Category: album review Page 18 of 22

Buy “Interpol” from Amazon

On 09/07/2010

In album review, music

You can never go back. No matter how much we might want to hop in a time machine and return to the best moments of our lives, such talk is impossible. Even if it were possible, would we really want to? All too often when we try to relive the best moments of our lives they end up not meeting our expectations. Those glorious memories we have established in our heads are often partly fiction anyways, covering everything in a dream-like haze that releases endorphins in our brains and we register the purest of pleasures. Undoubtedly then, many people have fond memories associated with Interpol’s debut album “Turn on the Bright Lights”. It was one of those revolutionary records from the last decade, instantly grabbing people’s attention upon release and securing itself a place in rock history as one of the ten best albums of the 00s (according to many including myself). That and the band’s sophmore album “Antics” turned Interpol from Joy Division imitators to contemporary and original rock stars of their own. After two similar-sounding records though, the band looked to mix things up a bit for their third album “Our Love to Admire”, which was given a chilly response from critics and fans alike. Interpol signed to major Capitol Records for that 2007 album and with the diversion from their standard sound along with the extreme polish put on the songs, one couldn’t blame fans for feeling as if they’d been betrayed. It’s been 3 years and you’ll be surprised to learn that times have changed. During that period there were solo albums and side projects. Interpol as a band left Capitol Records and returned home to Matador. They announced their fourth album would be self-titled and have been claiming it sounds like their earlier stuff. It was also revealed bassist Carlos Dengler quit the band after the latest recording sessions. Outside of that Carlos D thing though, all indicators are that Interpol are looking for a “return to form” with the new record, which coincidentally is out this week. But as we’ve already established, no matter how hard you try to go back, things are never the same as they were before.

Whether or not Interpol want to acknowledge that going back to 8 years ago is an impossible task, they sure as hell are going to try their hardest to get there. The opening track on “Interpol” is “Success”, but amusingly enough the band doesn’t seem to have that much of it going for them at the very start. The song is good, but compared to the band’s gripping openers in the past, from “Untitled” to “Next Exit” and even “Pioneer to the Falls”, “Success” doesn’t fully succeed. It has the sound and feel of something off “Antics”, but one of the lesser, deeper cuts. “Memory Serves” does well for itself with a memorable hook, but it does plod along just a little bit, lacking the vigor of some of the band’s best singles.”Summer Well” brings up the tempo and adds piano to good effect with yet another solidly captivating chorus. It may not quite reach the levels of “classic” Interpol. but it is a cut above the band’s most recent material. Undoubtedly though, the song “Lights” will make its way onto Interpol’s inevitable greatest hits record. That’s not just because it’s the first single off this self-titled album, but it also happens to be the best song the band has made since “Turn on the Bright Lights”. The slow-burning, 5.5 minute track accumulates tension and noise until it’s almost completely succumbed by it before abruptly ending. Following that with the energized second single of the “Obstacle 1”-esque “Barricade” is not only right but it makes for a 1-2 punch that’s dizzyingly great to listen to. So after a slower start, by a couple tracks in the band really seems to be making good on their promise to take things back to their early days. Then, as if drunk on their own power, they completely fall off the wagon.

That there’s a problem isn’t immediately apparent when “Always Malaise (The Man I Am)” starts off. Drummer Sam Fogarino plays a big role in keeping the song from completely descending into mediocrity while the piano is also a nice touch. The song goes for the careful and tense build-up but fails to gather any real excitement or memorability along the way. For a song like “Safe Without”, things get off to a promising start but then fail to move anywhere. It’s like taking a plane ride, thrilling at the takeoff but once you’re up in the air the plane just circles in a holding pattern because there’s nowhere to land. After that, the final three tracks descend into outright experimentation. “Try It On” implements a clunky and offbeat piano line at the beginning and then blippy synths towards the end to try and get a little more artsy and diverse. It’s perhaps most reminiscent of something singer Paul Banks’ somewhat bland side project Julian Plenti would do, and the result is about the same here. The song then bleeds into the 5 minute “All of the Ways”, a track that’s pure mood and atmosphere while seeming to skip everything else such as a compelling reason to keep listening. For the record though, this is something of a concept album attempting to chronicle the destruction of a relationship. That things get so desperately slow and depressing towards the end is certainly purposeful in keeping the theme going, but it’s at the cost of hooks and melodies that engage the listener. If “All of the Ways” isn’t enough of a death march for you, “The Undoing” closes out this self-titled effort by continuing to hold the the slow motion depression in check, this time adding strings and horns and for no apparent reason a few lyrics in Spanish. The song oozes with desperation as Banks repeats the word “please” a whole bunch of times, practically begging to be put out of his misery. The song fades into oblivion and it feels like sweet relief more than anything else.

What “Interpol” the album ultimately comes off as is a career retrospective for the band. The first half wraps the style and substance of their first two records into a nice neat package that’s very good but not quite as great as the original source material. The second half sees the band indulging their more experimental impulses that were so derided on 2007’s “Our Love to Admire”. Given how people reacted back then, three years later that blemish still hurts just a little bit and this is like reopening old wounds. There’s little to nothing to hold your interest on that second half of the album save for a sustained dark mood and a variance in style from what has previously defined Interpol’s sound. To the extent those things are what you want from the band, well, they’re clearly aiming to please. For everyone else, this is half of a great album and half of a simply okay one. Lightening up just a touch, there’s little to nothing on this record that’s outright bad, just compared to “Turn on the Bright Lights” and “Antics” there aren’t a flurry of highlights (see: singles). Instead there are just a couple of standout moments that serve just well enough to elevate this album above the last one. There will be those arguing that Interpol has always been a band making mood music rather than songs with big choruses and an urgent pace, but the truth is they’ve been responsible for both. For every “PDA” there is a “The New”, the difference now is that those longer, more plodding songs are equipped with less dynamic twists and more static straightaways. It’s admirable that Interpol are continuing to show some ambition and are looking to reach beyond the same old songs they’ve done before, the issue is that they’ve not yet found the sound that’s going to truly take them to the next level. Parts of “Interpol” give you tinkering but it’s really a lot of fumbling around in the dark looking for a lost contact lens. Where the band will choose to go next remains a mystery, but perhaps with bassist Carlos D now out of the picture it will lead to new and exciting sounds from them once again. There’s plenty of doubt to go along with that statement, but if any band can benefit from it, Interpol can.

