Music
▼ National Reviews
Review: MGMT – MGMT
It’s hard to take music that sounds so wonky seriously, like a few tracks on this record, but when it’s catchy and bizarre, you know there’s some magic in it. MGMT are clearly having fun with this album and it makes for one of the most interesting releases of the year. … read more
Review: The Melvins – Tres Cabrones
The Melvins = Butthole Surfers + My War/In My Head–era Black Flag + Lysol-era Melvins … read more
Review: Marijuana Deathsquads – Oh My Sexy Lord
As is the case with a great deal of so-called super groups, this release is pretty masturbatory. With intense, pulsating, electronic jam-band beats and half scream, half rap vocals, it is overall pretty unpleasant to listen to. … read more
Review: Lynx – Light Up Your Lantern
From the moment this album opens, with heavy beats accented by a varied string section (guitars, banjo and cello), Lynx kept a hypnotic grip over me that was so powerful, I wondered if I had spent that hour in an oasis-tinged dream. … read more
Review: LowCityRain – Self-Titled
As jangling new wave inspired chords cascade, driving bass and drums pump the track full of energy, a modest female vocal croons the title of the song and in these first three minutes, I’m left gasping. … read more
Review: Lisa Papineau – Blood Noise
Often using the softer register of her varied instrument, songs like “Dream The Wild,” “Early Spring” and “Rainmaker” partially sound whispered and ghostly. … read more
Review: Lee Corey Oswald/Three Man Cannon – Self-Titled
The sound was very punk influenced, but captured more of a laidback, slower tempo and softer melody. The other side, Lee Corey Oswald, was a little bit more garage-band angst with less of the laidback feel. … read more
Review: The Last – Danger
The lineup is solid—when you pair the Nolte brothers with the powerhouse punk rhythm section of Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson, you end up with the sort of alchemy that is both pop-sensible and face-melting. Mike Nolte adds a garage-y organ to traditional pop punk hooks and layered backing vocals to give the songs a 1960s feel. … read more
Review: The KVB – Minus One
Minus One’s combination of shoegaze, post-punk and noise is quite an alluring brew. Its melodic sense is a break from the pure heaviness and darkness of their past recordings. Either way, these guys use synthesizers in a way that nods to Suicide and Silver Apples. … read more
Review: Kommandant – Stormlegion Reissue
The tunes are black metal blazers with tinges of war metal themes, ditching the atmospheric and going for the blast-beat-ridden jugular. Chicago’s metal scene is owning a lot of genres right now, and this serves as a pick-it-up-if-you-didn’t-have-it-already release … read more