AltWeeklies Wire
Rockdudes Don the Bard Mantlenew
Strange Bird is every bit as smart as it is ambitious, and, more important, it rocks pretty good, too. Also reviewed is Elliott Smith's
From a Basement on the Hill.
Illinois Times |
Rene Spencer Saller |
11-05-2004 |
Reviews
Life Seems Neither Morose or Obtuse Enoughnew
Type O Negative's first album in four years features all the group's hallmarks: lyrics both mournful and puerile, delivered in Steele's grave, guttural voice.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Tony Ware |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Trio Takes Much-Needed Turn Toward Substantial Songwritingnew
Slowing down the post-punk velocity and balancing raw electronic textures against stripped-down arrangements and an introspective tenor, Q and Not U has definitely come into its own.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Chad Radford |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: power, Q and Not U
An Enigma's Enigmatic New Albumnew
Voices are manipulated to the point of unrecognizability, sometimes sounding like machine guns; sometimes like animals; sometimes like trumpets, theremins, Jew's harps, and asthmatic robot monkeys. Yet Medulla is the most beautiful CD in the singer's catalog.
Illinois Times |
René Spencer Saller |
10-29-2004 |
Reviews
The Faces Get Properly Boxed on Five Guys Walk Into a Barnew
A new, exhaustively researched and lovingly compiled four-disc box set teems with treats culled from the group's relatively brief but offhandedly brilliant history.
Boston Phoenix |
Jonathan Perry |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
First CD Remastered, Remixednew
Cerberus Shoal's 1994 self-titled debut walks a fine line between cool exploration and formulaic wankery. The remixed CD reissue of the group's initial album offers a comprehensive look at the group's then-budding yet often misguided sound.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Chad Radford |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Cerberus Shoal
The World's on Firenew
Real Gone is a distorted, disorienting blur of noise that approximates the sound of a rusty runaway lawnmower chewing up a gravel road -- loud and mean and kerosene-caustic. Also reviewed is Nora O'Connor's Til the Dawn.
Illinois Times |
Rene Spencer Saller |
10-22-2004 |
Reviews
Not a Single Note Rings Superfluousnew
Despite the sinister history behind "Abaddon" -- a Hebrew word for a destructive hell (and as easily a play on abandon) -- Pinback's third full-length is the duo's most assured and plotted.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Tony Ware |
10-21-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Pinback, Summer in Abaddon
DJ Has Come Into His Own With New Albumnew
Put the name aside, however, because Jaku is still fraught with delicious tension. Live shakuhachi flute, Kodo drums, turntable jabs and free jazz piano all punctuate his melancholic, melodic laments.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Tony Ware |
10-21-2004 |
Reviews
Why Morrissey's Solo Albums are Better Than What He Did With the Smithsnew
Morrissey isn't trading on the legacy he created with the Smiths' between 1983 and 1987 because he doesn't need to. The cream of Morrissey's solo output is every bit as good -- if not better -- than what he recorded with the Smiths. But to believe or disbelieve, you have to listen to the records themselves.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
10-21-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Morrissey, You Are the Quarry
Trying to Make Sense of Elliott Smith's Final Albumnew
Songs From a Basement on the Hill feels like the natural progression of a gifted and obsessed musical mind with more and more resources at its disposal—and more and more time to fiddle with them, and more and more drugs to fuel the fiddling.
Seattle Weekly |
Laura Cassidy |
10-20-2004 |
Reviews
A Legend Livesnew
After 35 years, Brian Wilson's Smile has finally delivered its payoff -- peace of mind, the redemptive power of love, and Heaven as a place with great surfing.
Boston Phoenix |
Brett Milano |
10-19-2004 |
Reviews
Mystery Mannew
Even to the guitarists who make up much of his avid body of fans, John Fahey is something of a riddle. A new DVD makes him no less enigmatic but does provide an up-close look of elements of his style.
Boston Phoenix |
Ted Drozdowski |
10-19-2004 |
Reviews
Costello Deliversnew
The Delivery Man is Costello's first album for Lost Highway and his first with the Imposters. He's joined by two first-time guests: Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. But as with all his releases, the real power resides not in novelty but in the songwriting.
Illinois Times |
Rene Spencer Saller |
10-18-2004 |
Reviews
Spin Doctornew
Tom Waits finds his political muse on Real Gone.
Boston Phoenix |
Ted Drozdowski |
10-15-2004 |
Reviews
