AltWeeklies Wire
Wolf Parade Shows a Mature, Polished Side on 'At Mount Zoomer'new
Part of it is the recording: It sounds more professional. The drums are mixed down and don't have that ragged, recorded-in-a-concrete-closet feeling. The record has more interest in melody--guitars are used as paint instead of gasoline.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Byrne |
07-08-2008 |
Reviews
Half-Baked Record Nerd Oddities From Dennis Wilson and Droids Resurfacenew
In the late '70s, both these albums were wonders of displacement--either too far behind or ahead of the time to achieve much more than a ripple.
Baltimore City Paper |
Brandon Soderberg |
07-08-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: space, epic, Dennis Wilson, legacy, Pacific Ocean Blue, Repressed, Star Peace, stoner rock, The Droids
Where Hip-hop Wentnew
Gold: New Jack Swing, a genre overview, and and What Does It All Mean?, the collected works of cut-up pioneer Steinski, tell the story of rap going beyond itself.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
06-24-2008 |
Reviews
Portishead Forgets Everything It Knows About Dreadnew
Third feels like an exploratory exercise and a reintroduction rolled into a somewhat flat, frowny package, wrapped in rough burlap. In 2001 or '02 it might have registered as a rudderless junior slump; in 2008, it's just lame.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
04-29-2008 |
Reviews
'Love and Circuits' Captures America's Current Musical Undergroundnew
Cardboard Records founders Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw explain the comp in no humble terms: a representation of "the current underground scene as a whole." And it's a fair approximation, at least within the bounds of white twentysomethings' fickle tastes.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Byrne |
04-15-2008 |
Reviews
What's So Crazy About Gnarls Barkley's Second Album?new
Most of The Odd Couple feels like a reheat of St. Elsewhere. But "Crazy" sounded a little thin at first, too; it wasn't till the greater public got its hands on it that the song sounded as major as it was. Maybe that will happen to The Odd Couple and maybe it won't.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
04-08-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Gnarls Barkley, the odd couple
The Oscillatornew
In the absence of new material, Craig's remixes have probably done more to enhance his legendary status than if he'd gone ahead and released a classic album. Getting a Carl Craig remix guarantees a receptive techno audience the same way a Lil Wayne guest verse does with hip-hop fans.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
03-11-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Sessions, Carl Craig
Dress Me Up in Your Fuzznew
Stephin Merritt's newest love songs are all for The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Baltimore City Paper |
Jess Harvell |
01-29-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Distortion, Magnetic Fields
Way Down in the Holenew
HBO's The Wire digs deep into Baltimore's underground for a soundtrack album.
Baltimore City Paper |
Al Shipley |
01-08-2008 |
Reviews
Jay-Z Loses the Plot While Trying to See the Big Picturenew
His wordplay is dense, and perhaps more complex than ever, but, for the first time, Jay-Z's lyrics look better on paper than they sound on record.
Baltimore City Paper |
Al Shipley |
11-13-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: American Gangster, Jay-Z
Dean and Gene Ween Still Got Itnew
On La Cucaracha, their bent energy resonates like a vibrating pinata.
Baltimore City Paper |
Ed Schrader |
11-13-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: La Cucaracha, Ween
Holy Fuck: Worth the Hypenew
These Toronto kids (centered around Graham Walsh and Brian Borcherdt and notably including Broken Social Scene's Dave Newfield and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett) deliver an epic Krautrock throwback lit up with outsider techno slash hipster techno.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Byrne |
11-13-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Holy Fuck
Arthur Alexander Was Country's Soulnew
The music on Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter still provides a living link between hillbilly twang and R&B.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
11-06-2007 |
Reviews
Challenging the Limits of Inaccessible Music with Popnew
The appeal of pop-based music generally lies largely in its accessibility, its ability to capture and hold one's attention right away. But artists like Sightings, Yellow Swans and Fiery Furnaces do the opposite.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
10-23-2007 |
Reviews
The New Pornographers Issue a 'Meh' Albumnew
The joyfully erratic sounds present in their earlier Mass Romantic, Electric Version, and, to some degree, Twin Cinema are, on first listen, surprisingly absent.
Baltimore City Paper |
Allison Levin |
09-18-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Challengers, The New Pornographers
