters – All Y’all
Former Dismemberment Plan frontman Travis Morrison’s new album All Y’all (with backing band The Hellfighters in tow) starts off sounding downright Plan-ish but then (as expected) changes course and explodes into a fragments of a hundred different genres. Even though they made a few valid points, I’m not about to blast this record like Pitchfork (Read more…)
Elizabeth Mitchell and family
Amy, Hailey, and I went up to Ravinia this weekend to catch a rare Chicago performance from our favorite children’s artist Elizabeth Mitchell. She performed songs from all three of her albums including many from her latest, You Are My Little Bird. For those that don’t know, she (along with her husband Dan) are both (Read more…)
A week of stormy weather
The weather here in Chicago last week was about as rainy and nasty as it could be and I think this song sums it all up pretty nicely. Let’s hope for more favorable conditions this week. MP3 | The Pixies – Stormy Weather Bossanova
