Articles tagged "indie rock"

PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Sunset Rubdown: Random Spirit Lover

by Mike Mineo

[8.Oct.07] :. One of indie-rock’s most consistent songwriters, Spencer Krug has produced, in Sunset Rubdown’s third album, an epic release that proves to be the most ambitiously satisfying of his career.

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ShortTakes Review

Code Pie: The Most Trusted Name in Yous

by Justin Cober-Lake

[4.Sep.07] :. Code Pie's second album deserves any confectionary descriptors it might get, but it's not the usual sort of sugary pop.

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Music Review

Liars: Liars

by Michael Patrick Brady

[27.Aug.07] :. After several years of challenging audiences with their bold and brash attempts to deconstruct everything you ever knew about rock music, Liars return with a remarkable new album that rebuilds it in their own image.

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ShortTakes Review

The Blue Jackets: Shadows of the City

by Aarik Danielsen

[24.Aug.07] :. Putting a fresh spin on the vintage sounds of the British Invasion by adding garage rock muscle and modern rock sensibility.

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ShortTakes Review

Through the Sparks: Lazarus Beach

by Aarik Danielsen

[21.Aug.07] :. Hard to pigeonhole but easy to appreciate, Through the Sparks are a bright star ready to shine for the right audience.

Recent Short Takes reviews

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Okkervil River: The Stage Names

by Dan Raper

[8.Aug.07] :. Okkervil River's new album is filled with moments that remind us again why this band is considered one of the finest indie rock groups in the US.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Bishop Allen: The Broken String

by Michael Frauenhofer

[25.Jul.07] :. You, whomever you may be, will like this album. I can think of no better recommendation for pop songs this good.

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Saving Humanity: An Interview with John Vanderslice

by Joe Tacopino

[25.Jul.07] :. "I am in general very anti-government." John Vanderslice brings his political and economic sides to the fore in taking on the world's crazies.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

John Vanderslice: Emerald City

by Matthew Fiander

[24.Jul.07] :. Full of murky and beautiful songs, this should be the album John Vanderslice is remembered for.

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I Like Food, Food Tastes Good by Kara Zuaro

by Jesse Hassenger

[10.Jul.07] :. Even if a band like, say, Pelican doesn't sound like my cup of tea, I'm happy to try their recipe for oatmeal cake.

 

Cary Brothers: Who You Are

by Elizabeth Newton

[2.Jul.07] :. It is not the best music I've ever heard in my life, nor is it life-changing. But it succeeds in that it serves as a perfect complement to everyday actions, to our words and emotions, and to our life.

 

The Race: Ice Station

by Aarik Danielsen

[12.Jun.07] :. Ice Station serves as a very rewarding point of intersection, creating a central crossing for three roads which have seen, and continue to welcome, adventuresome sojourn.

 

The Hold Steady hoist a beer to the art of rock ‘n’ roll storytelling

by Michael Deeds [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[6.Jun.07] :. Talking as much as he sings during songs, Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is like the neighborhood storyteller who draws a crowd as soon as the bartender draws him a pint. Ever since critics began...

 

Modest Mouse’s gritty style intact after commercial hit

by Shay Quillen [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[23.May.07] :. "It's the most family-like this whole band's felt since it was just a three-piece when we were younger," Brock says. "I think the whole band is a lot more comfortable right now."

 

Voxtrot: Voxtrot

by Dave Heaton

[23.May.07] :. Meet the album-format version of Voxtrot's music: Polaroids made grand for the arena stage.

 
Featured Article

Music Review

The National: Boxer

by Jennifer Kelly

[21.May.07] :. Brooklyn's band of brothers spins dark, sardonic songs about love and life, adorned with orchestral flourishes and aching with romantic desperation... an early bid for album of the year.

Recent Music reviews

 

The Narrator: All That To The Wall

by Kevin Jagernauth

[15.May.07] :. This Chicago trio offer up another solid disc of shaggy-haired and slackjawed indie rock.

 

Could Denton, Texas, be the nation’s next hot spot for indie rock?

by Cary Darling and Preston Jones [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[9.May.07] :. When it comes to Texas and music, Austin typically grabs all the glory. But the "live-music capital of the world" might need to watch its back.

 

Julius Airwave: The City the Forest

by Jason MacNeil

[25.Apr.07] :. Indie rock with a spring in its dance-rock-sprinkled step.

 

Erase Errata

by Patty Chung

[18.Apr.07] :. There are two kinds of bands in this world, those that shamelessly ride the gravy train and those that strive to make their own tiny permutative mark in music history. Which one will Erase Errata become?

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

The Besnard Lakes: The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse

by Dan Raper

[18.Apr.07] :. The second album from Montreal post-rock group the Besnard Lakes dazzles with inventiveness and grandeur.

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120 Days

by Megan Milks

[13.Apr.07] :. Though they're national-award winners in Norway, and presumably professionals, 120 Days seemed surprised/insulted by Philly's inattention. What did they expect, us awaiting their arrival with bated breath?

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Bright Eyes: Cassadaga

by Michael Keefe

[11.Apr.07] :. Conor Oberst has (mostly) left his indulgences behind, settling down to create an American indie rock album of substance, maturity, and passion. This is the Bright Eyes we've been waiting for.

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Cloud Cult: The Meaning of 8

by Dan Raper

[9.Apr.07] :. Sixth album for now-veteran indie-rockers is a complex pleasure.

 

Baby Teeth: The Simp

by Justin Cober-Lake

[6.Apr.07] :. "The Birds Are Crying" is a lot like Foreigner's "Double Vision". But with more dancing.

