Album Reviews

When calling 'DIBS' fails... When scissors, rock, paper fails... When comparing dick inches fails (we all hang equally; it's just a matter of 'to the left' or 'to the right')... When two or more of us love an album so much that there is no other option other than to double team the review... This is when we do a duel review. And this dual reveiw is brought you by Del and Tom for the album Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens. Tom: Bro, I enjoyed Age of Adz, but Sufjan Stevens had my girth red lined during his Illinoise days when he wrote more as a story teller, singing songs of folk tales and historical stories relating to Illinois and Michigan. His lyrical style is one that I could only can compare to Mark Kozelek, but less grumpy and an octave higher. He has...

I have to begin this review with an analogy that I've used before, but I think will be helpful in properly thinking about the Bombadil's new album Hold On. You see, I was watching a documentary about film director Terry Gilliam a few weeks back and something struck me. There are two kinds of weird; Brazil weird and Fisher King weird. Brazil is a movie that never tries to make any sense. Everyone talks about it being ‘influential’, but that’s really code for ‘complete nonsense’. It’s a movie that you see once, because you want to say you saw it. deep down though, you know you’ll never watch it again. Musically, this is the equivalent of Xiu Xiu or Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. When someone tells me they really love an album like that, my inclination is to think they are...

What I've always loved most about working with Syffal is the mindset. We regularly shit all over stuff other people tout as the second coming of Kanye West brand prepaid artisinal chili, and then we gush all over some unknown kid making music as a way to escape everybody else. That's not to say that we don't give credit where credit is due. Some artisinal chili, DOE! When we're at our best, it's riding shottie with like-minded artsts and labels, scratching at the surface to get at the essence of what makes it all go boom. One of those like-minded individuals is Tom Filepp, of Cars and Trains and Circle Into Square fame. Filepp is at the forefront of this generation's tinkerers playful and experimenting, refining its craft. I picture Tom at a grand organ rocking out like Phantom of the...

So exactly how I ended up being the one to write the intro for Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly New Release Tuesday was happenstance at best. I feel like I should have passed the baton to someone who had a more visceral response to it than I. But at this late hour, punting isn't an option. I gotta go for it!  To Pimp A Butterfly is unquestionably an epic: an album on the scale of very few releases in this EP/internet-driven environment. It not only avoids any kind of sophomore slump, it might be The Empire Strikes Back to M.A.A.D. City's Star Wars.  That being said, it listened a couple of times, once really deeply while driving, and simply moved on. I thought it was good but it never grabbed me. I commend its creativity, and scale, and very obvious...

Twin Shadow was always Del's shit. I never really paid much attention because Del seemed to have it covered and it always verged on the cusp of what I could listen to on repeat. I can admit now that I just wasn't ready for it. I'm the guy who wants music that could potentially get him obsessed. I want music to make me feel like the people making the music made it just for me. I want something that even when I'm not listening to it I'm imagining myself listening to it. I want the music I fucking adore to be with me even when it's not. The new Twin Shadow album is turning out to be one of those albums. My first holy shit moment with Eclipse actually happened when I wasn't able to listen to the album because I was sitting in a three hour meeting. Twin Shadow somehow informed me that...

I'm just going to put this out there. The Australians have been kicking everyone's ass in terms of quality music output over the last few years. It's at the point where hearing a band is from Melbourne or Sydney (or even Queensland) is enough to perk the ears as hearing a band is from Portland or Montreal. To be fair, Australia has always had a rich musical pallate that gets oddly ignored by the American critical community. Bands like Hoodoo Gurus, The Saints, The Celibate Rifles, Died Pretty, The Sleepy Jackson, Spiderbait, and Hunters & Collectors are all largely and unexplainably missing from larger conversations about great and influential artists. It drives me crazy when I read Midnight Oil referred to as a 'one hit wonder'. Nevertheless, it has become impossible to look at the...

I've spent a good portion of my life driving. I'd say a large percentage of that time has been driving alone. BUT BRO, THO BRO. I'm not setting you up for a list of complaints about it, I'm merely illustrating that most of the music I love the most I love alone. Sure, you can't always drink with your buddies to something like Bon Iver, but you can sure as shit drive cross country with just you and him while wearing a well worn flannel and waterproof boots bro. Saycet sort of falls into the solo road trip category for me now since the few times I listened to his new new Mirage in front of other people I've received concerned glances, three scoffs, and then someone called the cops on me. IT IS CALLED INTERPRETIVE DANCE BRO. IF YOU AIN'T BOUT THIS LIFE THEN DON'T WEAR SHIFFON AND...

Hailing from Los Angeles, Gateway Drugs are Gabe Niles (lead vocals, drums, guitar, bass), Noa Niles (lead vocals, guitar, keys), Liv Niles (lead vocals, guitar, bass, theremin), and Blues Williams (vocals, bass, guitar, banjo). If the Niles name sounds familiar, it's because this family has a little bit of experience in the music world. Their father was The Knack's Preston Niles. Don't let that color any prejudice about Gateway Drugs however, because this band doesn't sound anything like the music of their father's generation. As a matter of fact, on their new LP Magick Spells this band doesn't really sound a lot like the music of any generation but their own. Or, at the very least, you get the feeling that the kids might have been sneaking Jesus and Mary Chain records into the...

I've long held to the theory that there are certain intangible factors that far outweigh skill or technique in decided what music is 'good'. I've felt like there are things you can just feel about a recording that can make it truly great. I believe I can hear when a band enjoys playing together and when they don't. Either can make a record stronger, if it is recorded correctly. After all, the best music is that which incites some kind of emotional response from the listener, for good or bad.   That is really how words like 'pop' and 'overproduced' have come to be insults in the critic's verbal quiver. At least during my lifetime, it has seemed like the goal of pop music was to wash away all of those happy little mistakes and rough edges that give you the clues about what is going on with...

Some of my favorite albums today are ones that I didn't really care for on a first listen. Maybe it's just a sadly postmodern view of the world, but I really like it when something changes my opinion of it without ever changing itself. The list is fairly embarassing actually; Nirvana's Nevermind, Talking Heads' '77 and R.E.M.'s Lifes Rich Pagaent all had the unenviable task of changing not only my opinion of the album, but the band's entire catalog. Even more rare are those albums from artists I already love, but take a turn from expectations and end up becoming an absolute favorite. We've all heard the world's dumbest argument; 'the early shit was better'. That begins with the first album that changes what we view the artist is about. While we, as 'real' music...