AltWeeklies Wire
The Game and Solange Have a Hard Time Avoiding the Shadow of Bigger Namesnew
On their latest albums, the Game's LAX and Solange's Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, both artists prove that parasitic music-making is a tough gig. You're only as good as your host.
Washington City Paper |
Sarah Godfrey |
09-11-2008 |
Reviews
Tussle's Still Looking For the Perfect Beatnew
Trying to sing any track from Cream Cuts, the San Francisco quartet's third full-length, without using a plosive is the kind of quasi-spiritual drum-guru pursuit to which Mickey Hart would dedicate three years of his life and an elaborate book.
Washington City Paper |
Aaron Leitko |
09-11-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Tussle, Cream Cuts
Brooklyn-based Singer Maiysha Refuses to Dumb It Downnew
Though she participated in numerous school musicals -- she was the lead in a production of The Wiz when she was 12 -- her musical career didn't truly begin until after she graduated from Sarah Lawrence, where she studied vocal performance, creative writing and race and gender studies.
New York Press |
Ernest Barteldes |
09-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Maiysha, This Much is True
Reunited Beachwood Sparks Burn Brighter Than Evernew
Hiatuses, as it turns out, sometimes fade as well, and when your former label asks really nicely whether you'd be interested in getting the old band back together to help celebrate its 20th birthday, those initial catalysts for dissolution sometimes seem less clear.
New York Press |
Brian Heater |
09-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tarrus Riley's Jamaica Juicenew
Rastas and reggae have been a volatile cocktail since the 1970s when Bob Marley, who didn't invent either, popularized both. Last year, up-and-coming reggae Rastaman Tarrus Riley added a new element to the mix -- cranberry juice.
Creative Loafing (Charlotte) |
Grant Britt |
09-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Silver Jews' David Berman Wants His New Songs to be Instructivenew
It's surreal -- but not in the usual Silver Jews way -- to encounter these wholly irony-free lyrics from Berman.
INDY Week |
Randy Bickford |
09-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Mac McCaughan: Through with Portastatic?new
For the time being, Portastatic is McCaughan's songwriting vehicle. But there's no telling if or when he'll put that vehicle on blocks, and get himself something new to fiddle with in the garage
INDY Week |
Chris Parker |
09-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Guitar Legend Mundell Lowe Looks Back, Moves Forwardnew
Mundell Lowe returned recently to the log cabin on the farm in southern Mississippi where he grew up, only to find the house is now a pile of logs. The man who owns the property is selling them off for six bucks apiece.
San Diego CityBeat |
D.A. Kolodenko |
09-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: guitarists, Mundell Lowe
One of the Best in the Metal Game: As I Lay Dyingnew
Forget pop-punk and beach-bunny troubadours -- these North County headbangers are becoming the biggest metal band in the land
San Diego CityBeat |
Seth Combs |
09-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Calexico Favors Mariachi-meets-folk Groove on 'Carried to Dust'new
While Calexico's previous studio release -- 2006's Garden Ruin -- was an attempt to break into the mainstream, Carried to Dust sheds such polish
San Antonio Current |
Clint Hale |
09-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Calexico, Carried to Dust
Don't Call Okkervil River's 'The Stand Ins' a Sequelnew
It's really a collection of deleted and extended scenes, scrapped when frontman Will Sheff, fearing overkill, nixed releasing Stage Names as a double album.
San Antonio Current |
Chuck Kerr |
09-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Okkervil River, The Stand Ins
Examining Re-issued Soul From James and Otisnew
I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the 60s gathers three DVDs of live footage from 1968 and is anchored by a documentary about his historic Boston show on the day after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination -- a concert many credit with helping to keep nationwide riots from taking hold there.
San Antonio Current |
John DeFore |
09-10-2008 |
Reviews
Darker My Love Evades a Sophomore Slump with its New Recordnew
The songs on 2 diverge wildly from the buried shoegaze atmospherics of Darker My Love's first self-titled album, and move more toward pop territory with the assistance of producer Dave Cooley.
East Bay Express |
Oscar Medina |
09-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Darker My Love, 2
Talkdemonic's Latest is Also Its Bestnew
It has taken three Talkdemonic albums to lay the right balance of the elegant and the explosive on tape.
Willamette Week |
Casey Jarman |
09-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Talkdemonic, Eyes at Half Mast
Eternal Tapestry Sheds Layers, Finds Itself in the Processnew
In the past three years, Nick Bindeman and fellow guitarist Dewey Mahood have carried ET through numerous lineup changes and shepherded its sound through an equal amount of variation.
Willamette Week |
Robert Ham |
09-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