Album Review: Jenny and Johnny – I’m Having Fun Now [Warner Bros.]

On 09/02/2010

Jenny and Johnny – Animal

In case you weren’t aware prior to right now, the very lovely Jenny Lewis has a boyfriend. You may know Jenny Lewis from a little band called Rilo Kiley, or also through those couple records she’s released under her own name. Her boyfriend goes by the name of Johnathan Rice. He has a music career of his own and has released a couple albums and EPs over the past few years. While Rice has gotten a fair amount of press thanks to his music being used on “The OC”, his career is nowhere near as high profile as his girlfriend’s. Well, now they’re playing together as Jenny and Johnny, and one can’t help but wonder who came up with the idea. Their debut album “I’m Having Fun Now” is out this week, and it pretty much goes as the title suggests. She’s a little bit country, and he’s a little bit rock and roll, and together they make something that sounds a little like both.

Consider “I’m Having Fun Now” to be something of an old school affair, and that’s just the way Jenny and Johnny wanted it to be. The sound of the record is a very classic duet sort of thing, reaching back to the 50s and 60s for inspiration. It is, in many ways, the pair’s attempt to pull off a She & Him, the Zooey Deschanel/M. Ward collaboration. The main difference between the two projects is that the creative divide is clear-cut in She & Him, where Deschanel does virtually all the vocals and Ward handles guitars and arrangements. Jenny and Johnny is extremely interactive by comparison. As they both have singer-songwriter credits to their names, sometimes Jenny will take the lead on a track, and other times Johnny will. They’ll also lend backup vocals and other small singing elements to each other’s songs. A few times they even harmonize their voices for an entire song. For what they’re looking to accomplish, it works quite well. Almost every track is pretty lighthearted and bouncy, good enough to keep your toes tapping and heads bobbing. It sounds like they really enjoyed making this record, and in turn there’s a lot to enjoy while listening to it.

Here’s the thing – there’s a reason why Jenny Lewis has attracted so much attention throughout her career. She’s got an exceptional singing voice, is an impeccable lyricist, and pretty much kicks ass on guitar as well. Johnathan Rice, on the other hand, is just enough of a talent to get signed and sell some records. There’s a reason why he hasn’t reached the levels of popularity and critical acclaim that similar singer-songwriters have (see: Pete Yorn, Ryan Adams, etc.) in recent years. So by teaming up, Jenny and Johnny split the balance between amazing and mediocre pretty evenly. Really what happens is that every time Jenny makes her vocal presence heard, she stomps all over Johnny’s comparatively weak singing. To be clearer, his vocals aren’t bad in the least, they’re just sort of wispy and unmuscular and pale in the face of what Jenny is doing. As to the songwriting, it’s all pretty good. Jenny and Johnny have been writing music together for a few years now, as he helped out on her second solo album “Acid Tongue” and she helped out with his second record “Further North”. They do fine on the words. It’s the execution where the mixed bag enters the fray. It stands to reason that if there were more Jenny and less Johnny on this album, it’d be a better record overall.

While preparing to promote “I’m Having Fun Now”, Jenny and Johnny have been doing a fair number of interviews lately. The way they explain the origins of this project make a fair amount of sense. They’ve been working on each other’s music for awhile now, they’ve been touring together and since they’re also in a relationship, this just made a lot of sense. Additionally, both of them have gone on record saying that being a solo artist is a challenge, having to carry the burden of an entire record on your shoulders without other band members to share it with (yes, most “solo” artists have backing bands, but that’s not the point and they don’t share any credit for the music). Jenny and Johnny was really born out of both wanting to make more music but not alone. As sensible as that may be, “I’m Having Fun Now” kind of hurts both their solo reputations. Longtime fans of Jenny Lewis will be upset that Johnny keeps stepping on some of these melodies. And Johnathan Rice spends much of the record getting steamrolled by his girlfriend’s easy charm and strong musical talent, so it’s sort of embarassing for him. Lightening up a bit though, Johnathan Rice is not a BAD artist by all means and he is legitimately talented to the point where his career to this point is justified. This record is just the equivalent of having some relatively indistinguishable NBA player face off against Michael Jordan in his prime. The guy was good enough to get to the NBA, but he’s no superstar just as Johnny is good enough to be signed to a label and tour nationally, but he’s not of the same caliber that Jenny is. Ignoring the two talents behind this project though, “I’m Having Fun Now” is a pretty nice folk and alt-country record that should satisfy a whole lot of people. Try not to criticize it too much (as has been done here), and it’s extremely easy to like. This probably isn’t intended to be anything brilliant or revolutionary, so you could say it serves its purpose exactly. Give it a try if you’re looking for an easy and breezy record to listen to while hanging out with friends on a lightly chilled fall evening.

Buy “I’m Having Fun Now” from Amazon

Album Review: Film School – Fission [Hi-Speed Soul]

On 09/01/2010

Film School – Heart Full of Pentagons

The Californian band known as Film School has been through a number of changes these past few years. As the brainchild of Greg Bertens, the band started in the late 90s as largely a solo effort with contributions from various friends and musicians. A full lineup was officially solidified after Film School’s 2001 debut album came out, though it’d take them until 2006 to craft a follow-up. That self-titled second album showed how significantly things had changed in the 5 years between records as Film School’s sound went in a much darker and heavier direction. They began to pull in comparisons to Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen while also bringing out a more shoegazey My Bloody Valentine-infused vibe. The sound would dive even further into the hazy and progressive on 2007’s “Hideout”, and by that time the band members had all changed once again, save for Bertens. Now three years later, that 2007 lineup continues to hold strong and Film School are returning with a new record titled “Fission”. Would it surprise you to learn that though the faces may not have changed in the last 3 years, the music has? That’s true not only for trends across indie rock in general, but of course for Film School as well.

Film School have, by all accounts, softened up just a little bit on “Fission”. The heavy and distorted guitars are much less dominant, replaced instead by a lighter, more traditional and “commercially friendly” set of arrangements. Things aren’t necessarily brighter, but the shoegaze element of their sound has been pulled back significantly in an attempt to expand their range. That’s evident from the very first song “Heart Full of Pentagons”, which brings in some synths and has strongly assisted backing vocals from bassist Lorelei Plotczyk. The synths are actually pretty dominant across the entire record, giving the band’s sound a bit more of an 80s influence but never to the point where it overwhelms the very present era this music was made in. Plotczyk also takes on a significantly increased role on “Fission”, finally being allowed to stretch a bit and take lead vocals on a handful of tracks. She’s got a sweetly powerful voice and is a killer bass player, so that move makes a mountain’s worth of sense. Every song she has a large stake in is automatically better for it, and there’s a certain bit of sunshine that peers through the tones of grey on those tracks as well. Looks like she’s no longer the undervalued member of Film School.

