UK-based Covert has been making their dark post-punk since 2006. In that relatively short time they’ve proven that they are capable of producing moody, edgy, moving music seemingly influenced by the better bands that followed the initial punk explosion of the 70s rather than the watered-down new wave that was digested by the masses and is now seeing quite a… Read more »
Label: Shout! Factory Released: August 21, 2007 John Lennon once said, “If there wasn’t a fight, it wasn’t a good gig.” So, what is it if no one even moves? Lennon was clearly arguing that a sterile show is never good and sterility is exactly the problem with SXSW Live 2007. The DVD is a collection of songs from shows… Read more »
Label: Team Science Records Released: July 24, 2007 Houston’s Papermoons, the duo that is Matt Clark and Daniel Hawkins, make music that is soft and gentle on the surface, but moves with subtle power. Their debut EP contains four songs (five on the CD) of indie folk beauty that mix layers electronic drone and traditional instrumentation. In just a single… 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: 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: Polyvinyl Records Released: September 11, 2007 Some albums are great, because you always want to listen to them and others are great, because sometimes you want to listen to nothing else. Picastro’s third album, Whore Luck, is the latter. It’s a questionable state of mind that would want a steady diet of this album, yet there are likely times… Read more »
Label: Polyvinyl Records Released: March 6, 2007 Often a great album is one where everything comes together in ways unimagined with hooks that make one wonder how anyone could write something that instantly likable. Other times, great albums take effort. The Days and Nights of Everything Anywhere, 31Knots’ fourth full-length release, is like that. A consistently unsettling work, it achieves… Read more »
Overlord has an image problem. Their myspace name (overlordisnotmetal) shows that they are consciously aware of it. Even though I found this band through one of my favorite indie rock bands, Palomar, I still wondered, “Is this a metal band?” The answer is most stridently “no.” While that might put off those who find them haphazardly, this band’s catchy, sixties… Read more »