Review: These Are Powers – Taro Tarot
This six song EP serves as a companion of sorts to the full length (Terrific Seasons) that the trio of These Are Powers (featuring ex-Liar Pat Noecker) released just last year and although I haven’t heard that full length, if this EP is any indication, both are worth seeking out. Now Taro Tarot sits somewhere (Read more…)
Review: Mercy Choir – Goodbye Letters EP
Mercy Choir is basically one guy (Paul Belbusti) who plays folk songs based primarily around his acoustic guitar and vocals. These songs were recorded in the living room of his New Haven, Connecticut apartment and have a generally lo-fi feel. There is a sort of darkness to these songs that is only accentuated by some (Read more…)
Review: Triclops! – Out Of Africa
Let me just start by saying that Out Of Africa is fun but often difficult to listen to. It is not without merit, but the freaked-out combination of spastic hardcore and crazed-prog rock is utterly dizzying at times. The music turns quickly with sharp dynamic shifts and moves from only gently warped to frenetically abrasive (Read more…)
Ben Weasel @ Reggie’s
How was your weekend? Yeah, I know it’s Tuesday, but yesterday was a holiday ya know. So Amy and I headed down to Reggie’s on Sunday night for the once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity to see the one and only Mr. Ben Weasel take to the stage and let me tell you he did not disappoint. Both Amy (Read more…)
Review: Mochipet – Microphonepet
Mochipet is the stage name of San Francisco-based producer/beat-wrangler David Wang. Until now I was unfamiliar but Mochipet’s latest release, Microphonepet, is a collection of 20 songs from 2003-2008 that explore glitchy electronica, old-school hip-hop, and virtually everything in-between. The album’s wide-ranging diversity keeps it interesting from start to finish and it also doesn’t hurt (Read more…)
Review: Cartel – Cartel
I wrote a pretty long diatribe about the Georgia-based band Cartel’s first album Chroma (and my feelings on pop-punk in general) here, and will admit freely to liking that album and its well-played and catchy-as-hell radio-friendly pop-punk. It is a solid and sunny album that is perfect for the current onslaught of sun and 75 (Read more…)
Review: Polar Bear Club – Sometimes Things Just Disappear
It could be very easy to be disappointed with Sometimes Things Just Disappear after Polar Bear Club’s awesome debut EP The Redder, The Better but just give this one a little time; it’s a slow burner. On this (their debut full-length) Polar Bear Club continues to blend catchy pop-punk hooks with slower and more angular (Read more…)
Review: Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward
Kids will be kids, right? That’s exactly what Nashville, Tennessee teen-punks-in-heat Be Your Own Pet are. These kids have a new album out called Get Awkward and just like its predecessor, it is boiling over with brash and incendiary punk-n-roll tunes. Singer Jemina Pearl is snarling teenage girl angst personified and the boys that back (Read more…)
Review: Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
REVISION The original version of this review is dead. If you really want to read it check Google’s cached pages or something. Basically I blasted Death Cab For Cutie and their new record Narrow Stairs as a record that I couldn’t really get into it at all. After further inspection (however) I’m finding that not (Read more…)
