Ben Sollee Inclusions Tin Ear/Thirty Tigers By Al Kaufman Ben Sollee is a classically trained cellist. Wait, keep reading. He is also a man with strong pop sensibilities and a heart throb voice. It’s a voice full of yearning and longing, but sensitive enough to say he only wants to cuddle. Women’s hearts have fluttered […]
The Rosebuds Loud Planes Fly Low Merge By Al Kaufman Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp used to be a happily married couple that put out albums like The Rosebuds Make Out. Then they got divorced. But, like other couples going through turmoil (Richard and Linda Thompson, Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox of Eurythmics, all of […]
Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys Atlantic By Al Kaufman Thanks to iTunes and other sites, the concept of the album is all but gone. Bands still release CDs, but they are just afterthoughts. They put their “reach out and grab you” song first, usually something a bit different as the third or fourth […]
Times New Viking Dancer Equired Merge By Al Kaufman With Dancer Equired, the Ohio fuzz-rock trio, New Times Viking, has cleaned up its act. For many in their small but rabid fan base this may not be a good thing, but for Times New Viking it is sure to bring many more ears on board.
Crash Test Dummies Oooh-La-La Deep Fried Records Crash Test Dummies Demo-Litions Cast-Off Recordings 1996-97 Deep Fried Records By Al Kaufman Back in 1993, Canada’s Crash Test Dummies, led by Brad Roberts — whose throaty bass-baritone sounded like he had washed down a hive of bees with a bottle of whiskey — released their second CD, […]
Little Scream The Golden Record Secretly Canadian By Al Kaufman Laurel Sprengelmeyer, a native Iowan who now calls Montreal home, has a voice powerful enough that members of Arcade Fire and The National wanted to chip in on her debut CD. It is a voice that can feels at home with a number of styles. […]
Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues Sub Pop By Al Kaufman Like Low Anthem, or their Rainy City compatriots, Cave Singers, Fleet Foxes create tiny bits of baroque, indie magic. Their songs shimmer, shine, and dance in the light. As on their 2008, self-titled, debut CD, the sextet harmonizes like the best Crosby, Stills and Nash songs, […]
The Submarines Love Notes/Letter Bombs Nettwerk By Al Kaufman At first glance, The Submarines are bubble gum pop. They are popsicles and lemonade in the summertime. They are perky blonde Blake Hazard’s girlish vocals. But while their songs may taste like candy, they are actually quite good for you.
White Mystery Blood & Venom By Al Kaufman White Mystery is the band that White Stripes aspired to be. And maybe they could have done it if Meg White was more interesting, and if Meg and Jack White both had burning red hair.
Riley Etheridge Jr. Powder Keg Rock Ridge Music By Al Kaufman Riley Etheridge Jr is one of those man’s man type of guys. One can picture him behind the wheel of a Chevy pick-up, or raking his yard. He doesn’t seem like a leaf blower type of guy. He rakes, gets calluses, then goes in […]
The Kills Blood Pressures Domino By Al Kaufman The White Stripes started a movement. A lot of duos are coming out now featuring anvil-heavy blues guitar licks over a passionate voice. But few are doing it as well as The Kills. And that would make sense, since lead singer Allison Mosshart tackled the vocal chores for Jack […]
Vivian Girls Share the Joy Polyvinyl By Al Kaufman Finally, the world gets to find out what it would sound like if Beach Boy Brian Wilson and the late Joey Ramone had three daughters. For their first two CDs, Vivian Girls showed that they were a pretty good garage-rock band. More passion than talent, the […]
Little Tybee Humorous to Bees Paper Garden Records By Al Kaufman Little Tybee is more of a music collective than a band. They are a group of friends on the Georgia coast who enjoyed making music together. They brought their act to Atlanta, where anywhere from five to 10 of them can perform at any […]
Greymarket Some Orbits Will Never Decay By Al Kaufman L. Cave McCoy has had his share of moonage daydreams concerning David Bowie. McCoy, the songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and programmer behind Greymarket (which also includes drummer Michael Gargiulo) is fascinated with space, as the bird-winged space shuttle on the front cover will attest to. McCoy also […]
Bright Eyes The People’s Key Saddle Creek By Al Kaufman “How sad it is to know I’m in control,” sings Conor Oberst on “Triple Spiral,” a melancholy song of loss with an upbeat melody. Indeed, Oberst and his accomplices, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, have never sounded more in control than they do on this, […]
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