Label: Exotic Records Released: April 14, 2009 The band name and album title here present a question. Is this band serious or tongue-in-cheek? After all, they’ve named themselves after the saint whose visions of the Blessed Mother continue to provide awe and inspiration to the faithful 150 years later. While their name could clearly be taken seriously, the title’s less-than-reverent… Read more »
Label: Dreamt Released: September 1, 2009 Thieves & Liars debut, last year’s When Dreams Become Reality, was a bold, expansive album. If it had a noticeable fault, it was that it didn’t always turn its breadth into a cohesive whole. American Rock n Roll doesn’t suffer that same ill though. It’s a much more straight forward hard rock album. While… Read more »
Label: Pitfall Records Released: Summer 2009 Some bands can get by on simply having big, open, honest hearts to fuel their music. They don’t have to be particularly creative as their appeal lies more in soul than songwriting. Latin For Truth is like that…except, despite having more than enough in their hearts to make just about anything compelling, they don’t… Read more »
Label: DC-Jam Records Released: July 17, 2009 SST Records was, if nothing else, a source of 80s musical madness. The label was somewhat diverse, but insanity was its consistency. While Hüsker Dü, the Meat Puppets and a few others moved on to major label semi-success, many of their bands burned up in the label’s creative melee. Painted Willie was just… Read more »
Label: Rockular Recordings, Ltd. Released: June 15, 2009 One of the best things about the Treat’s last album, 2007’s Phonography, was its ability to really move around through rock’s past. It was the movement from influence to influence that gave the album a lot of its life and that’s why their new approach is a little bit disappointing. The double… Read more »
Label: Cutthroat Pop Records Released: April 29, 2009 On the surface, Susan Storm’s Ugly Sister and Other Saints and Superheroes is an album of bold piano pop that at times dabbles in showtune pomp, proggy complexity and Beatlesque near perfection. The songs have the nature of a musical soliloquy as they meander between upbeat and melancholy, never being fully one… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: August 4, 2009 If Jeff Lynne was more quirky than slick, he may have found himself in the neighborhood of Pictures of Then and the Wicked Sea. From the start, the band makes it clear that they have both bombastic, big guitars as well as carefully crafted hooks up their sleeve, yet they manage to be grounded… Read more »