Hailing from Birmingham, Alabama, A.A. Bondy’s music is firmly rooted in Southern American folk and Delta blues, where the complex relationship between death, sex, religion and race still pulse like an abscessed tooth. His debut American Hearts was like a Cormac McCarthy novel set to music, songs about desolation and confronting the devil and Jesus. […]
Dave Hayden
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Field Assembly
Those of you who appreciate the melodic tranquility of Great Lake Swimmers or Sun Kil Moon, hopefully didn’t miss Field Assembly when the band played the In the Dead Of Winter festival earlier this week. The nine songs on the band’s debut do not stray too far from the mid- to down-tempo and hushed vocals […]
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The Slew
Billed as “six turntables meet the ex-Wolfmother rhythm section” for the live gigs, The Slew certainly lives up to its name (FYI: Slew Rate is defined as the maximum rate of change of a signal in an electronic circuit). The brainchild of Kid Koala and Dynomite D, 100% was pieced together by meticulous sampling, splicing […]
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Devendra Banhart
Devendra Banhart’s latest, What Will We Be, might leave long-time fans scratching their heads, perplexed at the change in direction. Perhaps even more abrupt than The Shepherd’s Dog was for hardcore Iron & Wine fans, it represents a dramatic shift away from the hardcore psych-folk—the devotion to stark acoustics and hyper-emphasized vibrato that defined Banhart’s […]
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Talk of the town: best music of 2009
A History OfAction in the North Atlantic (Noyes) High-octane, Maritime-themed math rock? Yes, please. A History Of gets the Halifax music scene right, and finally gives us a full-length record. —LK Black MoorThe Conquering (Diminished Fifth) The stuff of heavy metal legend: surviving a car crash, Black Moor channels death and Kill Em All hooks making you […]
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Kings of Convenience
When this indie-folk duo from Norway released its 2001 debut Quiet is the New Loud, it lent (for better or worse) a snappy catchphrase to the burgeoning wave of softly sung, acoustic music that emerged partly in response to tiresome post-grunge homogeneity. Now on its third album, the band’s formula has changed little (the harmonies […]
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Mission of Burma
Disappointing. The first two records Mission of Burma made after reuniting, especially ONoffON, were astounding. They sounded as urgent and vital as anything the band made in the earlier days, perhaps even better: angrier and more angular, with a desperation that so many comeback albums lack. But The Sound is ordinary and uninspired, which is […]
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Q-Tip
Recorded in 2001 but shelved because there were no “hits,” Kamaal the Abstract is a great leap for Q-Tip, expanding and delivering on everything to which A Tribe Called Quest aspired. True to its title, the album is predominantly a meditation on free jazz forms, funk and hip-hop, with many long improvised passages. Q-Tip’s signature […]
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137
Now going by the moniker Rick White Album, the former Eric’s Trip/Elevator frontman’s latest, 137, is another collection of psych-folk-rock that will astound in so many ways. Since Elevator disbanded, White’s acoustic-guitar playing has become more technically virtuosic, with songs like “Eerieacquaintance” and “Back Home” being perfect examples of how he can play complex fingering […]
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Julian Plenti
While Interpol’s music is predictable and somewhat formulaic in its reliance on a specific 1980s aesthetic, this debut from lead singer Paul Banks is anything but. Complex, richly textured and varied, the songs range from intimate instrumental interludes to layered, spacey indie-rockers. There are few, if any, weak moments here, and Plenti solo is a […]
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Art Brut
These slap-happy lovers of post-punk scrappiness have found a most unlikely kinship in producer (ex-Pixies) Black Francis, who tightens up the band’s sound while simultaneously retaining its slackerish mantra. With songs about The Replacements (the band, not the movie), DC Comics, not learning to drive and having a song stuck in your head, there is […]
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La Roux
Absolutely everything about the Mercury Prize-nominated debut by British synth-pop duo La Roux screams retro. Anyone born before 1990 will recognize Elly Jackson’s Flock of Seagulls/Annie Lennox stylistic mash-up, the early ’80s new wave synthesizer and drum machine combination that comes directly from the likes of Yazoo and OMD and the emotional isolationism and lost-love […]