Label: Rykodisc Released: March 11, 2003 Joe Jackson is a recent discovery for me. It’s not that I’ve just heard his music for the first time, just that I’ve only recently spent the time to get to know it and really appreciate it. In the midst of my Joe Jackson discovery, I came across 2003’s Volume 4 which finds Jackson… Read more »
Label: Late Bloomers Works Released: May 31, 2008 One look at the cover of Parasols and Pekingese leaves little doubt where the album is going. It mixes art deco style with the painted effects of a pre-linen postcard. As the cover suggests, Tippy Canoe and the Paddlemen look back to simpler, more honest times. There’s nothing new in that. Americana… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: September 30, 2008 While the album art for Catfight’s In Stereo is totally 80s (like, totally), their music spends an awful lot of time in the sixties as well. Eschewing all that is delicate, everything about their songs is based on their simple deliberate rhythms. They don’t waste time with frivolities like riffs or solos. The album… Read more »
Label: Retroactive Records Released: June 9, 2008 I’ve liked the Misfits (a lot) since I was about 15, even if the themes never quite sat well with me since I’m not a big horror fan and I have little tolerance for the celebration of evil. But the Misfits weren’t that serious and the B-movie quality of their music always made… Read more »
Label: Triple Crown Records Released: July 8, 2008 From the piano pop of the opening track, it’s clear that rock n roll isn’t high on the agenda for Hit the Lights. Somewhere in the last decade or so, pop punk and emo took a wrong turn and Skip School, Start Fights finds itself pretty far down that unfortunate detour. There’s… Read more »
Label: Released: July 8, 2008 Totimoshi will have a hard time living down the White Stripes comparisons on Milagrosa, but at the same time leaving a description of the album at simply that is incredibly short-sighted. There’s no doubt that they’ve found that same rich, heavy groove as Jack and Meg, but from the first lead break, they start establishing… Read more »
Label: The Secret of Life Records Released: June 24, 2008 The Violent Femmes return the favor to Gnarls Barkley (who covered “Gone Daddy Gone” on 2006’s St Elsewhere) with this EP containing a cover of “Crazy.” The trouble with Gnarls Barkley’s offering was that it left the song entirely too intact. It sounds fine, but simply does too little to… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: 2008 William Blake divided his poems into Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience to reflect his view of the world before and after that crucial point at which the ugliness of the world becomes apparent. However, Blake left out that gray area in between as experience opens doors (the doors of perception perhaps?), but hasn’t yet… Read more »
Label: Kill Normal Records Released: July 1, 2008 There are angry bands and then there are really angry bands. They and the Children are the latter. Their latest offering, Home, cuts right to the chase, brimming over with outright rage from the very start. The intensity level is so high in fact that it’s quite a shock that the whole… Read more »
Label: Exigent Records (available through CDBaby.com) Released: July 15, 2008 Microtia clearly loves the Mars Volta, but the Mars Volta they are not. Of course, that’s not the worst knock in the world. Trying to play TMV’s game and not fully succeeding is kind of like being a guitarist that isn’t as good as Hendrix or a sax player that… Read more »