Articles tagged with rock

Where's My Golden Arm?

Sean Caldwell — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:39:11 +0000

I guess it’s difficult to explore the somewhat over occupied channels of the psychedelic T-H-seas these days without running into a slew of obvious comparisons: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, The Zombies…etc. It doesn’t help that the first song (A Feeling That Launched A Thousand Wars) on Where’s My Golden Arm?, second album by Philadelphia psych band Like A Fox, seems to lift its first melody directly from the dusty, 40 year-old grooves of Happiness Is A Warm Gun, potentially subjecting them to wri

The Widespread Reign of the Great Northwest

Iain Moffat — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:30:12 +0000

It's hard not to feel there's a certain injustice at work here. After all, fracas-happy they may be, but the Brian Jonestown Massacre have managed to parlay an association with the Dandy Warhols into documentary stardom and modest household namehood. Brian Coates, on the other hand, has been affiliated just as closely and on somewhat better terms with Courtney Taylor-Taylor, but has he reaped the critical or commercial benefits of that yet? Has he heck.

Matador Singles 08

David Coleman — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:58:41 +0000

Nowadays it seems that turning out an album every 18 months or so is enough for some lazy music writer to label you 'prolific'. Jay Reatard is different: a cursory glance at the partial discography on his Wikipedia page confirms that his work-rate justifies the tag. With the Reatards, Lost Sounds, a whole host of other bands and side projects, and now as a solo artist, Jay Reatard has released around thirty singles in the last five years. Kevin Shields he most certainly is not.

Building Humans

Iain Moffat — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:24:16 +0000

Like Mice Parade and Narcotic Thrust before them, Sine Star Project is an anagrammatical take on its chief architect, in this case one perhaps-already-pseudonymous Peter J Croissant, and, given both that particular affectation and the fact that he's been on or near his share of decidedly askew fringes for well over a decade now, even coming close to something of a breakthrough during a mid-decade stint with One Little Indian, he's not one for shying away from being a trifle on the puzzling side.

Real Emotional Trash

Brett Oronzio — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:48:31 +0000

Stephen Malkmus is back with the Jicks in tow for more of the extended guitar canoodling and occasional cosmic tinkering we expect from the one-time Pavement front man. With a freshly formed, tighter version of his band, Malkmus feels comfortable proving himself as a guitar rock mainstay, even if he has to put us through variable amounts of tedium in the process.

Modern Guilt

Brett Oronzio — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:41:27 +0000

Attempts at comparing Beck albums are futile since each one is an exercise of its own stylistic merit. Still we insist on measuring the impact of the man’s work on his previous accomplishments and/or pitfalls. It’s inevitable.

At Mount Zoomer

Brett Oronzio — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:21:57 +0000

Saturnalia

Chris Conti — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:44:10 +0000

Front Street, the climactic and brutally beautiful final track from Saturnalia, the full-length debut collaboration between revered alt-rock icons/chain-smoking trainwrecks Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers) and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age), collectively and appropriately named The Gutter Twins. Imagine spending the evening with these two charming ghouls—pretty fucking scary to say the least.

Sleep Forever

George Booker — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:49:10 +0000

The Big Sleep will probably be slept upon forever, despite the relative majesty of albums like Sleep Forever, their second on French Kiss after Son of the Tiger in 2006. It kind of pains me to review albums that are merely, you know, rock records, but The Big Sleep deserve it, and occasionally a release wears down my defenses by avoiding precious guitar polemics and focusing on just, you know, rocking. The band reminds me of Calla, being an attractive 3 piece based in NYC that somehow avoids the filthy lucre of magazine jizm by ignoring trends and foc

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Simon Briercliffe — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:38:13 +0000

Nick Cave has always been an interesting fellow. Content to plough his own furrow, he does so with diligence, with exploration and with great talent. Surrounding himself with his Bad Seeds, a mix-and-match of diverse styles and personalities, he has, unbelievably, churned out 14 studio albums in the 25 years since the messy dissolution of The Birthday Party. And Cave has remained a singular artiste in all those years, rarely resting on his laurels, and regularly defying expectations.