Cymbals Eat Guitars : Pretty Years

I can remember hearing “…And The Hazy Sea” for the first time back in 2009 and being completely floored. Cymbals Eat Guitars had created this musical world that encapsulated all those wonderful elements that made the early 90s indie rock movement so magical. Bombastic guitars, quiet moments, tinkling keyboards, wobbly vocals that go from fragile […]

Atticus Ross/Leopold Ross/Bobby Krlic : Almost Holy S/T

Almost Holy is a documentary directed by Steve Hoover, and it’s about Pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a rogue man of the cloth that works and lives out of Mariupol, Ukraine. In his city there was a massive influx of homeless, drug-addicted children and “Pastor Crocodile”, as Mokhnenko likes to call himself, felt it was his duty to help […]

D Ferren : Something Like Forever

D Ferren is the quintessential singer/songwriter. He makes gritty tunes that aren’t quite country and aren’t quite folk, but very much rock and roll. He adds bits of familiarity; the organ-fueled white soul of Whiskeytown here, and the guitar crunch of early Wilco there. But even with those inspirations present, Ferren’s musical world is a […]

Preoccupations : Preoccupations

Preoccupations is the band formerly known as Viet Cong. Viet Cong was a band that put out one of my favorite albums of 2015. Preoccupations is a band that may have put out one of my favorite albums of 2016. Not only for the fact that their self-titled album is a beautifully dark concoction of […]

Wilco : Schmilco

I can only imagine that at some point in an artist’s life taking yourself and your art so seriously can get pretty heavy. Eventually real life will start to outdo you in the drama department and what you once took so serious doesn’t seem all that important anymore. Health crisis, getting older, losing loved ones […]

Silver Apples : Clinging To A Dream

I have to be honest, besides a vague awareness of the name I wasn’t all that familiar with Silver Apples. I knew they were instrumental in pushing electronic music into the ears of folks that would go on to revolutionize the genre. Experimental electronic, Krautrock, motorik beats, and the whole German electronic music scene of […]

Morgan Delt : Phase Zero

The first thing that hits you on Morgan Delt’s excellent Sub Pop debut Phase Zero is the breezy, island sway of “I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside”. Vocalsjust shy of a whisper cascade along a mellow, shuffling rhythm with wobbling guitars, synths, and a prominent proper meaty bass line holding it all together. It […]

Stranger Things Soundtrack Volume One : Original Music by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein

I can’t remember the last time something enthralled the public’s eyes and ears like Netflix’ Stranger Things has. Maybe the Macarena? Or the Blue Collar Comedy Tour? The Pam and Tommy Lee sex tape? Regardless, none of those things lived up to the hype that preceded them, except for Stranger Things. This is a show that […]

Of Montreal : Innocence Reaches

Kevin Barnes has played many roles in his nearly 20 year music career. There was the folksy pop guy, the jilted lover, the struggling husband and father, the party monster, the transvestite hooker, the avante garde composer, and the rock and roll warrior. But the role Barnes plays best is Kevin Barnes. The guy that’s […]

Simon Belmont Blues

I remember it like it was yesterday(or maybe last week.) I spent a week at my uncle Mark’s house in the summer of 1987. I went straight from the last day of school to his place where we’d hang out, eat junk food, and play video games. What I didn’t know was that my older […]