AltWeeklies Wire
Post-Punk Pioneers Mission of Burma Still Have Fuel to Burnnew
They've been together now longer than they were the first time around and they're back to making music that's equal parts forceful and fun -- they sound like no other band but themselves.
San Fran Bedroom-Pop Brats Girls Deliver a Killer Debut Discnew
Indie pop is the new indie rock, as evidenced by the recent popularity of bands like the Postelles and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Add to that list the San Francisco band Girls, who wrap their bedroom pop in many-colored paper without obscuring the classic sunny-day melodies underneath.
Pearl Jam Steps Back, Goes Pop -- and Makes One of the Best Albums of its Careernew
With Backspacer, the "grunge" godfathers seem intent on rewriting their story. It's their best record since 1998's Yield, thanks to the presence of producer Brendan O'Brien, who was allowed by the band to have a hand in picking apart the songs. The result is an economical and wholly replayable Pearl Jam album.
The Flaming Lips Return with a Dazzling Double Albumnew
The Oklahoma psych-rock vets have finally made their Dark Side of the Moon, and yet there are no obvious singles among the 18 tracks. In other words, Embryonic is a true Album, in that no one track can easily be taken out of context.
New Big Star Box Set is a Supermarket of Pop
Keep An Eye On The Sky brings new insight and appreciation to the Memphis power-pop band's catalog.
The Beatles: I'm Looking Through Them
Rediscovering something that wasn't lost: A few words on the Beatles remasters.
'Ten' + 18
Pearl Jam's touchstone grunge record gets a fresh coat of paint 18 years later.
Are They Battling the Devil, or Music Itself?
Eddie Argos and company return with an album that finds them running out of ideas, but finding just enough new ones to keep things interesting.
California Rockers Make Big Strides with Their Second LPnew
Silversun Pickups break out of the shadows and into their own identity with their terrific second album Swoon.
Meet the New Rock Opera
Colin Meloy and the Decemberists stretch their penchant for story-songs into an album-length piece on The Hazards of Love.
'Kind of Blue' Keeps Its Cool at 50
Miles Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue continues to sound fresh after half a century.
Mercury Rev Delivers One of the Year's Most Intriguing Albums
If you played Snowflake Midnight next to one of the band's early-'90s guitar-noise workouts, you'd think the two were recorded centuries apart.
Be Your Own Pet Releases a Miniature Pop-Punk Teen-Girl Party Piece
At three tracks and barely six minutes in length, does this even qualify as an EP? Well, kind of -- the three songs on this, the swan song for the Nashville garage quartet, were removed from the U.S. release of the band's early-2008 Get Awkward disc by Universal lawyers for being "too violent."
The Modern Folk Sounds of Fleet Foxes Are Simply Divine
This reverb-drenched beauty seems to be gunning for the title of coolest record ever to be sold across a Starbucks counter.
One Day As A Lion Rages Against Change
Zack De La Rocha returns from exile, a little changed but no worse for wear.
