Label: Sugar Hill Records Released: June 12, 2007 Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles do more than just channel the past. True, Diamonds in the Dark is partially images of days gone by, but the package is fresh. Touching on every raw influence of rock music, the end result is an album that is both clean and warm, touching the… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: June 2007 They certainly got the title right. Pop culture Nintendo reference aside, the name is just awful. But the music is another story and that’s how they get away with it. Building on their layered indie rock past, Up Up Down Down (I’m skipping the rest for the sake of brevity) take significant strides forward with… Read more »
Label: Screaming Ferret Wreckords Released: July 17, 2007 The opening track of Spider Rockets’ Ever After kicks right in with that churning metalcore sound that is a dime a dozen these days. It doesn’t raise any hopes for the album even if the song itself is listenable enough. Don’t stop listening there though unless metal or hardcore just isn’t your… Read more »
I thought this was an interesting story. Singer/songwriter Peter Katz (You don’t know him? Well, neither did I, but he seems to have minor following in Canada) recently wrote a song about breaking the chain of hatred that seems to be entrenched in our society these days. Like so many songwriters, he saw something in the world that made him… Read more »
Label: Evil Boy Records Released: June 4, 2007 I can’t say I’m a huge fan of glam after 1985 or so. I certainly like T. Rex and Sweet and Bowie. I like the New York Dolls and early Alice Cooper. I even like a fair amount of the glam revialists of the early 80s, but by the mid 80s, the… Read more »
Label: Weewerk Released: October 17, 2006 You know it’s a fine album when a band pulls off a cover of a song like “Surrender” and it’s not even the album’s best track. Ox offers up this indie alt-country should-be classic that weaves its way from rock to country and back with a few detours along the way, all held together… Read more »
Label: American Laundromat Records Released: July 23, 2007 One of American Laundromat’s latest split 7 inches, So Long City Skies finds unjustly lesser-known alt rocker John P. Strohm (formerly of the equally unjustly lesser-known Blake Babies) channeling the Jayhawks. “The Long So Long” is a mild countrified indie rock song that’s so subtle you might not catch it on the… Read more »
Label: Tee Pee Records Released: March 20, 2007 I don’t take drugs and because of that, I believe I am much more discerning about my psychedelic music. It isn’t an accompaniment to my trip, it is my trip. From the space rock explosion that opens Ekranoplan, across its mind-altering landscapes and through its soul-inflected finale, this is a tour de… Read more »
Label: Side One Dummy Release Date: August 21, 2007 Punk and reggae have a long history together. The commonality of what was the people’s music in their respective cultures was evident almost from the very birth of punk and that shared vision has been explored right up through today. Certainly some have used both genres for ill, but every time… Read more »
Label: OCI Records Released: May 1, 2007 Sometimes, it’s good to hear a really tight band, but not always. The Sammus Theory is certainly a tight band, they even play with passion, but they fail to excite. That’s not to say that See (It) Through is without promise though. The Phoenix-based band’s previous effort, Man Without Eyes, was primarily a… Read more »