AltWeeklies Wire
'Welcome Here Again' is a Rosy Soundtrack for the Rising Sunnew
The first album from this fiddle-and-guitar duo in a decade emphasizes quiet restraint and elegant melodies.
Tucson Weekly |
Gene Armstrong |
09-25-2008 |
Reviews
The High and Mighties Might as Well Call Their Reggae 'Retread'new
Like every other group currently commercializing a pop reduction of reggae, Chapel Hill band The High and Mighties cites Bob Marley as its forefather.
For Jenny Lewis, It's All About the Castingnew
When the former child star plays Lucinda Williams, Blue period Joni Mitchell, or even Stevie Nicks-led Fleetwood Mac, she nails the role, but when she's cast against type, the results aren't so hot.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
09-24-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue
Kings of Leon Find Inspiration in Americananew
With songs conjuring trips along dusty back roads or, at the very least, a night chalking up pool cues, Only by the Night doesn’t veer far from the southern-fried rock Kings listeners have come to expect.
San Antonio Current |
Cynthia Hawkins |
09-24-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Kings of Leon, Only by the Night
Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip are as Screwy as They Soundnew
Before this album arrived on my doorstep, what little I'd heard through tinny laptop speakers sounded like a nitrous-oxide Streets.
San Diego CityBeat |
David Tow |
09-24-2008 |
Reviews
Davila 666 is Puerto Rico's Answer to the Black Lipsnew
Disparate patches of Radio Birdman, the Dead Boys, and rudimentary jangle pop are all threaded onto the album, the charms of which are multiplied by the fact that Davila 666 sounds like it was recorded live at a basement birthday party.
Tags: Davila 666
I Love Stars For the Same Reason You Hate Themnew
Stars, to me, are perfect—the urgent, unmuffled whisper of acutely self-aware melodrama.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Caralyn Green |
09-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Stars, Sad Robots
'Death Magnetic' is a Calculated Maneuver to Recapture the Sound of Metallica Pastnew
The bits of punk and goth and country and blues and pop that crept their way into the sound of albums like 1996's sorely underrated Load have been summarily stripped away, but the result is not that Metallica sound like old Metallica; it's that they sound like some band trying to sound like old Metallica.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
09-19-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Metallica, Death Magnetic
'Hearts and Daggers' Takes You on Listening Adventuresnew
Violinist-vocalist Petra Haden teams up with accordionist Miss Murgatroid (née Alicia Rose), and it turns out to be far from the dry, conservatory exercise you'd expect: This is cutting-edge stuff.
Tucson Weekly |
Gene Armstrong |
09-18-2008 |
Reviews
Exmortus Has That '80s-Metal Feelnew
The group's full-length debut, In Hatred's Flame, burns with the ambition of teenage metalheads striving to be as epic as inhumanly possible.
Tucson Weekly |
Jarret Keene |
09-18-2008 |
Reviews
A Second Look at Ben Folds Five's 'Reinhold Messner'new
At the time of its release, Reinhold Messner -- 11 largely interconnected songs stretched over 40 minutes -- was panned by many critics.
Tindersticks Recreate Their Somber Tone With Less Guysnew
In 2006, the band's membership was halved with the departure of three musicians--including Dickon Hinchliffe, who was responsible for all those sweeping strings.
Washington City Paper |
David Dunlap Jr. |
09-18-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: The Hungry Saw, Tindersticks
Clapalong with Starfuckernew
All Starfucker's synth-based shine can make it easy to forget that the album is essentially the product of a singer-songwriter, but it takes a skilled songsmith to make jams that sound carefree and somber at the same time.
Willamette Week |
Nilina Mason-Campbell |
09-17-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Starfucker
Teeth Mountain Doesn't Re-invent the Drum Circlenew
But its members do it with a sincere appreciation for the woollier end of late-'60s radicalism.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
09-16-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Teeth Mountain
Ben Parris Gets a Solid Minimal Techno Workoutnew
Parris keeps a fairly low profile around Baltimore. Like just about everybody else of moderate success in the techno community, he does a fair amount of time in Berlin, which is to techno as Brooklyn is to avant-rock.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Byrne |
09-16-2008 |
Reviews
