For the love of music
Indie rock pioneer Paul Banks is one of the few artists with his hands terribly full of illustrious and talented traits; juggling everything from his own solo material, a project called Julian Plenti, and one of the music scene’s most prolific indie bands, Interpol. Paul Banks' career and its echoes ring that of a deep hospitality, the kind of … [Read more...]
The Burning Hotels captures a sound that was all the rage a few years ago: that of Bloc Party, Interpol, Strokes, and so on. It reminds you of how quickly tastes change. That's probably a good thing for music generally because it means that we're constantly getting new innovations. But it means that the shelf life of any recording is subject to … [Read more...]
15 years is a long time in the music world. In 1995, it was possible to argue that indie music was undergoing one of its periodic lows, at least in the UK. Britpop had conquered the mainstream, the best known bands of that moment all owed their success to the intervention of major labels or, like Creation, had found themselves promoted to major … [Read more...]
Designating themselves as purveyors of “heart-quaking doom pop,” Los Angeles quartet War Tapes makes good on its promise with its full-length debut, The Continental Divide. Who their sound is most indebted to is anyone’s guess (The Killers, Interpol, and the Cure all come to mind), but it’s virtually a given that the affair will be … [Read more...]
Dualist sounds a lot like old Interpol. That might be enough of a review right there, but we'll continue. It's actually not enough to say the band does Interpol because the vocals aren't as gloomy and the band introduces enough small touches to distinguish it from Bright Lights. But overall, it's a lot like Interpol, and so you may have all the … [Read more...]
Sitting on the couch of what seems to be the loneliest birthday party ever as Julian Plenti, singer/songwriter Paul Banks, looks towards the horizon. No one really knows where the guests are, was anyone invited and if there is no one there, did Plenti really decorate this whole shebang by himself? With that in mind, the idea of Banks … [Read more...]
Kansas 5 piece Boo and Boo Too orchestrate a squall of biting, beautiful rock music on their new album, No Tempo. The sound is a desperate cacophony, weaving three spiraling guitars through a solid rhythm section and urgent vocal. Boo and Boo Too sound good, whether they're building up or tearing down. No Tempo is a dense album, dreamy but … [Read more...]