Blogs

Calling all dads If the latest album from John Stirratt and Pat Sansone of Wilco‰'s side project is any indication of their musical taste, one would be forgiven if their bigger band‰'s forays into “dad rock‰” are all their fault. At Fifth‰'s best, The Autumn Defense...

Sweet, simple surfer songs “Habibi‰” means “my love‰” in Arabic, making itself an appropriate name for this group of sweetly innocent surfer girls. Their preferred combination of mid-tempo paces and sugary group harmonies put a pleasant spin on even their most...

  1980s meets low fi. 88 92 is Houston-based quintet Wild Moccasins ode to rock bands of the 80s, with strong vocals eerily reminiscent of Debbie Harry from the band‰'s female vocalist Zahira Gutierrez. Gutierrez‰'s vocalist can be best heard on 88 92‰'s standout...

  Dynamic post-punk with shades of pop and 80s alternative. Vancouver-based band Mode Moderne manages to combine the best of post-punk with that of dreamy indie-pop, and the final product, new album “Occult Delight‰Û, is definitely worth a listen. Occult...

  Super fun, true, poppy garage rock with an edge. With their self-titled debut album, Drowners might just solidify a reputation as a fun, tenacious garage pop band. The whole album is compact, catchy, and full of cute-yet-melancholy songs about the struggles and...

A Molotov cocktail of 50s guitar heroics and 60s garage Probably the most distinctive and interesting thing about the Rebel Set are the Phoenix band‰'s two front assault of Link Wray-esque guitar lines and eerie, swirly twirly garage keys. The dark mix of organ and...

Funky, Soulful, Electronic, and Dance-inspiring Maya Vik has hit a perfect balance between her own unique sound and years of inspiration reaching back to the 1970s and 1980s. On It is funky with fun bass lines and colorful instrumentation. The album‰'s second track,...

Alternative-Pop, Indie, generic Remember listening to alternative-pop music alone in your room when you were in middle school? Faraday Wave by We Do This is bring back that early 2000s alternative-pop and attempts to update it by adding an indie sound. The six song EP...

Epic, energetic indie rock. Welsh band Los Campesinos! fifth album “No Blues‰” is a high-energy, eclectic collection of indie rock. The band seems to have matured lyrically from their earlier works, demonstrated by the poignant moments of reflection on “A Portrait of...

An enjoyable album that sounds awfully familiar‰Û_ After releasing a pair of EPs, songwriting duo Reese Donohue and Christopher Prudhomme have finally issued their first full-length as Painted Palms, entitled Forever. Like the duo‰'s hometown of San Francisco, these...

  Deep, insightful lyrics over unique and mellow garage rock. Overall, Love Hope Fear is one of the most aptly named albums ever. In just five songs, Tall Dark & Lonesome embark on a voyage to understand and explain these three difficult emotions. The band...

  Fun indie electro-pop. With EP “Shades‰Û, Australian band Tales in Space give fans a short yet sweet taste of what their upcoming full-length album. The EP starts out slow, with rhythmic and mellow opener “The Cause‰” but gives way to upbeat percussion,...

  Yoko gonna Yoko I like to think I‰'m above simple “X gonna X‰” jokes, but, seriously, how else can you try and describe Yoko Ono‰'s music? There are tracks on here that are almost impossible to get a read on, just Yoko reading/singing/screaming her robo-beatnik...

  Electronic, experimental indie cover songs that many bands lend help to. With “Fellow Travelers‰Û, Shearwater has created a new kind of cover album. Instead of the band just covering a variety of songs, they invited other bands to help them record. Each of...

Slick, smooth retro-soul Nick Waterhouse‰'s latest release sound like something that would soundtrack the show Suits, classy, soulful and cool in the way a fancy smoke filled room club is cool. The music on Holly emulates 50s R&B and soul, but instead of sounding...

Proof that it‰'s best to let sleeping dogs lie In September, a sans-Kim Deal Pixies decided to come out with it‰'s most substantial release since 1991‰'s Trompe le Monde, and good god was it awful. Boring, generic and uninspired, it was pretty a train wreck: Black...

Cherishing the everyday After working on his side project, Rhye, during the early part of 2013, Milosh is back with Jetlag, showcasing his ability to make the most out of any moment. The sensual, embracing voice of Milosh is matched with creative instrumentation and...

2/3, not bad. The triple EP of Austin alt band HeadShy is meant to hit the listener like a perfume: playing upon three different parts of our senses, the first impression, the theme, and the trail, or The Head Chord, The Heart Chord, and The Base Chord. The three...

Listen closely, listen loudly, listen live. Philadelphia group, Nothing, has made serious headway in the last three years. Alongside bands like Whirr and Ringo Deathstarr, Nothing may soon be another pioneer of shoegaze coming back in new form. Forgetting that front...

Dark beats and hard rhymes from West Coast Wu warriors Wu-Tang Clan affiliates Crisis the Sharpshooter and The Rugged Monk brandish razor-sharp rhymes over dark production helmed by former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. Other than some familiar drum...

Old school indie fun Listening to the latest record from the former Pavement front man and his backing band, one gets the sense that Stephen Malkmus might be a little uncomfortable with his standing as an indie/underground music icon, or at the very least, he doesn‰'t...

Might make you cry, but like, in a good way. Most of Gem Club’s songs follow a pretty simple, yet powerfully emotive formula: synth and vocal tracks are looped over the slow, almost drone-like cello playing of Kristen Drymala,, which is joined by Christopher Barnes’...

Straight out of a 70s rock band Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Sun is Damien Jurado‰'s psychedelic indie rock send up to the brash and smokey bands before him. A collaboration with Richard Swift of The Shins, the album fuses dark lyrics with vibrant dizzying...

A more optimistic, extended edition of End of Daze. The five songs that compiled the Dum Dum Girls‰' EP, End of Daze, released two short years ago was a small gift to the music world, with each song serving as an anthem. The group has returned with a full-length album...

A mostly on-the-mark offering of new-wave grooves This five-track release culls together three previously released mixtape features, coupled with two remixes of the title track. “Relations,” co-produced by Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, boasts a funky instrumental with...