David Bernard

Recent

Music

Film School: Film School

The search for America's Radiohead continues, but Film School might be in the running a few years down the road.

David Bernard

Music

Rocky Votolato: Makers

This is an album of refreshingly earnest songwriting and sweet vocals. Makers is as relaxed as cold lemonade on a summer afternoon.

David Bernard

Reviews

Ben Folds and WASO: Live in Perth [DVD]

What is it about rock music mixed with an orchestra that makes people giddy?"

David Bernard

Music

Amandine: This Is Where Our Hearts Collide

Swedish roots-folkers are steeped decidedly in Americana. I guarantee that a taste test will surprise you.

David Bernard

Music

Rosie Thomas: If Songs Could Be Held

Sub Pop's singer/songwriter is sweet-voiced and oft-hyphenated. Her new album will turn you home stereo into a coffee shop soundtrack.

David Bernard

Music

The Paddingtons: First Comes First

If you found this Paddington in a British train station with a polite tag attached to it, you would probably decide to leave it rather than accept it into your quaint home.

David Bernard

Music

Page France: Hello, Dear Wind

Give a man two chords and a grab bag of religious imagery, and he'll give you a song. Teach him to create two chords, and he'll never be hungry for new material again.

David Bernard

Music

Johnny Society: Coming to Get You

A CD that sounds like bar band classic rock. Only it ain't classic, and the rocking ability is hidden under labored lyrics.

David Bernard

Music

Snowglobe: Doing the Distance

Indulge your inner child and satisfy your outer adult with Snowglobe's ever-shifting pop rock.

David Bernard

Music

Ashton Allen: Dewdrops

Pleasant, lazy pop music with not enough specifics and too many tried and trues. Beware, or Ashton Allen will steal your girlfriend.

David Bernard

Music

The Crimea: Tragedy Rocks

Talented UK band The Crimea release an amazing UK album. Americans will have to wait until 2006 to buy a bloated, merely great version.

David Bernard

Music

Tim Fite: Gone Ain't Gone

Good 'ole white homeboy from Brooklyn mixes bargain bin samples and a southern accent. Oh, and he perpetuates a myth that he was born without blood. Are the two related? Do we care?"

David Bernard

Music

The Happy Bullets: The Vice and Virtue Ministry

The Happy Bullets' new album shares its name with the Afghani governing body that was in charge of keeping cassette tapes and short skirts out of its country during the Taliban's rule. The adage, 'You can't judge a book by its title related to extremist Islamic groups,' rings true.

David Bernard

Music

Liz Phair: Somebody's Miracle

Liz returns from her experiment in mainstream pop with another mainstream pop record. She's as catchy and as banal as ever.

David Bernard

Music

Mew: And the Glass Handed Kites

Prog rock dynamics with easily digestible pop song lengths might make American rock fans spring for a European import.

David Bernard

Reviews

Death Cab for Cutie: Drive Well, Sleep Carefully [DVD]

The goodness of this film relates directly to the viewers' like or dislike of Death Cab for Cutie songs.

David Bernard

Music

Castanets: First Light's Freeze

This spare, creepy album is often pleasant and always surprising. Bearded zombies in love: I've got your soundtrack.

David Bernard

Reviews

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Features

Coronavirus Tunes: A Brief Playlist for Our Times of Self-Isolation

The Road to Murder in Love and War: Three Films from Claude Chabrol

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PM Picks

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Get Set Go deal with vices and death and make them both fun to listen to. You've got 80 free minutes to listen to songs about suicide, right?

Join me on the murky banks of whatever river might exist in Sheffield. There we will find pheasant, green pheasant, and it will be folky and delicious.

They have the name of a heavy metal band, but they are as sparse and muscular as a rock and roll band can be.

Verbosity without the appropriate vocal melodies makes Toothfairy's electronic pop a frustrating 30-minute experience.

Pretty boys in fancy suits want to make you dance to their heartbreak. Please refrain.

The search for America's Radiohead continues, but Film School might be in the running a few years down the road.

This is an album of refreshingly earnest songwriting and sweet vocals. Makers is as relaxed as cold lemonade on a summer afternoon.

Another Canadian pop band delivers a CD that is anything but ho hum.

This is a persistent record that is both haunting and comforting. It's not for fans of genres and subgenres, but for fans of music. It definitely applies to you.

What is it about rock music mixed with an orchestra that makes people giddy?"

Swedish roots-folkers are steeped decidedly in Americana. I guarantee that a taste test will surprise you.

Sub Pop's singer/songwriter is sweet-voiced and oft-hyphenated. Her new album will turn you home stereo into a coffee shop soundtrack.

If you found this Paddington in a British train station with a polite tag attached to it, you would probably decide to leave it rather than accept it into your quaint home.

Give a man two chords and a grab bag of religious imagery, and he'll give you a song. Teach him to create two chords, and he'll never be hungry for new material again.

A CD that sounds like bar band classic rock. Only it ain't classic, and the rocking ability is hidden under labored lyrics.

Indulge your inner child and satisfy your outer adult with Snowglobe's ever-shifting pop rock.

Pleasant, lazy pop music with not enough specifics and too many tried and trues. Beware, or Ashton Allen will steal your girlfriend.

Talented UK band The Crimea release an amazing UK album. Americans will have to wait until 2006 to buy a bloated, merely great version.

Good 'ole white homeboy from Brooklyn mixes bargain bin samples and a southern accent. Oh, and he perpetuates a myth that he was born without blood. Are the two related? Do we care?"

The Happy Bullets' new album shares its name with the Afghani governing body that was in charge of keeping cassette tapes and short skirts out of its country during the Taliban's rule. The adage, 'You can't judge a book by its title related to extremist Islamic groups,' rings true.

Liz returns from her experiment in mainstream pop with another mainstream pop record. She's as catchy and as banal as ever.

Prog rock dynamics with easily digestible pop song lengths might make American rock fans spring for a European import.

The goodness of this film relates directly to the viewers' like or dislike of Death Cab for Cutie songs.

This spare, creepy album is often pleasant and always surprising. Bearded zombies in love: I've got your soundtrack.