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Review: Codeseven – Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds
Codeseven Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds Equal Vision Apparently Codeseven were once a screamcore band whose high watermark was a cover of “Boys of Summer.” One day they got older, heard Radiohead and traded in their metal for something more mother-friendly. They of course lost nearly the entirety of their original fanbase. I can only imagine the wonderful
Review: Dynasty – Black Box
Dynasty Black Box Mysterious Media I’m not really overwhelmed by the majority of electroclash; Dynasty, however, are rather enjoyable in that they take all the hand claps and mix it with a certain sleazy sound that has the same texture as a Soft Cell album. They distort things up a bit, don’t rely completely on
Review: Starflyer 59 – Talking Voice VS. Singing Voice
Starflyer 59 Talking Voice VS. Singing Voice Tooth & Nail I’ve listened to this album for a couple months trying to sort out how I feel about it. I’ve come up with this: Starflyer 59 make sugar-coma pop music. It’s epic in a small box theater, but not exactly made for big booming stadiums. It
Review: Kasabian – Self-Titled
Kasabian Self-Titled RCA Kasabian have been a guilty pleasure of mine since hearing the opening of “Club Foot.” Granted, they aren’t completely original. You can pinpoint various points in Manchester’s history of music that pop up in abundance throughout the album, fitting in somewhere post-Happy Mondays and the Charlatan’s happier days with a dash of
Review: Peter Murphy – Unshattered
Peter Murphy Unshattered Viastar Odd how a Peter Murphy album can be released and some six months later, they’re finally sending it out to the press. I’ve had the album for quite some time now and even though my opinion of it has improved over time, Unshattered is a little hard to swallow. Still fresh
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: The Invisible Rays – Self-Titled
The Invisible Rays Self-Titled Feroz Records IR = the Damned + Graves + the Corleones The Invisible Rays play often-slow, almost dirge-ish creep punk filled with plodding buzzsaw bass riffs, mournful or shouted vocals and sometimes-droning-sometimes-rocking synths. Their upbeat songs are much more tolerable than the slow ones, and I’m actually in favor of axing
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: Medicine Circus – Bottle Rockets of Emotion
Medicine Circus Bottle Rockets of Emotion Medicine Circus = Big Star + T. Rex + Alice in Chains Medicine Circus combines the best of 90s alt-rock with some grunge, catchy, accessible hooks, some technical sweeteners and 60s psychedelia. There is something mainstream and not-mainstream about it; it echoes the better moments of Vertical Horizon and
Local Review: Mushman – Eddie Do
Mushman Eddie Do Kitefishing Productions Mushman = Simon and Garfunkel + Puff the Magic Dragon Quirky feelgood, almost childish lyrics, many of which are centered around this Eddie character, twine their way around sparse, intricate guitar work to produce an album people could be singing around the indie-rock campfire for years. Nerdy and sensitive, sometimes