Category: Reviews
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…
Show Review: Portugal. the Man at the Georgia Theatre
With the monumental success of Portugal. the Man’s latest album, the band has had to cope with being extremely successful while still staying true to their original sound. Tickets for their two-day run at the Georgia Theatre in Athens February 26-27 sold out relatively quickly, leaving many of their longtime fans worrying that their show…
Marlon Williams: ‘Make Way for Love’
Marlon Williams is only 27 years old, but unfailingly keeps proving that his musical maturity is a force to be reckoned with. With a crooning voice that upon first listen may be mistaken for Elvis’s, Marlon lulls into captivation anyone who’s listening in his second solo album, Make Way for Love, combining the styles of…
Superchunk Delivers Punk Rock Gem on ‘What a Time to be Alive’
Superchunk turns anger into noise—and joyous noise at that—on the band’s newest album, What a Time to be Alive. Twenty-eight years after their self-titled debut, the band’s fury and energy is as powerful as ever, as frontman Mac McCaughan’s vocals mesh with soaring guitars and the pulsing percussion of drummer Jon Wurster. The 2016 election has shaped…
Car Seat Headrest Reimagines Bandcamp Opus ‘Twin Fantasy’
Throughout the 71 minutes of Car Seat Headrest’s superb new (half new) album Twin Fantasy, frontman Will Toledo sings about being human. Or rather, about the struggle to be human when it feels like he simply does not relate to anyone around him. On this new version of his 2011 Bandcamp album of the same…
Ought: ‘Room Inside the World’
For a band that has excelled at portraying the several variations of panic, Ought have always kept great focus on being human in the center of an expansive map. The boldest step the band could make after 2015’s Sun Coming Down was perhaps toward the only place bigger than the planet: the subconscious. Room Inside…