Tokyo Police Club’s just-released Elephant Shell joins the ranks of highly anticipated release dates marred by early leaks, so Saddle Creek Records decided to up the ante. If you order the Canadian four-piece’s debut full-length directly from Saddle Creek, you’ll get instant access to the MP3s, and the label will…
Yep, it’s another piano-playing female singer-songwriter specializing in intimate pop numbers. What are the odds of that? And yet Andrea Ball manages to distinguish herself from the legions of women tilling the same soil owing to some unusual attributes, talent and quality among them. The instrumentation here is simplicity itself:…
With few bands pursuing a dark muse at the moment, it’s paradoxically refreshing to listen to this unapologetically bleak document of inner turmoil. Ken Keifer’s low baritone is surprisingly musical as he sings and cries out tales of love, betrayal, murder and existential anguish, and Karl Haikara’s hauntingly chiming guitar…
Since his 1979 debut Look Sharp, Joe Jackson has into delved into a variety of genres, traversing through pop, jazz, Latin, even trying his hand at classical. While some of the twenty subsequent albums he’s released have been grandiose affairs, his latest effort, Rain, is stripped to the bare essentials…
For seventeen years, NOFX has been powered by the same white trash, two heebs and a bean, and not much else has changed in that time — including Fat Mike’s unmistakable whiny voice. Still kicking out California-style pop punk with a hearty political bent (and a little more oomph than…
Last fall, rock mags aplenty spilled ink on behalf of the Black Kids, a Florida combo that scribes repeatedly described as a cross between the Cure (thanks to singer Reggie Youngblood’s Robert Smith-like pipes) and the Go! Team (by virtue of pep squad-style chanting). As it turns out, this description…
Nine Inch Nails is routinely mentioned alongside Radiohead in references to sizable stars who’ve made new music available online prior to distributing physical copies via time-tested methods. Nonetheless, there are enormous distinctions between their approaches. Radiohead allowed surfers to choose the price for In Rainbows, a significant addition to its…
The characters given life by Slug on Atmosphere’s new album have unenviable situations, but they’re not all painting that shit gold (whatever that means). Vagrants, single parents and dope-addled fiends, they all work, fuck and wallow in their misery, giving the emotional indie rapper a chance to traffic in someone…
It might not be the musical equivalent of an assassination, but Sirhan Sirhan brings plenty of violence and aggression to its beer-fueled proto-punk party. With maniacally purring vocals, viciously crunchy guitar, bloodthirsty bass, and drums as sloppy and belligerent as an aging, pot-bellied punker who’s had one too many PBRs,…
Georgia’s own We Versus the Shark, joined by P-Nuckle, the Supervillains and Apex Vibe, is akin to a demolition derby: Lots of stuff crashes together on a regular basis, but the mayhem’s generally pretty entertaining. On EP of Bees EP, a clumsily named 2007 release, tracks such as “I Am…
pureNRG Here We Go Again Word Entertainment 02:30-03:15 of “Here We Go Again” This is one of the most totally awesome releases that I’ve heard in a long time! OMG I am so excited that FINALLY there is a group out there that is full of love and energy for…
When we last tuned in to As Flobots Turn, our local hip-hop hybrid heroes were steadily ascending Billboard’s Modern Rock Chart and getting ready for a gig with Metallica. This week, we find Jonny 5 and the crew still burning up the charts, moving up two spots and edging ever…
All right, if you thought the inaugural edition of Monolith last year was pretty kick ass, wait until you get a load of this year’s line-up, which comes even closer to living up to the festival’s name: How about some TV on the Radio? Justice? Vampire Weekend? Neko Case, And…
Almost a year after being forced out of their former location by redevelopment, the owners of the 15th St. Tavern have encountered a major setback in in their efforts to set up shop at their new location, 1028 Park Ave West. According to a note sent out by Mykel Martinez…
Slide Show Last Night: Birds of Avalon and the Raconteurs Monday, April 28, 2008 Fillmore Auditorium Better Than: Actually returning to the ’70s. You would have been forgiven if you wandered into the Fillmore Auditorium last night and thought you been transported back in time 30 years. That’s not because…
Slide Show by Molly Kreck…
Kanye West, Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco Sunday, April 27 Pepsi Center The mainstream press’ habit of branding Kanye West a one-dimensional egotist tends to make his creative achievements seem like side effects of his neuroses, and that’s a shame. His public statements overflow with so much self-love that he…
F.O.E. and Jewell Tyme with The Pirate Signal, Makk Beez, A-Co, Julox, and others Saturday, April 26 The Snake Pit Better Than: Watching the Nuggets get beat down. After just a handful of releases in 2007, Denver hip-hop label Jewell Tyme Music (JTM) is looking at a big 2008 and…
Britt Rodemich, Ellison Park, Ian Cooke and Levi Weaver Friday, April 25, 2008 hi-dive Better Than: Enduring yet another uneventful happy hour. The matinee show is an idea whose time has come in Denver. Instead of doing happy hour and then heading home only to amble back out around nine…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Timeless tunes, a pirate shirt and a large cougar on the prowl are just a few of the highlights of this New York Dolls show review…
Goldfinger Hello Destiny… SideOneDummy 01:23-02:08 of “Without Me” Whoa. Goldfinger is still around. You know, I could pun the title and be like, “Hello Destiny, we still suck,” or “Hello Destiny, is this all we’ve worked for?” But that would be easy. And not really funny. Kind of like Goldfinger’s…
LOCALS ONLY For the last decade or so, F.O.E. (Father of Enemies) has steadily been putting in work, first as a member of the group Hilltop Click, then as a solo artist and now as vice president of Jewell Tyme Records. But just because he’s helping run one of Colorado’s…
