Album Reviews – Spinning Platters

Album Review: The Hot Toddies – Bottoms Up EP

Bottoms Up

In a previous life I was a KSCU DJ, and we’d received an advance of this EP, which had three of the five tracks. So the good news is I really know some of these songs. The bad news is that it still isn’t a full-length.

For those of you just joining us, the Hot Toddies are an Oakland band that continues the Bay Area’s history of girl group garage indie rock. I’ve been fortunate to see bands such as the Kirby Grips, Minipop, Brilliant Colors, She Mob, Run for Cover Lovers, the Reaction, Apogee Sound Club, Persephone’s Bees, … I’m just showing off now. That’s what people in their 30s do when speaking to people in their 20s. If I’m going to be older than you, I might as well be pretentious about it. Continue reading “Album Review: The Hot Toddies — Bottoms Up EP”

Album Review: The Temper Trap

When a band releases a self-titled album after their debut record, I always take it to mean they’re making a statement of intent. They’re saying, “this is what the band’s going to be about. Everything else before was just a warm up.” But when your warm-up album has the gigantic hit single, “Sweet Disposition,” on it, should you really be calling that practice? What if you don’t have a worthy follow-up? With that in mind, does The Temper Trap make a statement? Or is it just the next album? Continue reading “Album Review: The Temper Trap”

7″ Review: Schande – “Still Returning”

Jen Schande is one of the Bay Area’s most tried-and-true indie workhorses. She’s been at it in one band or another for damn near two decades: she played pre-fame shows with bands ranging from No Doubt to The Gossip, released a long-sold-out split 7″ with The Cribs that commands quite a high asking price on eBay, and famously saw PJ Harvey at the Whiskey in 1992. In addition to her prolific DJ work, Jen has her namesake band, Schande, which she began focusing on exclusively after parting ways with Boyskout several years back.

Schande are playing at the Hemlock this Saturday, July 30, along with Bam!Bam! and Silent Pictures. And they have a new 7″ out on Future Farmer Recordings, titled Still Returning. Let’s have a listen, shall we?

Continue reading “7″ Review: Schande — “Still Returning””

Album Review: Belle & Sebastian – Belle and Sebastian Write About Love

Belle & Sebastian is not the kind of band that jumps out and grabs your attention, instead they plant a seed which needs time to grow. When my friend gave me the spectacular If Your Feeling Sinister in 1997 it was with the promise that I would listen to it at least five times in the background before I gave it my full attention. He was right; it haunted me, it seeped into my soul, and I loved it. So now I’ve spent two weeks with Belle & Sebastian Write about Love their newest effort, and I can’t say that same feeling of love and musical bliss has washed over me. Though I keep waiting and hoping it will. Continue reading “Album Review: Belle & Sebastian — Belle and Sebastian Write About Love”

Album Review: The Corin Tucker Band – 1,000 Years

The Corin Tucker Band – 1,000 Years.

Corin Tucker was one-third of one of the greatest bands the world has ever known.

In Sleater-Kinney, she made powerful, personal music strong enough to restore a person’s conviction in themselves or rock-and-roll or both. Her voice arced through speakers and rock clubs like the weapon in a video game that could cut through all the enemies in one stupendous blast and keep going to and through the edge of the screen.

Then, in 2006 Sleater-Kinney went on hiatus.

Now what? Continue reading “Album Review: The Corin Tucker Band — 1,000 Years”

Album Review: Kate Nash – My Best Friend Is You

Kate Nash’s second release, My Best Friend Is You manages to circumvent the usual route taken by hyped artists’ sophomore releases. It’s not about the perils of fame and it’s not experimental for difference sake nor does it sound like Made of Bricks: The Sequel. Kate Nash managed to release a second album that contains the same quirky lyrics about love, friendship and self from her debut but with an overall more mature sound that comes about in a really wonderful way. Continue reading “Album Review: Kate Nash — My Best Friend Is You”

Defending Zooey: A Review of She & Him Volume Two

Truth time. This review is two weeks late and way beyond the relevant date for any She & Him fan. So I’m not going to write it for a fan, I’m going to write it for all you people who say Zooey Deschanel can’t sing or that She & Him is boring dreck. Because I think you’re wrong and if you are actually willing to have an open mind about it, you might change your mind.

When I first started listening to Volume Two and pondering the angle for my review I did my usual pre-writing ritual: hours of procrastinating on the internet. I ended up in one of my favourite places: ONTD (Oh No They Didn’t on livejournal.com for those not in the know). I was surprised by the amount of hate being spewed in She & Him’s direction, and started to wonder why. So I’ll take the negative comments posted to this entry, and do my best to prove them wrong. Continue reading “Defending Zooey: A Review of She & Him Volume Two”

Album Review: Goldfrapp – Headfirst

If Olivia Newton-John was one possible destination in Goldfrapp’s continuing journey that began on the steps of the majestic Felt Mountain, then it seems like she’s inching closer and closer to that point. I might be panicking. I might be overreacting. Still in love with that first album, her subsequent records up to date, although dancier and poppier, still satisfied me in some way. But her newest release, Headfirst, has me thinking a hot tub time machine might have been involved in the recording process somehow. Continue reading “Album Review: Goldfrapp — Headfirst”

Album Review: Brian Posehn – Fart & Wiener Jokes

You know the 5 stages of accepting death right? Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance… in the case of accepting your nerd-dom, you go through the same steps, but the best nerds go all the way back around to anger again, and there they will stay. Brian Posehn is an angry nerd, and fortunately a funny one, so he won’t completely alienate himself from his loving fans such as myself. His most recent comedy album, Fart & Wiener Jokes, has a little bit of old and a little bit of new, but enough raunchy material to keep the kiddies in the other room. Continue reading “Album Review: Brian Posehn — Fart & Wiener Jokes”

Album Review: AM – Future Sons & Daughters

Chances are, if you’re a music aficionado, you’ve already heard of AM. If not directly from a friend or by way of online channels such as Lala and thesixtyone, where he currently enjoys a strong presence, then you’ve most likely been exposed through a more traditional medium.

This is due to the fact that every single track off of his 2006 full-length debut, Troubled Times, has appeared in either a film or TV show. Thus far, the Tulsa-born, New Orleans-bred singer-songwriter has been savvy enough to capitalize on the momentum of such a promising start. AIR has asked him to open for them on their North American tour and when that concludes, he’ll embark on a stint with none other than Charlotte Gainsbourg as she also treks through the U.S. and Canada.

Continue reading “Album Review: AM — Future Sons & Daughters”