Album Reviews

This definitely feels like a grown up album.   It's a scotch album....2 fingers and neat. It's a night time album.   I can't imagine you'd want to see Kevin Morby perform at a venue with screaming girls. You'd be more apt to seeing him by yourself at a smokey lounge. You drink that neat scotch at a little round table in a red velvet chair who's stains are hidden by the dim glow of the lights, but every so often you run your hand across a crusty spot and get a little growdy'd out.  ....that stain is probably blood because in the back of your mind you know that the mob uses this joint after dark to strong arm those who are late paying back their gambling debts.  This is exactly where Morby's album Singing Saw transports you. It's a little dark and a little ominous. It's almost as...

While listening to Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros it's hard not to imagine yourself skipping barefoot through a dewy field while you brush over the top of the high grass with your hands that are out stretched beside you.  And you are wearing a hemp gown. ....with no underwear because elastic isn't recyclable.  Something about the hippyness is freeing and maybe a little spiritual. You can almost smell that dreadlock mustiness through your speakers. That signature vibe is just always there with the Magnetic Zeros and draws me in every single fucking time.  BUT how they manage to hold on to that vibe while exploring new sounds/influences on their new album PersonA is pretty fucking amazing. While listening to the album I sit back and say to myself: man, this part of the song...

Many people haven't heard of YAWN (at least, I don't think they have), but I reviewed one of their albums a couple of years ago. Strangely what I loved about that album is almost the complete opposite of what I love about this Dam Gila EP. That YAWN was strange. It was experimental. It was complex. It was hard to listen to, but I loved it anyway. I recommended it to a couple of people and some of those people hated it, and although I disagreed, I completely understood their stance. That YAWN album was not meant for everyone and I'd think the band would be the first to agree with that sentiment.  So why am I brining up YAWN in a Dam Gila review? Well, because Adam Gil is the front man of YAWN. And Adam Gil is also Dam Gila. Got it? And I'm completely flabberstonished on how Adam was able...

If you asked me to tell you what album this year has given me the most "er" for my "bone", it wouldn't be that electro album I've been dancing for my wife to, and it wouldn't be that rap album with all them guest spots that still gives me chub to think back on. No, the largest "ection" of my "er" comes from the band White Denim, and while I have lazily attempted to reference my genitals in the first few words of this here review, I am here to tell you that that was intentional, because their new album is titled Stiff... ...Which is applicable, because of all the blood rushing to my southbound train. Ok, enough dick guys. ENOUGH DICK! The new White Denim album is the most enjoyably fucking abrasive shuffle hustle rock and roll I have heard all year. This album carries a leather...

I've never felt the need to hide my fanboydom over Onry Ozzborn from anyone.  It isn't that I would ever be ashamed to share my appreciation for a person's music, hell, I spend hundreds of dollars a year running this site with Tom and WE SUCK OFF MAAAAAD MUSICIANS BRUH. It's that I tend to put Onry on a pedestal because, paired with his careful manipulations of the English language over random meters and beaters, HE'S JUST SO FUCKING COOL. If I was as calm and cool and collected as Onry Ozzborn I wouldn't even know what to do with myself, besides swat away the tail chasing me and telling guys like myself to "get a grip bro". But whatever, we all have our heroes. Onry is one of mine. And I've had the distinct pleasure of telling him that to his face like NINE TIMES. And I think I opened...

I've loved the shit out of Moderat for a few years now.  Sure, their music is recognizable to me instantly, but it's the indescribable way I feel when I'm listening to Moderat, not just their specific sound.  The drums always feel like they were sampled from the end of the world's war drums being struck by timbers from Noah's ark, the vocals are always hauntingly comfortable, and the synthesized textures that make up the drapes and curtains of their songs are so fucking far removed from the rest of modern music that it simply couldn't be anything else besides Moderat.  Their latest album III, comes after the fucking phenomenally addicting II back in 2013. I ruined that fucking album by leaving it on repeat for the latter half of the summer and the majority of the onset...

It's not often when I hear an album and immediately go buy it on vinyl. Usually I need to make sure I love it before spending my hard earned $20 that'd I'd normally rather be forced to spend on Shopkins or Skylanders. DAMN KIDS CONSTANTLY BE DRAINING MY POCKETS WITH THEIR SHITTY ASS TOYS THAT THEY ONLY PLAY WITH FOR 48 HOURS AND THEN FORGET ABOUT SAID SHITTY ASS TOYS.  But after the first listen so many things were adding up on Ray LaMontagne's new album that the purchase was completely justifiable.  First, it's Ray LaMontagne. Dude could cover the Biebs and I'd be salivating all over his voice that is pure as gold and as soft as cotton panties.  Secondly, Ouroboros is produced by one of my rock heroes Jim James, who in my opinion, is who'd you'd want to collaborate with if your...

Fennec has the unique ability to make any pile of fucking ashes a dance floor. It's unfuckingcanny. My first introduction to Fennec had me staring off into space until I realized I was dancing under my desk, and it was at that specific moment I noticed everyone staring at me because I was going in on the desk drums, HAWRD. The constantly varied percussion and layering of rhythm, the whimsical thfloops and twinkles spread on top, and the white noise behind the background all combine to make every listen a concentrated holy shit, or a casual invitation to the aforementioned concentration. Seriously, if you stare at the source of the music while it's playing, seeing nothing but the track time counting upwards, you might have a better chance of pinpointing just when the magic instantly coats...

Oh, fuck off. That's what I think when I see that something sent to me has at least 2 of the buzzwords: Chill Wave, Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Ethereal, Psyche-steamy, Moody-mellow, Lava-lampy etc.  What are you? Fucking Ben and Jerry's flavors?  Why do you need multiple adjectives? They essentially mean the same fucking thing. Stop trying to distinguish, what is essentially synthy EMO for the high-waisted jeans crowd, like it is somehow unique or different from most of the other shit out there with a synthesizer and digital delayed guitar. Think out side of the box used to cut your bangs!!!! Made up word combinations and clever synonyms is ordinary.....save that for us untalented music ciritics. Artists need to stop trying to define themselves and just write good songs. Normally when I listen...

Radiation City has always had a retro feel to their songs, but I've always associated it with an early-60's life that's so perfect it's ironically disconcerting. Kind of like that movie Pleasantville when everybody else is in color except for a select few progressive rebels. In my head, Radiation City is in color and everybody is in black and white. Their songs, subtly lo-fi, sounded like they were being performed on the other side of a thin curtain made of frosted vellum. Blurry silhouettes and all.  BUT on the new album, Synesthetica, that vellum curtain has been lifted and everybody is in color. Their sound overall is a little brighter, a little poppier, a little clearer, and a little more expansive. On a handful of tracks their sound even feels like it has progressed into the...