Authors: Steve Richardson
Reviews: Unicycle Loves You – The Dead Age
The Dead Age fills well-titled tracks (names like “Suicide Pizza,” “Face Tattoo” and “Endless Bummer”) with the retro fuzz sound that’s seized the garage scene. The track names alone would be enough to get me to listen at least once. … read more
Reviews: The Diemakers – Detroit Recordings
It wouldn’t be fair to blame the difficulty I had sitting through the six songs of Detroit Recordings on the drums or lyrics. … read more
Review: What Moon Things – Self-Titled
With a sound perfect for supporting Saves The Day, What Moon Things may have come a little late for me. It’s not that they can’t pull the emo thing off—the songs get stuck in my head with a wave of melancholy like dark, Northwestern cloud cover. … read more
Review: Toupee – Leg Toucher
Toupee Leg Toucher Moniker Records Street: 07.07 Toupee = Siouxsie and the Banshees + X + Lost Sounds Whitney Allen, lead singer of Toupee, vocally embodies all of my favorite female voices of punk at once. On the album’s more mellow moments, in songs like “Leg Toucher” and “Sensei, Swami, Guru,” Allen’s vocals lean toward
Review: The Rebel Set – How To Make a Monster
The ultra-quick single-string picking that opens How To Make A Monster drowns in wet reverb the way The Ventures did it. … read more
Review: The Shackeltons – Records
Records resonates the same essence that Test Icicles did, only after the caffeine (or whatever stronger stimulant) had begun to wear off. … read more
Review: The Hussy – Way With Words
The same rushed, distorted drumbeat for the EP’s short entirety might be too much without the simple and upbeat melodies played on a cheap-sounding keyboard or Catatonic Youth–style echoed noises—laser beams maybe? … read more
Review: Take Berlin – Lionize EP
Nothing induces a hypnotic state of relaxation like pulses of the gentle, vibrato Wurlitzer notes that fill Lionize. In fact, the dreamlike Wurlitzer, along with a clean acoustic guitar, make up the majority of the album’s instrumentation. … read more
Review: Soviet Soviet – Fate
When Fate begins, the full richness of the music, along with the double-time dance beat, doesn’t prepare me for the voice of Alessandro Costantini. It’s not that his voice doesn’t mesh well with the overall sound—it does. It’s perfect for the crunchy bass that sits on the forefront of the album’s mixes, allowing the guitars to create texture or melodic leads reminiscent of Holograms’ synth work. … read more
Review: Scraper – Self Titled EP
The heavy chainsaw guitars—emitting chord changes at a rate The Ramones might approve of—caught my attention last. … read more