The biggest problem with “Fission” is its inability to maintain a consistent sound for the duration. Unlike the band’s last two records, which were all fuzzed out and thematically sound, there’s a lot more going on with this new record and little rhyme or reason as to how it all makes sense collectively. Take each track individually and you’re bound to discover that almost every one is a potential single of some caliber, be it the National-esque “Bones” or “Meet Around 10” which has an almost Yo La Tengo feel to it. “Sunny Day”, has jangly guitars and Plotczyk’s vocals which make for a delightfully hazy track that practically screams Asobi Seksu. It’s accessible, yes, but also all over the place. If the songs actually felt related to one another rather than distant strangers, “Fission” would be a far stronger record overall.

With weakness also comes strength as well, because when Film School aren’t working to mimic one of their myriad of influences, they can actually produce something that sounds completely fresh and original. The song “Direct” is the biggest example of this, blending some shoegaze guitars with a mixture of live and programmed drums and electro that may not be immensely addictive but carries a certain power that stops you dead in your tracks. Dropping in right at the center of the album, it serves as one of the few pieces that unites Film School’s past, present and future sounds. They could have built the entire record based off that song and it might have worked in mindblowing fashion.

The good news for Film School devotees is that nothing on “Fission” feels altogether unfamiliar. The same band is underneath the various sounds you’re hearing and though they do their damndest to put their old tendencies to rest, you can still pick up on them should you listen carefully enough. What this album really provides for the band is a set of options. The word “fission” is defined as the splitting of an object into two parts, and that’s a relatively accurate description of what’s going on with this record sonically. Film School have created a crossroads for themselves where the songs on the album point at a few different ways they could go. As evidenced by the strength of many of the songs, chances are they’ll be fine no matter what direction they choose, assuming they do so for their next record. Their biggest mistake could be to make yet another sonically mixed collection of songs whose only commonality would be that they showed up together. It’s like “The Breakfast Club” of music in that a wide array of people are forced to sit in detention together. In the end they all come away with a better appreciation for one another, but expecting them to all become lifelong friends is far too unrealistic a concept. The fantasy of making “Fission” work from beginning to end is just that, but you’ll learn plenty along the way and will hopefully be more accepting the next time Film School decides to pull a 180 on us and move in yet another random direction.

Buy “Fission” on CD from Hi-Speed Soul Records
Buy “Fission” on limited edition clear vinyl

Album Review: The Clientele – Minotaur [Merge]

On 08/31/2010

Buy “Minotaur” from Amazon

There’s been oh so much talk in the past couple years about the retirement of The Clientele. Singer and guitarist Alasdair MacLean said the following prior to the release of the band’s last album “Bonfires on the Heath”: “I think it’d close the chapter quite well. If you don’t have any more ideas you should just go away, I guess.” This among other discussion of possibly breaking up the band once they had finished touring in support of their current record. He also mentioned the possibility of The Clientele continuing to make music should they find an interesting reason to. The idea was floated that they might be amenable to working on a film soundtrack or something similar. Well, there’s no word on that just yet, but MacLean has already announced a new project he’s working on called Amor de Dias. While we wait to see what will come of that, there’s a brand new Clientele mini-album in our midst this week. Titled “Minotaur”, it spans 8 tracks and 30 minutes and is about what you’d expect from the band.

As with any band that’s been around for 10 years and has four albums to their name, there are certain things that are a normal part of every Clientele song. Their first couple records waded largely in the quiet, pastoral 60’s folk-pop arena, there were plenty of catchy moments to be found, but much of it was somber and “autumnal” in nature. “Bonfires on the Heath” was very much in that vein as well, though that was more a return to form after the surprisingly upbeat and much more pop-driven “God Save the Clientele”. And while the variations in their sound may only have been minimal, the additions of some new members and instruments has served them well in the end. The Clientele have learned how to smooth out every rough edge of their music and even when a song completely falls flat it still comes off shiny and gorgeous. Where “Minotaur” falls is right in the band’s sweet spot, very capably balancing the soft and beautiful, the surprisingly catchy and the outright experimental.

Opening title track “Minotaur” has the feeling of a great Clientele track, but the lyrical subject matter is a little different from the typical “love and nature” topics MacLean tends to focus on. The explanation behind that one is pretty easy, as apparently drummer Mark Keen wrote the lyrics. “Jerry” comes in next and is smooth as silk until a surprise guitar solo tears things up and elevates the song above the band’s average. One of the most fascinating things about “As the World Rises and Falls” is that it was originally done by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. This cover version not only works well with the rest of the mini-album, but The Clientele absolutely make it their own in only the way they could. Things really start to get interesting around “Strange Town”, a song that has the feeling of a potential hit but then just plain aborts after about 90 seconds. Why the band chose to leave the song in what feels like an underdeveloped state is a mystery, but it does work in the sense that you’re left wanting more. “No. 33” is a token Clientele instrumental track, pleasant and beautiful as expected (and also short), while “The Green Man” is a 5 minute spoken word piece with atmospheric background noise that has sharp echoes of the excellent “Strange Geometry” track “Losing Haringey”. To close things return to a more normal state with the unassuming song “Nothing Here Is What It Seems”. It’s a stately and perfect way to end the mini-album, and that could be said about the tracklisting to the entire thing – arranged exactly the way it needs to be.

Perhaps the saddest part of “Minotaur” is again the continued suggestion that any day now The Clientele are just going to put down their instruments and call it quits. Given their long streak of prolific and completely underrated albums, the music world would certainly be missing a band filled to the brim with great talents. Yes, Alasdair MacLean will land on his feet, probably with his new project, but this collection of talent, including the newest member in multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey is too strong to simply let go. “Minotaur” may be a swan song for The Clientele, so it’s a great thing that they might be going out on a high note. If “Bonfires on the Heath” really was intended to be the last record the band released, the themes of autumn and the slow descent into winter/death of nature were perfectly planned at the time. With “Minotaur”, it feels like when an old friend that moved away years ago finally returns for a visit. You’re so blissfully happy to see that person again and you wrap them in a warm hug and wish that they could just come back home where they belong forever. Well, life doesn’t always work out how we want it to. The future of The Clientele remains in peril, and we can hope they’ll continue onwards, but the choice is not ours to make. Perhaps if enough of us show support for “Minotaur”, we’ll continue to get more gracefully beautiful music from this band. If that doesn’t work, our memories will have to suffice.

