Dave Hayden

Castle ProjectDiaries of a Broken Heart(White Whale)Ex-Spitfire member Ryan Ostiguy wrote this disc after the dissolution of his marriage. And while the title might lead you to believe that the songwriting will be trite — just another series of over-done love-gone-wrong songs — it’s everything but. Diaries, produced by Howard Redekopp (New Pornographers, 54-40), so […]

Julie DoironGoodnight Nobody (Endearing)As Julie Doiron gets older, her ability to create enchanting and complex music seems to grow ever stronger. Goodnight Nobody is no exception. This is musique verite at its intimate best, as Doiron does her usual combing through daily rituals to find snippets to capture in song—be it waking up to a […]

SeachangeLay of the Land (Matador)Seachange’s debut for the influential Matador Records finds the Nottingham, UK sextet mixing wall-of-sound guitars, searing violin and an enigmatic lyric-spitting vocalist, Dan Eastop, in an erratic display of songwriting. If Lay of the Land maintained the level of intensity exhibited in the tracks “Superfuck,” “Forty Nights” and “Do It Again,” […]

The StoogesThe Weirdness(Virgin)The Stooges, man! Fucking legends! Right? If so, The Weirdness doesn’t really show it. The (New) Stooges don’t offer anything new or exciting to the band’s old formula of out-from-under-a-rock post-punk style it helped define decades ago. And it begs the question: “Why bother?” Back in the day this shit was raw and […]

Rogue Wave10: 1 EP (Sub pop) Rogue Wave’s 2003 gem Out of the Shadow (an album that criminally slipped under the radar) was a delightful mixture of indie-guitar bliss and crafted melodies from the hands of control freak/multi-talented (potential) genius Zach Rogue. With expectations set on high for the band’s follow-up (set for late September), […]

Louis XIVIllegal Tender(Atlantic)Illegal Tender is one fantastic debut EP. Mixing Some Girls-era Stones with the panache of glam-rockers T-Rex and Bowie, Louis XIV keeps it interesting without resorting to cliches. And the result is a nasty romp through the excesses and politically incorrect world of rock and roll, where the sex is as dirty as […]

Eyes for TelescopesThird(independent)s Charlottetown the new Moncton? The answer would be an emphatic “yes” if you heard this disc. This is lo-fi Eric’s Trip territory, right down to the hand-drawn cover-art. The band’s sound is perhaps a little less Syd Barrett and more Randy Bachman, but the same feeling is there—that great albums need not […]

Susie Arioli BandThat’s For Me(Justin Time)She may have dropped the Swing from the band’s name, but there’s no indication Susie Arioli is planning on doing anything differently. Ms. Arioli and her main accomplice, the superb guitarist Jordan Officer, continue to perfect their sophisticated and polite delivery of old school small-troupe swing. While sometimes the music […]

Eric BachmannTo the Races(Saddle Creek)This is Eric Bachmann’s best disc ever. That may seem like a far-reaching statement given his track record—a series of stellar, lo-fi indie rock albums as Archers of Loaf followed by an equally prolific output as Crooked Fingers—but this latest is something else. It oozes soul from every nook and cranny […]

Rick WhiteMemoreaperBlue FogTwo thousand and seven was a great year for Rick White. He recorded and played on Julie Doiron’s phenomenal Woke Myself Up. And there was the critically successful Eric’s Trip reunion tour. But in between all that was this magnificent (almost forgotten) record: a psych-rock tour-de-force that showcases White’s ever-expanding mastery of the […]