 

COUNTERPOINT: Of Montreal

by Kevin Pearson

[4.Apr.07] :. Care-free stuff or kiddy fluff? Longtime Of Montreal fan Kevin Peterson takes the band to task on some of the points that our first reviewer, Lyra Pappin, raised with reverie.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Stars of the Lid: And Their Refinement of the Decline

by Nate Dorr

[4.Apr.07] :. Repetition mesmerizes us, lulls us, and yes, bores us when misused. Fortunately, with the long-awaited new album from SotL, repetition rests in very capable hands.

Recent Music reviews

 

Of Montreal

by Lyra Pappin

[2.Apr.07] :. A friend of mine complains that his students draw dark, depressing images. I suggested they start listening to Of Montreal...

 

A Hammock and a Brook: An Interview With Explosions in the Sky

by John Kenyon

[27.Mar.07] :. After getting on the big screen and the small one, Explosions in the Sky learn how to relax even as they grow.

 

Panda Bear: Person Pitch

by Phillip Buchan

[26.Mar.07] :. Animal Collective's Noah Lennox returns for his third solo outing. The tunes are fantastic, but their thrill is not without limits.

 

Good Times, Other Realities: A Conversation with Panda Bear

by Jennifer Kelly

[26.Mar.07] :. Whether with Animal Collective, through his solo work, or via a handful of other projects, Noah Lennox (or Panda Bear) makes a kind of disruptively joyful, emotionally affecting music operate on some sort of limbic plane to change your mood.

 

Arcade Fire

by Eddie Ciminelli

[8.Mar.07] :. There's nothing like spending Valentine's Day out in the cold...

 

Arcade Fire can’t rein in its ambition

by Ben Wener [The Orange County Register (MCT)]

[6.Mar.07] :. Maybe all I need to convince me of its wondrousness is a memorable experience at Coachella. That's what it took for Funeral to stick, after all.

 

Band of the Year: An Interview with Arcade Fire

by Greg Kot [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[5.Mar.07] :. The artistic license offered by an indie label led to the darker and more ambitious Neon Bible. It brims with arrangements that include a symphony orchestra and a choir recorded in Budapest, Hungary, and a massive church organ. "It felt sometimes like we were making a film rather than a record," Win Butler says.

 

Arcade Fire: Neon Bible

by Adrien Begrand

[2.Mar.07] :. After the dreamlike euphoria of Funeral, this much-hyped follow-up wakes up with one mother of a hangover.

 

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah resists labeling - and big label interest

by Jim Farber [New York Daily News]

[1.Feb.07] :. A scrappy band from Brooklyn releases a scrawl of a CD and distributes it entirely on their own. An Internet buzz spreads word of the disk, and over the course of a year, it goes on to sell a miraculous 100,000 copies.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

by Vladimir Wormwood

[1.Feb.07] :. Depression, isolation, infidelity, violence; Of Montreal once more in top form.

Recent Music reviews

 

Xiu Xiu

by Matt Mazur

[27.Oct.06] :. As New England's iconic foliage reaches the peak of its bold color change, avant-garde drama queens Xiu Xiu one-up Mother Nature with a little change of their own.

 

Just Making Records: An Interview with Portastatic

by Jon Langmead

[13.Oct.06] :. Mac McCaughan creates string charts and listens to tropicalia while running Merge Records, and he doesn't mind if you haven't listened to Superchunk.

 

Perpetual Motion: An Interview with Akron/Family

by Jennifer Kelly

[11.Oct.06] :. With its third album in two years Akron/Family takes another snapshot of its continuously evolving musical journey. Meek Warrior's free jazz freak outs may surprise some fans, but bass player Miles Seaton shrugs it off, saying, 'We just want to keep capturing wherever we are along the way.'

 

The Disappearing Designer: An Interview with Joan of Arc

by Sarah Feldman

[9.Oct.06] :. Tim Kinsella, the musician-filmmaker- performance-poet- burlesque dancer behind Joan of Arc claims an irony-free zone while explaining his process of unintentional creation. PopMatters giggles nervously.

 

In for the Long Haul: An Interview with The Long Winters’ John Roderick

by Sarah Feldman

[4.Oct.06] :. The singer-songwriter discusses fame, failure, and frequent flier miles, and explains why he's glad it took him this long to get this far.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

The Arcade Fire: Funeral

by Zeth Lundy

[16.Sep.04] :. Funeral is a truly eccentric rock record: bizarre at turns and recognizable elsewhere, equally beautiful and harrowing, theatrical and sincere, defying categorization while attempting to create new genres.

Recent Music reviews

 

The Long Winters: When I Pretend to Fall

by Christine Di Bella

[29.Apr.03] :. When I Pretend to Fall is truly a fine achievement, from a band from whom more great things should surely come. With or without another break for frontman John Roderick. 

 

Elk City: Hold Tight the Ropes

by Jeremy Schneyer

[16.Oct.02] :. Okay, okay, so Elk City doesn’t really sound all that much like Television, but the above comparison is as good as any to get a handle on the great music that this beguiling NYC trio create.

 

The Long Winters: The Worst You Can Do Is Harm

by Jeremy Schneyer

[19.Feb.02] :. You need only flip through the booklet to The Long Winters’ debut, The Worst You Can Do Is Harm, to realize that this is far from your normal pop release.

 

Elk City: Status

by Geoff Stahl

Elk City’s Status comes across as an effortless echo of the Velvet Underground, Mazzy Star, Kristin Hersh/Throwing Muses/Tanya Donnelly, Lisa Germano and Yo La Tengo.

 

Elk City: The Sea is Fierce

by Eden Miller

It’s not perfect, but it’s intriguing, and it gives listeners enough of a taste of Elk City that they will want more. 

 
 
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