Authors: Rebecca Vernon
Local Review: IPX – Stay Tuned …
IPX Stay Tuned … Sickboy Records IPX = Taking Back Sunday + Saves the Day IPX spin out a golden emo web that catches you in its glossy threads despite yourself. Watertight songwriting and early twenties angst juice up strong chord progressions. Pop-punk spread over emo vocals instantly makes a Popeye out of an
Local Review: Jesse Michael Garcia – A Man Of Action
Jesse Michael Garcia A Man of Action Jesse Michael Garcia = Christian Johanssen + Mr. Rogers Jesse Michael Garcia. A man of action. An earnest man. A man who likes to write music, play guitar and sing. A man who wants a contract when he plays the Urban Lounge. Try to understand; he’s been burned
Local Review: Iota – Three Tons
Iota Three Tons InSonicBloom Iota = Clutch + Fireball Ministry Iota, who, again, just to drive the point home, should be signed to Small Stone, combine the fast, catchy stoner fury of such luminaries as Fu Manchu and Clutch (“Demon Seed/Last Ride”) with slower, driving head-bobbingness that recalls Acid King (but not quite as slow).
Local Review: Ichor – Metal Bigotry
Ichor Metal Bigotry The lo-fi sound recording and instrument playing of Ichor’s unrefined, jugular-choking death metal is about at Mayhem-and-Burzum level (sometimes the guitars and drums need to make friends more), which is just fine with me, because what Mayhem and Burzum lacked in $100,000-studio recordings and target-market interviews in metal magazines they made up
Local Review: I Am Electric – Thrush
I Am Electric Thrush Esoterik Musik I Am Electric = These Arms are Snakes + Rye Coalition Featuring former members of Form of Rocket and Pushing up Daisies, I Am Electric is like a dance-oriented Rye Coalition. The prickly guitar parts that sashay over you in all directions, not unlike New Transit’s, backed by
Local Review: Gerald Music – Take Part of Group Activities
GERALD MUSIC TAKE PART IN GROUP ACTIVITIES Gerald Music = Temporary Residence Records + William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition + yin-yang My favorite part of Gerald Music is the silver, fawn-soft bells that seem to rise like multi-colored bubbles above the heads of a dreaming, silhouetted crowd in a club infused with magic, if only for
Local Review: Gigi Love – Turning to Gold
Gigi Love Turning to Gold Gigi Love = Gina French + Lucinda Williams + Sheryl Crow You know, it’s always nice when people write old-fashioned handwritten notes. Thanks, Gigi. Bittersweet alt-country goes down smooth as warm buttered rum, or better yet, buttered rum Lifesavers. Everything on this album is so perfectly written, executed and produced
Local Review: Gift Anon – Mum’s the Word
Gift Anon Mum’s the Word Gift Anon = Radiohead + Sunny Day Real Estate Scattered offbeat drumming blends perfectly with guitar strumming that gets chunky like Radiohead sometimes (“Heaven Help Us”) and jagged and slanted, like peaks on a marathon-runner’s heart monitor, at othes. Heaps of reverb helps the darkness go down smooth and sugary,
Local Review: Glacial – Self-titled
Glacial Self-titled Exigent Street: 2006 Glacial = Red Sparowes + Black Sabbath + Dixie Witch The unmistakable finesse of Drew Smith, Glacial’s late drummer, shines through the recordings on this album, bringing an intricate Pelican feel to Glacial’s material. Andy Patterson’s heavier-than-hell chunk-drumming, in recent live settings, points Glacial in an almost Goatsnake/Isis direction. Pick
Local Review: DulceSky – Media-Luna/Half-Moon
DulceSky Media-Luna/Half-Moon Eden’s Watchtower DulceSky = The Cure + Violet Run – Nirvana worship Once again, DulceSky have delivered a glazed-honey concoction of dense, multi-layered goth-tinged shoegazer; a smooth, dark glide down a river with no reflection, like Ophelia’s ride to her final resting place. The female harmonies are especially potent on Media-Luna, and the