Music
Review: I Can Lick Any Son Of A Bitch In...
I.C.L.A.S.O.A.B.I.T.H, the band with the impossibly long name, have been playing their brand of country blues-rock for 12+ years now, and they’ve only tightened as a band over time. … read more
Review: Hanni El Khatib – Head in the Dirt
Hanni El Khatib = Black Keys + The Cars
… read more
Review: Heartless – Certain Death
Short, hateful and sublimely coated in a venom akin to straight hatred, Certain Death takes a “less is more” approach to affirming the chilling truth of that title: Everything is finite, living is dying and just by existing, we’re slowly ebbing our bodies into a slow and slimy decay. … read more
Review: Fred McDowell/Furry Lewis – When I Lay My Burden...
Fred McDowell + Fury Lewis = Robert Johnson + Charlie Patton + Lightin’ Hopkins + Blind Willie McTell + Bukka White + Son House … read more
Review: Fidlar – Self Titled
In the songs of Fidlar, with titles including “Cheap Beer” and “Wake Bake Skate,” and lyrics like, “I drink cheap beer so what fuck you,” the subject matter reminds me of a less trashy take on The Trashies. … read more
Review: DJ Koze – Amygdala
Minus a single here and there, Amygdala is the first full-length album from the German DJ and producer DJ Koze in eight years. The album title references a part of the brain where memory and learning develop. … read more
Review: Decades – Self-Titled
On their self-titled debut full length, Toronto four-piece Decades deliver bursts of ‘80s Brit-pop through echoey shards of shoegaze. … read more
Review: David Bowie – The Next Day
I still remember pulling Ziggy Stardust from the vinyl sleeve, the phrase “TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME” challenging me from the lower corner of the back cover. Every second of “Starman” forevermore altered my musical outlook. That said, I was skeptical as hell when I heard Bowie was releasing another album. Mainly because it’s been a decade since his last release, but also because his last album, Reality, fell a little short (in my opinion). Fortunately for us all, The Next Day meets the high expectations that Bowie sets by being, well, Bowie. … read more
Review: Corespondents – Land of the Low People
Now I don’t want to come across as turning my nose up at this record, but Land of the Low People just goes too far. It seems to be experimental for experiment’s sake—make this Utah boy just don’t get it, but each of these 15 instrumentals has very little to latch on to. Jazz and country elements sound great when they’re played, but then they are bent into something unrecognizable (or, in most cases, enjoyable). The strange fact is that I can tell it took a lot of talent create this record, I just can’t imagine anybody electing to let this thing play for longer than 10 minutes or so. … read more
Review: Corduroi – Jangala
Listening to this album, I felt like I was high on some sort of Shangri-La vacation, with peach trees in blossom, waterfalls glistening and magical gardens to explore. … read more