For the love of music
Badwater incarnate is just as likely to be wearing a poetry slam beret as it is a Norwegian sweater, and when invited over for a film night is likely to bring copies of Gene Wilder's Chocolate Factory and the Science of Sleep. The album provides an aural recap to a dimly lit bar in the Mohave circa '76, whilst simultaneously retaining aesthetic … [Read more...]
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the four years I’ve been working for this webzine, it’s that every burgeoning artist should get the benefit of the doubt. To make a lucrative, successful career in musical performance was a frustratingly volatile pursuit well before file sharing and streaming media changed the game, but even though the … [Read more...]
What is it about the Rodriguez-Lopez brood that enables such prodigious levels of music? Just trying to keep track of Omar’s output as a solo artist and as the guitarist for At the Drive-In and the Mars Volta is laborious enough, let alone his myriad collaborations and ventures into production. Dude’s also got three brothers who happened to … [Read more...]
A Rayograph is the name given to a photographic technique developed by Man Ray in the 1920s, a fact probably known mostly to students of photography and industry professionals. The images Ray produced using his technique make for interesting viewing, products as they are of the first wave of Surrealist art, and their monochrome imagist style owes … [Read more...]
Dead Western Plains, a new quintet from Tuscon, AZ, announce themselves to the world with their blooming 7" "Alta". The debut represents a rather promising, if slightly derivative, entrance into a surprisingly growing genre of pseudo modern psychedelia. "Alta" shows promise mostly, though at times cannot separate itself from its future peers in … [Read more...]
Remember Lo-Fi? I've done some searching recently, trying to rediscover exactly what that genre description meant. Very few albums I've heard in the past two years (certainly since I started reviewing for this site in 2008) fall anywhere near that category: the albums I receive are very often cleverly and imaginatively produced, even those that … [Read more...]
It's been a few years since New York's The Citizens released Post Cro-Magnon Drift and the band starts 2010 triumphantly with this solid EP called Lightheaded. The group apparently recorded the basic tracks live in a Brooklyn basement and the result is five engaging tunes that seem perfectly suited for summer nights spent drinking wine - at least … [Read more...]
In the months preceding the release of the Flaming Lips’ new album, Embryonic, frontman Wayne Coyne provided more than enough justification and subsequent warning that we were not going to have another sweetly glistening electro-pop record on our hands, à la 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots or 2006’s At War with the Mystics. … [Read more...]
New album Umbrella Weather: Ornate psychedelia pours from the loudspeakers, ranging from delicate to druggy. Acoustic guitars give way to flourishes of orchestrated static. Fuzz pedals filter exotic riffs. A ghostly voice conjures dreams in pop song format. One experimental composer, one multi-instrumentalist, and two identical twins add up to … [Read more...]
Dappled Cities - Zounds Syndey, Australia’s Dappled Cities has enjoyed a devoted following Down Under since its lo-fi debut, A Smile, dropped back in 2004. With a strong-willed intent to breakthrough stateside, the quintet has seized every opportunity since then to connect itself with American ears. Beginning with the recording of 2006’s … [Read more...]