The Clientele – Jerry

Album Review: Klaxons – Surfing the Void [Polydor]

Buy “Surfing the Void” from Amazon

On 08/30/2010

In album review, music

How many times have you heard the word “nu-rave” used? Unless you’re a member of the band Klaxons, you’ve probably not caught more than a few mentions of it in passing, if at all. It seems that when Klaxons first appeared on the music scene, their intensely danceable rock music was indefinable to the point where they had to create a new word to more easily describable. Many suspected that with this hot new band and their debut album “Myths of the Near Future”, a whole load of copycats would emerge and the nu-rave genre would thrive under that guise. While Klaxons may have reached strong levels of popularity across Europe, Americans were not so quick to embrace the band and they didn’t quite grow to the point where their sound became a jumping off point for others. And as nu-rave never became a whole “thing”, the label itself can die a quick and painless death, so we can simply define Klaxons’ sound as being…Klaxons. Want more proof of that? Give a listen to their new sophmore album “Surfing the Void” and try to place it under an easily definable genre label. It’s tough, and that’s a big part of the band’s charm.

In preparing for “Surfing the Void”, Klaxons got typically tempramental when it came to choosing a producer. After recording with several different people and coming away largely disillusioned and unsatisfied with the results, the band finally settled on Ross Robinson, who’s doesn’t typically produce anything other than heavy rock and roll records. As a result, “Surfing the Void” is quite a bit more guitar-heavy than its predecessor, but not to the point where you could call it a full-on rock record. It’s all over the stylistic map, and of course that’s a big reason why Klaxons are still their own unique breed of music. Those going into this new album hoping for something similar to the band’s debut will more than likely be disappointed. You can’t dance to most of the tracks, though there are plenty of fist-pumping, liberation anthems that will get your blood up and stay with you for a surprisingly long time. There’s nothing quite as brilliant or catchy as “Golden Skans”, but if you liked the punky energy of a track like “Atlantis to Interzone”, there’s a host of new songs with that Pixies-esque quality (it’s almost as if “Venusia” is the band’s attempt to recreate “Velouria” in an original way). The brash, spitfire approach is pretty effective on the whole, though it does take away ever so slightly from the band’s ability to throw a stylistic wild card at you as they’ve pulled in the past. In that sense it’s also a little easier to figure out if you’re going to like “Surfing the Void” by simply listening to a couple tracks. Yet it’s also an album’s album, in that the individual songs are most effective and enjoyable when listened to in the context of the whole thing. Album opener “Echoes” is the perfect entry point anyways, one of the best singles on the record and a great introduction to where the band is at stylistically these days.

Where Klaxons are at lyrically is pretty much the same spot they’ve been in all along. There’s a sharp marriage between the poetically smart and just plain oddball, to the point where you’ll often find yourself wondering exactly what the hell they’re talking about. You’re best off just ignoring any potential “meanings” and just going with the flow, same as any attempts to truly define Klaxons’ sound. Unfortunately, “Surfing the Void” doesn’t exactly continue to paint the solid picture of a band on the rise. Of course it also doesn’t indicate they’re standing still or complacent either. Instead it’s more like Klaxons are still wrestling with what they want out of their sound. They’re continuing to try new things and are pushing themselves within certain respectable limits, but largely they don’t take it far enough. The songs may still have dynamite hooks and are enjoyable to listen to, but there are moments when Klaxons start to feel like little more than an above-average alt-rock band. Hopefully their next record will offer something of a course correction – not necessarily back to the aborted nu-rave genre, but maybe in an entirely new direction that both works well with what they’ve previously done yet remains undeniably Klaxons. The music on “Surfing the Void” might not be as timeless as we could have hoped, but that album cover most definitely is.

Album Review: Mogwai – Special Moves [Rock Action]

Mogwai – Friend of the Night (Live on BBC1)
Mogwai – Glasgow Mega-Snake (Live on BBC1)
Mogwai – Summer (Live on BBC1)
Mogwai – Acid Food (Live on BBC1)
Mogwai – Folk Death 95 (Live on BBC1)
Mogwai – Travel Is Dangerous (Live on BBC1)
Mogwai – We’re No Here (Live on BBC1)

On 08/27/2010

In album review, live music, mp3, music

For Live Friday this week, considering that Mogwai coincidentally also released their first live CD/DVD on Tuesday, this is going to serve as something of a 2 birds, one stone type of situation. If you’ve never heard a Mogwai record before, that’s something you need to experience sooner rather than later. The band’s largely instrumental compositions are post-rock of the most epic sort, often slowly building in ferocity until peaks are reached and there’s a cathartic release of skull-pounding noise. It’s something they’ve been doing for over 13 years and 6+ studio albums, and though the sentiment tends to be that they’ve started to get stale and have been treading water the last couple albums, there are still clear highlights on each to make everything in their catalogue worthwhile. Yes, albums like their debut “Young Team” and “Rock Action” will always hold a revered place amongst Mogwai fans, but scorched Earth later period songs like “Glasgow Mega-Snake” and “Batcat” will be there too, mostly because they’re so damn good.

New York’s Music Hall of Williamsburg isn’t exactly the most thrilling venue to create a live CD/DVD, that is compared to other bands who choose to make their live recordings at special anniversary shows or at a highly unique location or something similar. The combination package, the CD portion of which is titled “Special Moves” and the DVD portion titled “Burning” was recorded in total over 3 nights at MHOW, but constitute what might be considered a very accurate portrayal of what you’d see and hear at your average Mogwai show. It’s also a very well balanced collection of songs, selecting songs from each of Mogwai’s albums and not displaying any particular favoritism towards any period of their careers. And while requisite mind-exploders like “Mogwai Fear Satan” and “Like Herod” are staples of virtually any Mogwai show, they also dive a little deeper beyond the flagrantly fantastic for a subdued moment like “Cody” or the not-quite-obvious choice of “I Love You, I’m Going to Blow Up Your School”. What really stands as a testament to how amazing Mogwai are live is how well they’re able to take these career-spanning songs of various quality and seamlessly blend them together to the point where everything sounds mindblowing. Sure, there are some epic standouts, but despite this not being a greatest hits record it can often feel like one, with just a tiny amount of crowd noise in between to remind you that it’s live.

