Category: Music Reviews
Wye Oak: ‘The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs’
Wye Oak is a band of separation and reconnection. Bandmates Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack are divided by over 1,500 miles (Durham, NC to Marfa, TX, respectively), meeting back to write and record. Forgoing the recording methods of previous albums, the duo approached their latest release with a freer process, allowing them to delve further…
The Voidz: ‘Virtue’
How does Julian Casablancas want to be remembered? It’s been 17 years since the release of The Strokes‘ Is This It, and I think Julian is finally a little tired of being a Stroke. I never thought that I could have typed this sentence, but I also didn’t ever expect to be this taken aback by a new VOIDZ album. I…
Preoccupations: ‘New Material’
Have you ever been to a rave? No, like a real one. I’m talking about the kind that would be in warehouses, bunkers, or maybe even condemned buildings. What if the new generation of post punk kids all decided to throw a new kind of rave together in that fashion? New Material by Preoccupations asks this question. Are they having…
Sunflower Bean: ‘Twentytwo in Blue’
To understand just how much that the Brooklyn trio has grown in the past two years, look no further than the cover of the band’s terrific new album, Twentytwo In Blue. The three members of the band are spotlighted in the middle of the picture; a cover that is more confident and much less cluttered…
Decemberists: ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’
Veteran indie rockers The Decemberists, helmed by frontman Colin Meloy, officially released their eighth full-length album I’ll Be Your Girl on March 16th, and while it showcases Meloy’s enchanting vibrato and occasionally conjures a vaguely maritime aesthetic, it veers off-course of traditional Decemberists material in most ways. The band utilizes milky, spacey synths on several…
Nap Eyes: ‘ I’m Bad Now ‘
Upon first listen, Nova Scotia, Canada natives Nap Eyes‘ I’m Bad Now felt like nothing but a snarky stoner’s revelry. Too zonked or tired out to outgrow the comfortable Loaded era Velvet Underground, Nashville or SoCal instrumental trappings, the album on first listen quite frankly felt very flat. Oh, how wrong I was. Like an unglazed clay pot…
Camp Cope: ‘How to Socialise and Make Friends’
Let me get one thing out of the way: Camp Cope are not fucking around. The moment singer/guitarist Georgia “Maq” McDonald lets loose the first lyrics of the How to Socialise and Make Friends, all bets are off that this is going to be an easy listen. Don’t get me wrong, the instrumentation on the…
Lucy Dacus: ‘Historian’
After her 2016 debut, No Burden, Lucy Dacus was hailed as one of rock’s most promising new players. With her sophomore release, Historian on March 2, Dacus fulfills that promise—and then some. Dacus’ delicate—but not in any way frail—vocals lead the way through the album, which almost feels like a rambling stroll through a narrative…
Soccer Mommy: ‘Clean’
Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) hasn’t abandoned her lo-fi bedroom pop aesthetic in her latest album Clean, just dialed up the production value a notch and added some layers. Her coming-of-age, sometimes naïve, sometimes adolescently self-deprecating, sometimes wise lyrics still sit unassailably at the forefront of her songs, filling whatever space they’re listened in with…
Review: Judah & the Lion: Going to Mars Tour
Tall Heights : Colony House: Judah: The first of Judah & the Lion’s two-night sold-out stint at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA, started strong and ended with a bang. The “folk hop n’ roller’s” constructed a show as equally meaningful as it was exciting, and easily kept fans on their toes for the…