Gills and WingsGills and Wings By Al Kaufman Freddie Mercury lives. Gills and Wings, a five-piece band from Richmond, Va., must have an iPod loaded with "Bohemian Rhapsody." In their wonderfully theatrical rock style, they sing of losers and loners. On "Dealer," their sympathetic paean to the neighborhood drug dealer, lead singer and synth player […]
Sondre LercheHeartbeat RadioRounder During the summer in Bergen, Norway the sun stays out for 24 hours; in the winter months, however, you are lucky to squeeze out an hour of daylight. The extra dosage of Vitamin D has clearly done Norwegian transplant Sondre Lerche some good; his sixth album Heartbreak Radio, released in September, is […]
The Bravery Stir the Blood Island By Chris Homer The Bravery’s third album, Stir The Blood, is packed with the sort of noisy synth-pop you’d expect from the New York band. Despite not departing dramatically from the sound showcased on their 2005 self-titled debut and 2007’s The Sun and the Moon, The Bravery still put […]
Tegan and SaraSainthoodSire By Al Kaufman It's got to be hard for twins to be taken seriously in the music business, especially twins that look robotic, dress to compliment each other, and wear pixie cuts. It's too easy to dismiss them as a cute novelty act. Tegan and Sara Quin are no novelty act. They've […]
Serena RyderIs It O.K.Atlantic By Al Kaufman Ontario's Serena Ryder won the 2008 Juno (Canada's version of the Grammy) Award for Best New Artist for Is It O.K.. Granted, Canada is home to the likes of Bryan Adams, Anne Murray, Celine Dion and Corey Hart, but Neil Young, Daniel Lanois, Feist and Leonard Cohen call […]
Straight No ChaserChristmas CheersAtco/Atlantic By Al Kaufman Christmas and a capella go together as well as Halloween and chamber music. Both are bright and festive, but at their heart are beautiful and meaningful. The 10-man a capella group, Straight No Chaser, bring both those elements to their second Christmas CD, Christmas Cheers.
Person LThe PositivesAcademy Fight Song By Al Kaufman Kenneth Vasoli left the heavily influential The Starting Line because he found their pop-punk sound to be too limiting. With Person L, he clearly does not have that problem. There is still some of that pop-punk sound on The Positives, most notably on "Untitled," but mostly this […]
Steph Jones Gravity Independent Release By Jennifer Gibson If Janelle Monae has been described as the female version of Prince or Andre 3000 (and she has), then Steph Jones can easily be interpreted as the male version of Janelle Monae. He doesn’t quite dial up the freak factor like she does, but he does open […]
Cadillac Jones Rhythm Method City Recordings By Chris Homer Atlanta’s Cadillac Jones continues to prove that they are masters of the jazz-funk genre with their fourth album, Rhythm Method. Rhythm Method finds the seven-piece band crafting an album full of funk guitar riffs, popping bass lines, tight horn melodies and a healthy dose of […]
R. Garcia I Used to Write on Walls & Other New York City Stories By Alexandra Edwards Randy Garcia's other band, Nerd Parade, makes the kind of big Southern rock that you feel down in your bones. But on his solo album, I Used to Write on Walls & Other New York City Stories, Garcia […]
SwitchfootHello HurricaneAtlantic By Al Kaufman What the hell is Christian Rock anyway? When Bono sings, "And the battle's just begun/To claim the victory Jesus won" on U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," is it Christian rock? Why can't it just be rock? Switchfoot is Christian Rock, but they work really, really hard to be thought of as […]
The CribsIgnore the IgnorantWarner Brothers By Al Kaufman Britpop is fun, isn't it? Lots and guitars, tight melodies, and lyrics that balance cleverness, strangeness, and all out passion. If The Cribs are anything, they are good Britpop. Ignore the Ignorant is The Cribs fourth CD, but the first in which they try to make a […]
Jay Farrar & Benjamin GibbardOne Fast Move or I’m GoneF-Stop/Atlantic By Al Kaufman Beatnik Jack Kerouac was all about rants and raves. His sentences had no structure and, often, no coherent thought process. Jar Farrar, in his liner notes, compares Kerouac’s writing to improvisational jazz. Like that form of music, sometimes his words would travel […]
New Moon SoundtrackAtlantic By Al Kaufman What a difference a sequel makes. Now that the first Twilight movie has made its millions, everyone has signed up to be on the sequel’s soundtrack, creating a nice time capsule piece for the state of indie rock in 2009. Yes, it’s all as dour and moody as you […]
The Low AnthemOh My God, Charlie DarwinNonesuch By Al Kaufman The Low Anthem recorded Oh My God, Charlie Darwin in a log cabin in the middle of a harsh Rhode Island winter. And while it is bleak at times, it is also riveting, loud, and, best of all, never boring. In fact, it is downright […]
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