In terms of the “Burning” live DVD that you can get as part of the live package, it’s a black-and-white affair directed by the great Vincent Moon along with Nathanaël Le Scouarnec. The “Special Moves” CD might be a great audio representation of Mogwai’s music in a live setting, but to capture the full effect you absolutely need to see what’s happening on stage. From the smart lighting work to Martin Bulloch’s shockingly effective drum work, those are just two big positives among a wealth of them proving that this band is best when they’re both seen and heard. There’s not a ton of overlap between the CD and DVD tracklistings, and the DVD-exclusive renditions of “The Precipice” and “Batcat” are pretty jaw-dropping in their own right amongst heavy-hitters like “Hunted By A Freak” and “Like Herod”. And while the DVD may show you what a completely enthralling experience Mogwai’s live show is, unless you’ve got a gigantic TV with an extreme number of speakers you’ll never be able to fully recreate what it’s like to be in the same room as the band mows down a large crowd with an intense amount of noise. Your entire body vibrates, your hair stands on end, and more than likely you’ll have some hearing damage to contend with. For those who aren’t going to be able to catch a Mogwai live performance anytime soon, or simply just want to have a recorded show at their beck and call, “Special Moves” and “Burning” are your two grand companions for that. They also serve as a fantastic introduction to the band if they’re new to you.

While I am unable to offer you some mp3s from “Special Moves” for your downloading pleasure, thankfully I do have a relatively large archive of Mogwai live bootlegs I can choose from. So what you’ll find below is a session the band did on BBC Radio 1 back in 2006 around the release of their album “Mr. Beast”. Naturally then, most of the tracks pull from that album, but it still gives a pretty strong impression of what Mogwai sounds like live, even if it’s not quite the quality “Special Moves” and “Burning” have to offer.

Buy “Special Moves” and “Burning” in various packages from Rock Action

Album Review: Magic Kids – Memphis [True Panther Sounds]

On 08/26/2010

Magic Kids – Summer
Magic Kids – Superball

The True Panther Sounds roster has been pretty strong these last several months, though you have to wonder how much of that has to do with Matador Records being their parent company. Just reeling off the names quickly, True Panther has recently put out albums by Girls, Delorean, Real Estate and The Morning Benders, among others. Either they’re really smart about the bands they sign, or they’re just the beneficiaries of a strong promotional arm. Well this week they’ve been up to more good with the release of the debut album from Magic Kids, titled “Memphis”. If you like your music in the vein of classic AM pop, make sure these guys are on your radar.

Magic Kids make bright, sunshine-infused pop that feels genuinely rooted in those innocent days of the early 60s. Use the Beach Boys as your classic rock marker, and a combination of The Boy Least Likely To and Apples In Stereo for your modern-day indie rock markers. This music is so gloriously upbeat and fun, it’s a shame that its being released at the end of August, as summer is on the way out the door. One could easily imagine this soundtracking a run through the sprinklers on a lush green lawn or swinging from the monkey bars on a playground. In other words, Magic Kids is a great name for the band, because there’s both something magical and something childlike in their music. Just one look at their song titles should give some sort of indication as to what “Memphis” has in store for you: “Candy”, “Superball”, “Summer”, “Skateland” and “Sailin'”. Funny also that “Candy” sounds like a sugar high, “Superball” bounces around with blissful fun, “Summer” feels like a day on the beach, “Skateland” does a half-pipe of rock and roll, and “Sailin'” pushes the wind in your direction. They’re all individual highlights on this record, along with most of the other tracks here, the biggest and best of which might be the very first song that caught everyone’s attention last year, “Hey Boy”. Along the way there’s great guitar work, some delightful violins, string and horns, and bits of piano, all used very economically to make each song as pop perfect as possible without getting overblown or too busy. Credit should also go to some smart backing vocals, not delicately (and almost too perfectly) harmonized in Beach Boys style, but there’s a certain choir-like aspect to it with plenty of “ahhs” and “do dos”.

Better late than never, and over far too soon in a meager 28 minutes, Magic Kids’ “Memphis” is in hot competition with Best Coast for the fictional title of “best summer album 2010”. It’s such a delight to listen to from start to finish, and the songs are so relentlessly catchy that there’s strong reasoning any one of them could be a hit single. Of course in the band-a-minute world we’re currently living in, catching anyone’s ear for an extended period of time could be considered a small miracle. Magic Kids are one of those bands worth every second you spend with them, and hopefully you spend a lot of those seconds. Highly recommended? You’d better believe it.

Stream the entire album at Myspace

Buy “Memphis” from Amazon

Album Review: Ra Ra Riot – The Orchard [Barsuk]

On 08/25/2010

Buy “The Orchard” from Amazon

Orchestral pop is a difficult genre of music to deal with. Unless you’re totally clumsy and don’t know how to properly piece together a string section, chances are your songs are going to sound beautiful. That’s step one. Step two is being able to advance beyond that to craft hooks and compelling melodies that are more than just fluff. It’s a big reason why there aren’t a ton of orchestral pop bands receiving crazy hype all the time, and when one does it tends to be pretty special. Ra Ra Riot earned themselves some strong mentions in 2008 with the release of their debut album ‘The Rhumb Line”. One could argue that they benefited from a strong friendship with the guys from Vampire Weekend, but the reality is that only got their foot in the door, and the album was them stepping through it. They made susprisingly unmessy, fun and addictive orchestral pop, with a hint of that Vampire Weekend charm as well, and it worked like a charm. After a long cycle of touring, the band went straight back into the studio to record their sophmore record “The Orchard”, which is out this week.

Cello and bass slide you into “The Orchard” gracefully, as the title track moves along at a gorgeous but relatively slow pace. There’s no hook to be found, but boy does it sound amazing. Drums, bass and flute make up the core of first single “Boy”, which is a fast-paced and fun little toe-tapper that’d be one of the album’s strongest if it had a better hook. “Too Dramatic” does deliver when it comes to a catchy chorus, but the rest of it feels plain and built solely to service the hook. In other words, it’s half of a good song. Elsewhere, “Massachusettes” comes across like it was handed to them from their buddies in Vampire Weekend who were initially considering turning it into a b-side. If you want to hear a track that captures everything Ra Ra Riot does best, be sure to check out “Shadowcasting”. That song alone makes most of what comes before it almost worthwhile. The final three tracks that come after it though are a bit underwhelming and mediocre, as if the band is content to just make serviceable songs and not great ones.

