AltWeeklies Wire
Sam Phillips Strips Down for 'Don't Do Anything'new
As on all of her best work, Phillips is humble and open-hearted, invitingly tuneful but unsparing in her assessment of the emotional wreckage she sees.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
08-13-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Sam Phillips, Don't Do Anything
The Jacksons' 'Destiny' Reissues Foreshadows the Rise and Fall of Michaelnew
After an awkward stretch which saw them leave Motown, split with brother Jermaine, and languish in bad-song hell, Destiny found them taking over the production reins, writing their own material, and re-establishing themselves as the first family of bubblegum soul.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-23-2008 |
Reviews
Jay Reatard: Wonderfully Messynew
When you get past Reatard's productivity (17 original tracks over a two-year period), you notice how seamlessly these disparate singles flow together, as if one song picks up a thought he left unfinished three months earlier.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-16-2008 |
Reviews
Dog Men Poets Swap Juvenile Lyrics for Something Bluenew
On the back cover of their new CD, Dog Men Poets list the artists who inspired each of the disc's 10 tracks. The roster, which runs from Stevie Wonder to George Clinton to Amy Winehouse to Robert Randolph, is pretty impeccable.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
07-09-2008 |
Reviews
Alejando Escovedo: The Forrest Gump of Musicnew
Whenever seminal events happened, he was usually in the vicinity.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
06-18-2008 |
Reviews
Leona Lewis is Like Whitney Houston for 2008new
On the plus side, she seems like a nice, self-effacing person who hasn't yet learned to browbeat her associates for handing her a lukewarm Red Bull. Her exotic features play well on VH1, but as a singer, she's strictly a cut-rate generic brand.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
05-07-2008 |
Reviews
Blowing Trees Goes Grandiosenew
They set the bar for themselves pretty high, and on their debut release for the New York-based Glassnote Records, they achieve their objective more often than not.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
04-30-2008 |
Reviews
The Raveonettes Charm Againnew
The Danish duo uses white noise and distortion with more aplomb than any group since the Jesus & Mary Chain, but there is always a girl-group naivete competing with the feedback.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
03-05-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Lust Lust Lust, The Raveonettes
Buttercup's Strong Finishnew
When Buttercup plotted their three-EPs-in-a-year crusade to bring extreme productivity back to music, The Head Sits Upside Down on the Top of the Head was conceived as the weird finale.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
02-13-2008 |
Reviews
The Hives: 'We Kick Ass and You Don't'new
It's been said that the purpose of all art is to express the inexpressible; to convey something that can't be easily defined. If that's the case, then the music of the Hives may not be art.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
12-05-2007 |
Reviews
The Alicia Keys Conundrum Continuesnew
Keys' air of confidence and preternaturally soulful rasp initially distracted us from the fact that her songwriting lagged far behind her performing ability.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
11-21-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Alicia Keys, As I Am
'I'm Not There' Soundtrack is for the Bob-ologistsnew
The covers on the soundtrack for the defiantly eccentric Dylan biopic are positively reverent, all the more curious because they're coming from such an irreverent collection of indie rockers.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
11-07-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: I'm Not There, Various Artists
Indie-Pop Phenom Creates Uncomfortable Intimacynew
Marcus Rubio's songs are invariably simple and repetitive, and most of the musical action comes from the painstaking arrangements, the way he layers violin, piano, glockenspiel, and the rest of the kitchen sink onto his adolescent musings.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
10-31-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Marcus Rubio, The Life of Pillows
Bruce Springsteen Lets Loose on 'Magic'new
It has the garage-band fervor of The River, amplified by a higher level of literary sophistication, and abetted by Springsteen's rare willingness to let his jangle-pop flag fly.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
10-17-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: magic, Bruce Springsteen
PJ Harvey Swaps Bluesy Guitar for a Tack Pianonew
White Chalk will be a disappointment to many Harvey fans, because it dispenses with electric guitar, bluesy aggression, and the kind of sexually assertive body music that marked career highlights such as Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea and Rid of Me.
San Antonio Current |
Gilbert Garcia |
10-10-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: PJ Harvey, White Chalk
