Preview: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
June 7th, 2010 | by svotel | published in indie rock | 4 comments
Arcade Fire’s career is built on sensationally anthemic bombast, so the most striking thing about the two new songs from their forthcoming The Suburbs is that they are relatively modest affairs. But, then again, almost anything after “Intervention” or “Keep the Car Running” or “No Cars Go” is going to sound modest.
June 6th, 2010 | by Jason Grishkoff | published in indie rock | 1 comment
Avi Buffalo draws an instant comparison to The Shins: falsetto vocals, jangly guitar, and a number of almost-recognizable riffs. But Avi Buffalo isn’t The Shins. For one, their members are about half the age. Two just finished high school, one’s still in high school, and the oldest member is 21. I think that without doubt, their talent at such a young age contributes to my fascination with this band.
June 5th, 2010 | by Taylor Fife | published in indie rock, post-punk | 2 comments
To celebrate Jason’s return to the City by the Bay, last night we trekked out to the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco to catch the final live performance of Bay Area trio Tempo No Tempo. For their last act they put on an energetic show in support of Born Ruffians (who were themselves phenomenal, but this post isn’t about them). After five years, two EPs, and, most recently, a full-length, vinyl-only release, the boys have decided to call it quits and move on.
June 4th, 2010 | by Music Fan's Mic | published in experimental, indie pop | 1 comment
There’s so much ground covered here that you can’t help but sit up and listen. In the closer ‘Take Your Time (Coming Home)’, we have a feedback-drenched epic. ‘Benson Hedges’, meanwhile, is a wildly unpredictable slice of baroque pop. Its joyous syncopated piano hook and colossal gospel-tinged chorus mark it out as a highlight.
June 1st, 2010 | by svotel | published in dreamwave/chillwave | no comments
Every now and then I come across a song that I really hits me and I have the damnedest time explaining what’s so great about it. Take, for instance, Sunvisor’s “Sky Dive,” a song that I’ve been hanging out with pretty steadily since the duo sent it to me a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been struggling with my review because I can’t get much past a list of all of the things I like about the song: the vague clang of the snare, the woozy synths, the way the gentle background vocals waft across the track, the way the bassline recedes as the layers pile up, the reverb blurring and smearing the vocals.
May 31st, 2010 | by Jason Grishkoff | published in post-rock, progressive rock, psychedelic | no comments
Tame Impala were at first listen anything but tame. Their EP came out more than a year ago, featuring five tracks of in-your-face psychedelic rock-and-roll. You could easily have convinced me they were out of the sixties, but how wrong that’d be! While their sound is old, this Perth trio is anything but (as evidenced by the picture at right). I won’t say I’ve been looking forward to this album since that initial EP, but I probably should have been.
Kinnie The Explorer – Blood, It’s On Every Wall EP
May 28th, 2010 | by Jason Grishkoff | published in post-rock | 2 comments
The four tracks on their EP “Blood, It’s On Every Wall” focus very heavily on instrumentation, and I ought to make it very clear that this is my favorite part of the music. Production is crisp and round, the guitar riffs harmonic and clean. Indeed, it’s quite surprising to learn that the band had been together for less than six months at the time of release on April 28, 2010.
May 27th, 2010 | by Jason Grishkoff | published in alternative, indie rock | 5 comments
What I find odd is that with The National’s prior album “Boxer”, I didn’t feel as if it was a morning-only album. It worked at almost any time, so long as I was in the mood. Stranger still, “High Violet” very-much-so stays in line with their 2007 release. Why then, can I not get myself to listen to it with the same frequency that I did “Boxer”?
May 26th, 2010 | by Jason Grishkoff | published in math-rock, post-punk, post-rock | 3 comments
The beauty is that on “Total Life Forever”, the majority of these build-ups explode into the math-rock evinced in their first album, fulfilling the expectations of those fans of “Antidotes”. The song above, “After Glow”, perfectly exemplifies this tactic. The result is at once unique and rewarding (though you would be right to point out that it takes a certain amount of patience to get through it).
May 22nd, 2010 | by thismusicwins | published in dreamwave/chillwave | 3 comments
It’s been a busy year for the lo-fi artist, who’s Summer Holiday 7″ was just the beginning of a steady ascent to recognition for the Virginia based musician. Typically, hushed vocals can barely be heard beneath the sonic haze Tatum undertakes, one which sees fashionably murky recording styles in full use to emphasise general melody above individual arrangement. Splurges of chorus coincide with the overwhelming feeling of semi-ambient summer nostalgia – in particular on guitar heavy “Summer Holiday” and tracks such as “Live In Dreams”.