Ra Ra Riot is not a bad band. They’ve proven they can make highly compelling orchestral pop on “The Rhumb Line”, but suddently with “The Orchard” it’s like they lost the plot. They are trying a few new things here, possibly sacrificing great songs in the process. Perhaps it’s best to view this album as a necessary growing pain, the product of a band that’s rapidly changing and looking for the next evolution of their sound. Unfortunately it comes off like people trying to do everyday tasks in pitch black darkness – clumsy and uneven. The couple songs that survive the tangled mess come off especially well, but 2-3 good songs do not make for a great album. Hopefully for the next one Ra Ra Riot finds that right forward momentum to craft a record once again solid from top to bottom.

Ra Ra Riot – Boy

Album Review: !!! – Strange Weather, Isn’t It? [Warp]

Buy “Strange Weather, Isn’t It?” from Amazon

On 08/24/2010

In album review, music

Put on your dancing shoes, !!! (chk chk chk) are back with a brand new record. Their fourth album, titled “Strange Weather, Isn’t It?” comes after a particularly difficult period for the band. While working on this new album in late 2009, drummer Jerry Fuchs was killed after accidentally falling down an elevator shaft. It’s the sort of tragedy that can make or break some bands, and with !!!’s upbeat dance party vibe, you could understand how they might not feel like busting a move. Not just that, but most dance rock bands have trouble surviving beyond a couple albums, often falling prey to the changing tides of public opinion or simply the difficulties of maintaining the same energy and quality over an extended period of time. That !!! continues to survive and in some ways thrive is a testament to the collective’s strength and talents. Turns out that they are, as one of their new song titles suggests, “Steady as the Sidewalk Cracks”.

A steady mood also seems to be !!!’s plan when it comes to “Strange Weather, Isn’t It?”. The album’s 9 tracks skate by in a mere 40 minutes, but they all blend effortlessly into one another like some long DJ mix. That both works to the band’s advantage and disadvantage. Being able to string these songs together as one cohesive whole makes all of them better than they are individually. You’re in firm lockstep from start to finish and there’s a consistency there keeping you engaged. Yet no matter how enjoyable the album might be as a whole, it’s also lacking in memorability and true standout moments. Things appear to be going extremely well right from the start of the record, with single “AM/FM” and “The Most Certain Sure” taking you for a fun little adventure with dance floor melodies that hit harder than a lot of what was on !!!’s last album “Myth Takes”. Similarly, the 1-2 punch of “Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass” and “Steady as the Sidewalk Cracks” hit the groove sweet spots thanks to some funky bass on one (try to guess which) and a jazzy saxophone on the other. Where the record really falters is towards the end with the triple combo of “Hollow”, “Jump Back” and “Even Judas Gave Jesus A Kiss”. Those first two are unfortunately some of the most boring tracks !!! have ever put out. “Hollow” is a sparse drum and bass cut that never moves beyond the turgid tempo it starts off with. It ultimately comes off just like its title. So does “Jump Back”, which has a decent energy to it but doesn’t have the hooks or just general creativity to take it beyond a below average dance cut. What “Even Judas Gave Jesus A Kiss” does is miss out on the chance to move beyond the mid-tempo groove it settles into. Basically it hits the mark it’s looking for and stays there for the duration, which is creatively stifling and ultimately disappointing. Rescuing the end of the record from simply descending into mediocrity is “The Hammer”, a rave-up into a breakdown that’s one of the most fun tracks on the entire album. It’s deliriously great, and makes you wonder why they didn’t put more tracks like it on the record.

If you’ve been following !!! for awhile now, “Strange Weather, Isn’t It?” should come as something of a comfort food provided you liked the band’s 2004 album “Louden Up Now”. Sonically they’re two similar records, even if this new one doesn’t quite match the days of old. It’s the difference between a more guitar-heavy and expedient approach vs. cooler electro grooves and extended freak outs. While there aren’t any songs as long or brilliant as “Me and Giuliani Down By the School Yard (A True Story)”, the new album still has its highlights – pretty much the entire first half, save for maybe “Wannagain Wannagain”. Nic Offer continues his vocal schtick and for the first time Shannon Funchess takes a few choruses and such, as she’s been functioning as the replacement for John Pugh since 2007. If you’ve loved !!! in the past, there’s more to continue loving about them on “Strange Weather, Isn’t It?”. In terms of where this ranks amid the band’s catalogue, it’s not their worst record but it comes somewhat close. There’s just too many so-so songs to make it completely worth your while. If you’re going the download route though, you can save a couple bucks by just buying the handful of great songs and skipping the rest. If the album as a whole is largely forgettable anyways, all you’re going to need are the tracks that actually do have solid hooks.

Album Review: Matthew Dear – Black City [Ghostly International]

On 08/19/2010

Matthew Dear – Little People (Black City)

Patrick Bateman is a sick man. As the high powered business executive main character in the book and film treatments of “American Psycho”, he is bored by the soulless world around him. It’s this boredom that drives him to the fantasy of living a completely different life, where he can seek bloody revenge on the guy who has a nicer business card, or pick up random prostitutes and sexually and physically abuse them. At a couple different points in the movie, Bateman puts on some music and talks about the Huey Lewis and the News as well as Phil Collins. While the upbeat songs were intended as darkly comical contrast to the heinous acts that he was about to commit, one might suspect that in his private time Bateman might listen to some seriously fucked up shit. If the setting of “American Psycho” was the present instead of the 80s, Bateman would probably find some delight with Matthew Dear’s explicit and predatory new album “Black City”. It’s probably one of the nastiest, grimiest albums released in recent years, but it’s also coincidentally a great dance record that will get you moving even if you feel like you need a shower afterwards.

“Black City” is something of a radical departure for Matthew Dear. He’s been releasing music since about 2003, but until 2007’s “Asa Breed” he worked with a pretty standard electronica sound. On that last album, Dear finally made the decision to add vocals to the mix, and take his rather formless dance compositions in a much more direct, lighthearted pop direction. Maintaining that pop side but completely axing the lighthearted side of it, “Black City” is dark and brooding and best experienced in the most run-down and scariest areas of whatever large urban environment you live closest to. Despite this turn towards the seedy, the move is brilliant mostly thanks to the inventive way he puts these tracks together with rough edges and odd sound combinations. Of course many may not see it that way, and be completely turned off by these unconventional arrangements. This isn’t an easy album to get into, and there aren’t a lot of hooks to work their way into your head either. That Dear doesn’t have the most conventional or best singing voice also doesn’t help matters. The good news on that end is he’s smart enough to add layers and effects to his vocals so they never harm the song.

