Rockers stay moody on self-titled album
Paul Banks has the second most ominous voice in indie rock today (Tom Smith of Editors takes first prize). While Interpol has surely crafted valuable tracks in the past the part of them that is most singularly Interpol is Banks’s cavernous, almost nefarious bellow.
On their latest LP, indie rock veterans get lost in the details.
As coy and ironic as the modern indie landscape may be, The Walkmen have always aimed for the gut of both their fan base and their steady, shifting musical output.
We know that by now, summer seems like a sad, distant memory. As you struggle to get into the school grind, take a look back at some of summer’s happenings in music both in Philly and beyond.
Netherfriends is Shawn Rosenblatt, a 23-year-old Chicagoan-via-Suburban Philadelphia who produces buoyant psychedelic pop that ranges from frustrated to ecstatic in tone.
Born out of a bedroom psych-folk project by singer-guitarist Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic has bloomed into a buzzworthy indie rock act with two albums under its belt.
CHICAGO —
Over the past several years, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park has valiantly worked to separate itself from the usual crop of summer festivals, attracting attendees with an ear for interesting bands and a yearning for more comfortable, personal concert experiences.
The sound that dominates today’s dance floor is a heady mixture of R&B and techno, whose building beats and naughty lyrics are best characterized by the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Ke$ha, the new divas of nightlife.
The best adults are the ones that retain some sense of youth on the inside. When they released their frenetic debut, A Lesson in Crime, Tokyo Police Club were kids.
Recovery, the title of Eminem’s seventh studio album is fitting in more ways than one. While alluding to rehabilitation from a prescription drug addiction, it also references a recovery of his lyrical prowess.
Considering that Beyonce and the meteoric Lady Gaga currently dominate the pop music star-scape, the news that now-antiquated Christina Aguilera has released a new album, her first since 2006’s Back to Basics, may seem no cause for commotion.
The much-hyped sophomore album has proven an enigma for most bands. More often than not, indie buzz bands release follow-up albums that are intentionally completely different from their first, if only to show that they don’t want to be the same as they were (even if they really are the same as they were). Lately, these sophomore albums have tended to disappoint early fans while at the same time pleasantly surprising many reviewers.
Four-piece Seattle-based indie-prog band Minus the Bear recently released their fourth album, OMNI, three years after the critical and commerical success of their last LP.