Year: 2013
Review: Robert Pollard – Blazing Gentlemen
Robert Pollard’s musical universe (and it is a universe—he’s written thousands of songs) often sounds like some alternate through-the-looking-glass world, resembling classic rock, with riffs and lyrical tropes that seem somehow familiar, but from some other far-off constellation. … read more
Review: Rosie Lowe – Right Thing EP
Fresh from her recent guest stint on Lil Silva’s “No Doubt,” UK vocalist Lowe’s debut EP showcases a new and striking talent. … read more
Review: Phosphorescent
Phosphorescent’s latest album, Muchacho, is laden with lazy, whining steel guitar, strolling piano, trumpet pieces, string sets and lyrics about the trials and tribulations of love. The instrumental work on this album is where Matthew Houck really flexes his songwriter muscle. … read more
Review: Popstrangers
The flavors of Antipodes range from the dark ambiance of Sonic Youth to more recent, surf-influenced indie music like Wavves. The album features prominent bass that constantly moves with the melody while the fuzzy guitars stray, returning to the melody as they please. … read more
Review: Polly Scattergood – Arrows
What a refreshing and novel concept for an album in 2013: songs of heart break and loneliness without any cloying traces of hip-hop or rapping on them. The very talented Scattergood bares her heart completely for her sophomore album and that young, … read more
Review: Poeina Suddarth – Happy Whore
Poeina Suddarth’s vocal range is insane. Her sharp-yet-sweet voice travels everywhere from upbeat skit-skat jazz on “Natural Disaster,” all the way to relaxed grass-plains country sounds on “Gasoline” and “White Mr. Beauty.” … read more
Review: Pure X – Crawling Up The Stairs
Where Crawling up the Stairs doesn’t confront immediately with a sense of deep self-loathing, it seethes. Pure X is disarming in the way Nate Grace and Jesse Jenkin’s songs belie their distressed core by being quite pretty and non-confrontational. … read more
Review: Power Trip – Manifest Decimation
Lord have mercy, that Paolo Girardi artwork! That’s it, I could stop the review here. … read more
Review: Potty Mouth – Hell Bent
Critics have called Potty Mouth a riot grrrl band, which is dumb, or called them pop punk or post punk, which is inaccurate and ambiguous, or said they sound like ‘90s New England indie rock, which is a little more clear, but still vague. … read more
Review: Pillars and Tongues – End-dances
While “Knifelike” starts out with pop-infused rock similar to The National, End-dances mixes those elements with strange, seductive drumming and chanting that gives off a creepy, satanic folk type of energy. … read more