If you don’t like “Black City”, don’t feel bad. Unlike the balearic, Italo-house leanings of glo-fi/chillwave recently, Matthew Dear deals in more straightforward electro with his own unique twist. The hyper-sexuality and general sliminess of this record can be a sharp turnoff too, especially if you like high energy build-ups and breakdowns. There’s not much on here that moves out of the darkness and into the light, but as things move closer and closer to the inevitable finish there does seem to be a more upbeat tone that takes hold to suggest hope beyond the semen-soaked streets of Whoreville, USA. Sometimes you need to hit bottom before you can start climbing back to the top. In Matthew Dear’s case, diving headfirst into the gutter has been a revealing and exceptionally creative outlet for him, turning out his best record to date. Do yourself a favor and take that same leap with “Black City”. You may not take a shine to it at first, but just try to remember – it’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything. Or something deep like that.

Buy “Black City” from Amazon

Album Review: Chief – Modern Rituals [Domino]

On 08/18/2010

Buy “Modern Rituals” from Amazon

Is it possible to write sunny California-style melodies while living in the extreme urban jungle known as New York City? Californian Bethany Cosentino and her band Best Coast spent some time in New York writing prior to recording their debut album “Crazy For You”, and that seemed to turn out quite well in keeping a surf and sand tone. In a similar fashion, the band Chief features four members who are natives of California, but really didn’t get together and start making music until they were at New York University on the other side of the country. Most of the songs written for the band’s debut album “Modern Rituals” were penned in New York, and part of the album was recorded there as well, before all the guys moved back to Los Angeles last year. The goal might have been to create a record that captures their West Coast energy, but what they’ve done instead is craft something that has the tone and feel of the massive stretch of land in between coasts. It is, in essence, an album for the heartland, with touches of both coasts and everything in the middle.

In terms of overall sound, Chief makes music that sounds immediately familiar. They cite their influences as Neil Young and Tom Petty among others, though they easily transcend the concepts of traditional folk and alt-country. There’s also some good modern-day comparisons in sound to Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses, though it’s easy to get the impression that Chief is aiming for a sound that’s even broader and easier on the ears. There are some big melodies on “Modern Rituals” that rival the open space anthems of bands like U2, Coldplay, Kings of Leon and Oasis, though they never quite reach the astronomical levels required to be considered quite in the same league. These are songs best digested while driving down the expanse of an open road, with nothing but the horizon in front of you. It’s the lively sense of adventure and the unknown that really propels them, along with some reasonably decent hooks. And as brimming with life and sheer worldly expanse as these songs are, they’re also not particularly inventive or surprising. Once you’ve taken in the first couple tracks to wrap your head around the sound, everything else falls right in line with expectation and suddenly you’re surrounded by a series of mid-tempo rock songs that are great but can feel a little plain at times.

It’s worth noting that like a number of great bands coming around these days, Chief has populated their debut album with a wealth of vocal harmonies that turn any otherwise average song into a positively gorgeous one. It’s a smart move, and one that makes “Modern Rituals” just barely worth your time and money. If you have friends that aren’t the most adventurous music listeners, introducing them to Chief should be a pretty safe way to push their tastes just a little bit more in the right direction. And who knows? This band definitely has the potential to blow up huge and play some large venues should they get the support required to take them there. Really though, one can only hope that with this debut album Chief evolves and moves into a more experimental and challenging direction for their sophmore effort. With the potential they’ve shown on “Modern Rituals”, they may just become the toast of indie rock in a few years.

Chief – Night & Day

Album Review: Candy Claws – Hidden Lands [Twosyllable]

On 08/16/2010

Candy Claws – Sunbeam Show

Creativity can be a funny thing. No matter how hard you might try to bring a sense of creative originality to your work, after awhile it becomes easy to fall into the same patterns you started out with. This isn’t always a bad thing, especially if you’ve got a particularly compelling creation in the first place. But should you get bored and worried that you’re not pushing yourself hard enough or far enough in a certain direction, there’s always drastic steps you can take to force your hand. This is what the duo known as Candy Claws did for their second album, “Hidden Lands”. Upon starting work on the album, they realized that they kept using the same guitar chords and song structures that were on their first record. Looking to diversify, they picked up an instrument they had never played before, the keyboard, and began hunting for moments that “sounded right”. The result is a densely layered and obscure record that’s equal parts fascinating and challenging.

At first glance, the layers of synths and obscure time signatures of “Hidden Lands” could bring up memories of Animal Collective circa 2004-05 in what might delicately be referred to as the “Feels” era. There’s perhaps an even stronger connection to Beach House, given the male-female dynamic of the duo and again, the synths. Yet Candy Claws never quite sound like they’ve got a firm grasp on either of those two bands, instead moving in their own unique direction that’s mainly original because Ryan Hover and Kay Bertholf don’t fully know what they’re doing. Yet it still all makes complete sense, particularly in the context of the full record. There’s actually so much going on sonically with layers upon layers, they’ve had to recruit six more people to perform these new songs live. The whole album just sort of drifts by, like a cloud floating past in the sky, with little distinction or moments that stand out. Yet it still sounds beautiful, though it’s not the most upbeat record, like when said cloud covers up the sunlight just as you’re trying to catch a tan. Two of the things that make “Hidden Lands” what it is are so subtle you might not notice them unless you were listening carefully with headphones on. It’s the faint crackle of a vinyl record and the chirping of birds, both of which give the album a natural warmth that significantly aids the mood and tone of the songs.

Lyrically speaking, the words on “Hidden Lands” are pulled from author Richard Ketchum’s novel “The Secret Life of the Forest”, but they’re not exact representations of what’s written in there. See, the band used a fun little online translator known as “Translation Party”, which translates English to Japanese multiple times in a row to show how the phrasing and meaning changes the more times you translate. So basically the lines from the book the band chose to use as lyrics are the fresh, multi-translated versions of the originals. The thing is, not much of it matters because most of the time you can’t hear or understand the lyrics clearly. They’re buried beneath the layers of synths or run through distortion programs, the main purpose being to add to the overall sound in a song rather than try to add depth or meaning. To put it another way, Candy Claws don’t want to tell you what to think, but instead are just asking you to go with the flow. Bringing it back around to the cloud metaphor, nobody can definitively tell you what a cloud “looks like”, because everybody has their own interpretation of the same thing. You might see a porcupine shape, while somebody else sees a princess crown. Whatever holds more significance to you, that’s the correct viewpoint.

