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(04/01/10 8:29am)
Actors-turned-musicians tend to take on this hyphenation as another outlet for publicity and building a name. Luckily, this is patently untrue for a celebrity as allergic to the limelight as Zooey Deschanel. Deschanel teams up again with singer/songwriter M. Ward for a follow-up to their debut that is filled to the brim with good ol’ American pop. For a band that started off collaborating over email, they’ve clicked quite nicely. Ward’s musicianship and Deschanel’s indie cred have always raised questions about this band’s status as a side project; Volume Two should raise further concerns.
(03/25/10 7:40am)
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where Jack White is on his musical trajectory, what with his current commitment to three bands. Suffice it to say, he’s prolific. So when another album that bears the White Stripes name crosses our path, we prepare to be awed.
(03/18/10 6:17am)
Broken Bells, the side project of The Shins’ team captain James Mercer and masterful producer Danger Mouse may have been doomed from the beginning: it seems impossible that the project would live up to the sheer awesomeness of its component parts. But their self-titled debut does a damn good job of delivering solid music. We’d venture to say that this Mercer/Mouse pairing is like musical peanut butter and jelly; Mouse’s crystal-clear production actually enhances Mercer’s trademark vocals.
(03/18/10 6:17am)
Broken Bells, the side project of The Shins’ team captain James Mercer and masterful producer Danger Mouse may have been doomed from the beginning: it seems impossible that the project would live up to the sheer awesomeness of its component parts. But their self-titled debut does a damn good job of delivering solid music. We’d venture to say that this Mercer/Mouse pairing is like musical peanut butter and jelly; Mouse’s crystal-clear production actually enhances Mercer’s trademark vocals.
(02/25/10 6:24am)
Belgian indie rock vet Dieter Sermeus has seen it all, from the heyday of punk to the early 90s lo-fi haze. His newest group’s most recent release, Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight, is the opposite of any past lo-fi he may have been involved in. Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen is a disarmingly tidy record — it sounds like it was recorded in a vacuum.
(02/11/10 3:00am)
Beach House made big waves with their last album, Devotion, which was noted for its beautiful austerity and spartan soundscapes. Devotion was even good enough to make the band one of our “Artists to Watch” back in January. However, their 2008 breakthrough left something to be desired — namely a fullness of sound — something that Teen Dream provides with a vengeance. Drum machines intact, Beach House have put forth a stunningly atmospheric record worthy of the massive amounts of hype they’ve garnered in the indie rock (and Street) world.
(01/28/10 7:08am)
With their new single, “Good Morning,” Rogue Wave have taken all of the things they had going for them — beautifully layered guitars, mellifluous vocals, a healthy sense of introspection — and completely obliterated them, opting instead for the same sort of sugary pop their original music seemed to be a reaction against. At first listen, this track just sounds fake and overly synthesized. This initial diagnosis ultimately holds true after multiple listens. Electropop may occasionally be formulaic and contrived, but Rogue Wave should’ve left electropop to those who know how to do it. Not only is this subpar pop painful to listen to, but it’s even more painful to think that Rogue Wave at one point made music that was phenomenal. Among indie music snobs, the mainstream is known to “taint” quintessentially indie acts, but it rarely happens so quickly. Rogue Wave has officially disappointed its entire (ex-)listener base.
(01/21/10 7:13am)
There’s a deodorant company that claims that smell is the strongest sense tied to memory. This may be true, but in my mind sound is a close second. When I hear Ten, I hear something so full (so alive, even) that it transports me back to the carpeted confines of my family room. I can’t shake the sense of power I felt as a 9-year-old, listening, laying down on the rug, to music that featured driving riffs unlike any I had ever heard before, courtesy of my dad. Whereas Ten is a prototype for early-90’s grungers, it to me simply represents rock ‘n roll. As an innocent 9-year-old, it wasn’t like I was looking to fight The Man. So what if I missed out on the zeitgeist of Ten’s release? Its unbelievably solid riffs coupled with Eddie Vedder’s leathery croaks opened me up to a whole new world of music and the concept that not all songs need be tailored to fit the radio’s preference for three and a half minute sprints. Ten has followed me in the 10 years that followed, offering me an instant ticket back to that rug no matter how far away from home I am.
(01/21/10 7:04am)
The xx
(11/19/09 4:40am)
Hot Chip,
“Take it In”
(11/12/09 12:51am)
In the first half of the aughts, it wouldn’t have been ridiculous to say that the media compared 80% of New York bands to the Strokes. The comparison was inevitable; the Strokes were too mysterious, too infectious and too cripplingly cool not to be pegged as the musical embodiment of the city and the time. Ultimately, it was unfair, and ultimately, it’s only logical that Phrazes for the Young, Julian Casablancas’ solo debut, will also be held to this bygone standard. This will never be the Strokes’ fourth album, but Casablancas takes advantage of this potentially damaging fact.
(10/29/09 2:52am)
Even though Flight of the Conchords predated Andy Samberg’s The Lonely Island, I Told You I Was Freaky feels slightly worn-out; Flight of the Conchords is a novelty act that’s no longer novel.
(10/01/09 2:31am)
Sometimes pushing the envelope means pulling it back a little. When crafting the newest of new, alternative music is all about innovation and experimentation. The xx have found virtue in dulling the cutting edge a little bit. Their simplified yet polished sound capitalizes on its absence just as much as its presence. Anticlimaxes have never been so satisfying.