Murs’ new album, Murray’s Revenge, is a follow-up to his last collaboration with underground producer 9th Wonder, 2004’s critically acclaimed Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. While that album was moodily introspective — its cover image featured Murs under a freeway, tipping his hat toward the night sky — Murray’s Revenge…
Please excuse Nick Diamonds and Jaime T’ambour while they resurrect themselves. If you’ll recall, they bought the proverbial farm at the conclusion of The Unicorns’ landmark Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, a sort of fey, goofy, indie rock Final Exit. The Canadian pair have since jettisoned Alden…
Edvard Munch once wrote, “Illness, insanity and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.” The Black Angels tuck this cheery little epigram into the triptych of the beautifully eye-popping design of their debut album. They make good on their implied…
A monument stands at the center of What the Toll Tells, Two Gallants’ sophomore album, and like any dramatic reminder of a dark era passed, it inspires some serious introspection. At almost 10 minutes in length, “Threnody” is exactly what its title suggests, a poetic song of lament — specifically,…
I’ve seen the future of hippie music, and it’s called Sound Tribe Sector 9. Moreover, this phrase isn’t nearly as much of a backhanded insult as it initially appears. Sure, the Atlanta-based quintet is beloved by the I-swear-hemp-underwear-doesn’t-itch crowd. But unlike acts that spend their careers trying to rewrite “Sugar…
When it comes to turntablists in this town, nobody can fuck with DJ Radar. Not only has Radar composed and performed his classical Concerto for Turntable at Carnegie Hall, but the scratchmaster’s designed and built his own custom looping machine for making his beats, scratches, and wahh’s cascade over one…
Cincinnati/Brooklyn hip-hop trio Tanya Morgan’s debut album, Moonlighting, sounds ebullient. Its tone seems influenced by both West Coast indie rap (and that coast’s penchant for making freewheeling, carefree music) and the punch-line-heavy battle rhymes of East Coast underground hip-hop. Whether intentionally or not, the unusually named Tanya Morgan (the names…
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones (Interscope Records) 2. Madlib, Beat Konducta, Vol. 1-2 (Stones Throw) 3. Hank Williams III, Straight to Hell (Bruc Records) 4. Various Artists, The Soul Side of the Street (Bacchus Archives) 5. Integrity, Palm Sunday (Spook City) 6. Aceyalone with RJD2, Magnificent City (Decon…
According to conventional rap wisdom, New York’s dead, Atlanta crunk is played, and Bay Area hyphy is poised to become the next phenomenon that dominates the mainstream. But for the moment, anyway, Houston hip-hop still holds the heavyweight belt; the woozy “screwed” style — first explored by legendary syrup-sippin’ DJ…
Striking album cover art aside, Colorstore’s debut full-length revels in tortured artist glory with 10 moody tracks that swell and recede like the ocean reflecting a violet and tangerine sunset. The fact that it’s so gorgeous should only make fans more antsy to actually get their paws on it –…
It’s often difficult to critically analyze a much-beloved artist, because the reviewer’s tendency is to excuse irksome traits or loathsome sonic detours simply because of past greatness. And so while it’s tempting to give Morrissey a free pass for hauling in a children’s choir for several songs on his eighth…
It’s interesting, yet not all that surprising, to learn that Young People singer Katie Eastburn — when not recording or touring with the bicoastal, avant-garde duo (she lives in New York,; multi-instrumentalist Jarrett Silberman is in L.A.) — is a dancer and choreographer. The band’s brooding third album bears aesthetics…
The only conceivable way this seven-song EP from Ambulance LTD — released as an appetite-whetter for the quartet’s second full-length, due later this year — could come across more British is if there were a scratch ‘n’ sniff circle on the booklet cover that smelled like fish and chips. Not…
The term “guilty pleasure” has become the blanket defense used by status-conscious critics for uncool acts they secretly love but can’t admit to in print. But in an era when even Kelly Clarkson gets good press, perhaps the guiltiest pleasure of all is boring old Billy Joel. Unlike other punching…
If you tell a true ’80s punk fan that the Subhumans are playing a gig, you’ll need to clarify which Subhumans you’re talking about. There’s the Subhumans from the early ’80s Vancouver punk scene, who rocked alongside bands like D.O.A. and the Pointed Sticks, and then there’s the Subhumans from…
Let’s be frank. The problem with metalcore is that it all sounds the same. Enter Zao’s hotly anticipated Fear Is What Keeps Us Here, its upcoming sophomore effort for Ferret Music. Details are scarce, but the band is debuting two songs on this tour. And here’s the kicker: The album…
It might not be cool to say, but missing out on seeing Freddie Mercury perform live is one of the great musical tragedies of my life. I’m always struck by the regret I feel at this fact, and attempts on my part to compensate — namely, rewatching Queen’s Live at…
If recent breakouts by Mylo and Vitalic have proven that there’s still life left in house music and upbeat electronica (and they have), Idol Tryouts proves that there’s also life beyond it. This double-disc set, compiled by the soothsayers at the edgy Ann Arbor label Ghostly International, is split into…
Imagine an emergency room doctor gauging a patient’s health according to the originality of his symptoms: “Hmm . . . unclassifiable cough, ingeniously irregular heartbeat . . . Sir, I’m happy to report that you’re in excellent shape.” But the health of rock ‘n’ roll is often measured by innovation,…
Before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O strutted, spit and cooed her way to indie-rock icon status, the last dynamic female to front a rock band was arguably Courtney Love. The grunge widow propelled Hole to stardom in the 1990s with her inimitable martyr poses and baby-doll fashion on the…
Bleeding Through makes melodic, postmodern metal, taking what it needs from formerly discrete subgenres (shredding thrash guitar, gothic keyboards, black metal blast beats) and churning it all together behind vocalist Brandon Schieppati, whose bellow gets the dudes moshing when his angsty croon isn’t driving the girls wild. Avenged Sevenfold plows…
1. Band of Horses, Everything All the Time (Sub Pop) 2. Liars, Drum’s Not Dead (Mute) 3. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Ballad of the Broken Seas (V2) 4. Murs, Murray’s Revenge (Record Collection) 5. Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not (Domino) 6. Josh…
