Tasked to review the new album, The Monitor, from Titus Andronicus, I find it difficult to expand upon my reaction to this album. “I’m pretty sure it’s better than their first album, but I sure do like it a lot less” is what I said. I think it works like this: if you’ve been loving The Airing of Grievances for over a year, and shouted “your life is over” along with the band when seeing them live four times in a week, you may find this album disappointing. Otherwise, I think you’re going to like it. [read the whole post]
Earl Greyhound’s previous album, Soft Targets, blasted out of the box with “S.O.S.,” a dynamic mission statement that attempted to explain, in five minutes, what Earl Greyhound was all about. While the album didn’t live up to the high standards set by this blistering track, descending into middling bluesy rock numbers by the end, the promise of that one song alone has kept me interested in the band, and earned them all sorts of lauds as the “next big thing.” Now, the band’s new album, Suspicious Package, has arrived, and it also starts with I assumed to be a clear mission statement. What’s the mission this time? [read the whole post]
Peter Gabriel’s new covers album Scratch My Back is the beginning of a “song exchange” project. This means that every artist covered on this album is being asked to cover one of Peter Gabriel’s songs in exchange. This collection will then be released under the title …And I’ll Scratch Yours. That’s the intention. Whether or not the second part ends up happening seems to be up in the air so far, but Stephin Merrit has already recorded “Not One of Us” as a b-side to Peter Gabriel’s Magnetic Fields cover,”Book of Love,” so the project has begun. [read the whole post]
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been impatiently waiting for this album to leak for months. The teasing release of “Horchata” made me super excited (it is still available as a free download on the band’s website). Then, the next leak brought “White Sky” which made me stop and wonder if I really would like the album, or if Vampire Weekend would take it too far from their roots of mixing indie rock with beautifully complex afro-beats. After 24 hours of listening pleasure I can tell you that Contra is everything you wanted whether you knew it consciously or not. Somehow Vampire Weekend took 2008’s indie-juggernaut Vampire Weekend and ran it through a strainer, taking it apart and putting it back together with a controlled modern twist giving us a record that is smart and fresh, while still sounding like the band we know and love. There’s a heavy hand with the production polish, but that is what makes Contra different enough to keep it exciting and new. [read the whole post]
The immediate reaction to the opener on Yeasayer’s upcoming release Odd Blood, “The Children,” is that it sounds like the band decided to play a joke on downloaders by starting with a song designed to make the listener feel as uncomfortable as possible. It’s a weird cacophony of bells and creepy vocal processing, all played at a lumbering pace, seemingly built to frighten. What the heck happened to Yeasayer? [read the whole post]
Lou Barlow was a founding member of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh. Dinosaur Jr. is another of those seminal US bands that I missed out on by growing up over the pond and my only real exposure to them has been through the songs they have on Rock Band games. Sebadoh is unknown to me, but I have some experience as a casual listener to Barlow’s previous lo- and lower-fi releases. Goodnight Unknown is approximately, depending on what you count, Barlow’s eleventh release. A pioneer of the lo-fi sound is back with fourteen new songs on Goodnight Unknown. [read the whole post]