Ultimately, “Hidden Lands” is something of a dream album, in the sense that’s hazy and gorgeous to listen to. The keyboards shimmer and the vocals are wispy, covering the entire record in a gloss that’s in no way grounded in reality. One of its biggest benefits (and problems) is the clear lack of standout tracks, from the formless 7 minutes of album opener “In A Deep Time” through the final five minutes of “A Strange Land Discovered”, you drift through as the titles suggest with little grasp of space and time. There’s really nothing too catchy, and the oft-indecipherable vocals help prevent much from sticking with you anyways. For album purists, this should be a delight, while single song obsessives would do best to look elsewhere for compelling tracks. They may not have known what they were doing when they started crafting a keyboard-heavy record without any prior knowledge of the instrument, but the end results are delightfully off-kilter without being too obscure. It leaves you wondering – if they can make something this good from an instrument they knew nothing about, what can they do with instruments they’re already intimately familiar with?

Buy “Hidden Lands” from Amazon MP3

Album Review: Wavves – King of the Beach [Fat Possum]

On 08/12/2010

Wavves – King of the Beach
Wavves – Mickey Mouse (Demo Version)

As if Snacks the Cat wasn’t famous enough already for constantly being featured in photos and other things by owner Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, now Nathan Williams of Wavves has gotten around to featuring a drwaing of the cat on the album cover for his new album “King of the Beach”. Williams and Cosentino are currently dating, and he takes care of Snacks whenever she’s out of town. Funny then that Cosentino said in an interview that Snacks always runs out of the room whenever Williams is playing music, apparently not a fan of the loud noises he’s making with his guitars. As if attempting to incite conflict, the headlines on the web read, “Snack the Cat Hates Wavves”. Of course Cosentino was quick to react via both her Twitter account, and Snacks’ Twitter account, claiming that Snacks likes Wavves very much. It should be a point of pride for Williams, as that’s the most controversial thing that happened to him in recent months. This, after his 2009 was packed with drug-fueled meltdowns, broken limbs, and physical altercations with other bands. Wavves was a magnet for controversy, the Lindsay Lohan of indie rock, if you will. Stability started to come his way thanks in large part to Jay Reatard’s former backing band joining forces with him and turning Wavves into a three-piece. If Wavves’ performance at last year’s Pitchfork Music Festival was a musician struggling in the harsh face of stardom, the new band’s 2010 performance at Lollapalooza was like a phoenix rising from the ashes with a show of strength, power and the purest of sarcasm. That sort of stuff is all over the new album “King of the Beach” too.

The first and most noticeable thing about “King of the Beach” is the quality of the production. Straight from the opening title track, everything sounds markedly clearer compared to the last Wavves album “Wavvves”. That album was fuzzed out lo-fi skateboard rock to the point where the recordings sounded almost purposely dirtied up to go with the spike in popularity the genre was experiencing at the time. So while it may have felt a little disingenuous, the melodies on “Wavvves” were largely addictive, but more interested in catching your ear by slamming it into submission rather than crafting more devious hooks. Now that lo-fi is no longer a “hot” thing, and possibly because Williams actually has more resources to make a proper-sounding album, that’s what he does for “King of the Beach”, keeping the guitars turned up beyond their capacity but making them and his vocals smoother and clearer all around. So now we can hear him complain in typical self-deprecating fashion, “I still hate my music/it’s all the same” on the song “Take on the World”, only this time that’s not entirely true. The new album has more sonic variety than ever, full of jangly guitar pop that actually focuses on verse-chorus-verse structures and tempos that range from speed punk to death metal dirge. So while a song like “Post Acid” can have you bouncing around in a mosh pit, “Mickey Mouse” uses electronic textures and Beach Boys-esque harmonies to occupy the same sonic landscape as Panda Bear. With its lighthearted 8-bit synths and upper-register vocals, “Convertable Balloon” feels like pure indie pop a la Architecture in Helsinki rather than anything you’d otherwise associate with Wavves if it weren’t on the same record with the other stuff. At 5 minutes long, closing track “Baby Say Goodbye” mixes synths, guitars and drums with handclaps, “la la’s” and a backing choir of voices that sound a whole lot like the guys from Passion Pit. This is before the track descends into a world of psychedelic white noise in the last 90 seconds. There’s a certain brilliance in how the record unfolds, and an even stronger testament to the smarts of Nathan Williams for taking Wavves not only to the next level but actually succeeding at doing so.

Where Williams hasn’t evolved on “King of the Beach” is in the lyrics, which are pretty much the same dark, sort of self-destructive tones as the last album. “I hate myself, man/but who’s to blame/I guess I’m just fucked up/or too insane” is what he says on “Take on the World”. And clearly acknowledging how beloved he apparently is, even by his own friends, on “Green Eyes” he says, “My own friends hate my guts/so what, who gives a fuck?”. It’s hard not to feel just a little bad for the guy, but with all the crazy shit that’s happened to him, at least he’s being honest and direct about it. That’s admirable, and in some respects it’s detached enough to where it won’t get you down unless you let it. Plus, the melodies are typically upbeat and catchy enough to render the depressing words ineffective. You could say it’s a shame that for somebody who’s made such big strides forward in every other aspect of his music, that the lyrics don’t quite follow suit. Let’s hope next time he’s able to get as creative with his choice of topics as he has in his musical influences.

With a name like “King of the Beach”, there’s very little reason for you to not take this record out to a sandy location and relax in the sun while playing it. This is ideal for tossing a frisbee around or even skateboarding. It’s also a great surf record, but good luck listening to it while waves are about to slam down on top of you. For a guy that many thought would just be a one-trick pony with nothing left to offer once the popularity of lo-fi died off, Nathan Williams has proven that he’s a far more brilliant musician than anybody ever gave him credit for, and riding on what he’s revealed to us on this new album, he can stay viable and weather whatever storm or controversy that might come his way. Haters be damned, Wavves is here to stay. Now if only Snacks the Cat would get on board too.

Buy “King of the Beach” from Amazon

Download “Post Acid” for free by clicking below:

Album Review: Kathryn Calder – Are You My Mother? [File Under: Music]

On 08/11/2010