Reviews

Entire Cities’ follow-up to its impressive 2008 debut, I Hope You Never Come Home features more complex instrumentation than Deep River, but still dives into the myths that pervade the first record. Songwriter Simon Borer is a fine storyteller, constructing poems and myths with a sense of the rural and a loneliness permeating them. These […]

Well before Jack White could sprout a wispy little ’stache, Wanda Jackson was revered as the queen of rockabilly and the lady who broke Elvis’ heart. The 73-year-old sexy nana proves she can still give the dance floor a mighty shake, while White does some of his best production work since his collaboration with Loretta […]

The Decemberists’ sixth album, The King is Dead, almost feels like a challenge to the band’s detractors: “Alright, haters, how about we make an album that jettisons nearly all the things that you find annoying about us? No concept album conceits, no sea shantys…what will you do then?” Even as someone who kinda dug the […]

In what is becoming an increasingly sad tradition of good local bands calling it quits, Myles Deck and the Fuzz recently announced its last show will take place at Gus’ Pub on March 26. I have always admired the Fuzz’s total commitment to sneering, Stooges-styled garage rock and its final release, You Can’t Heal a […]

Remember when Liz Phair tried to become a pop star? That risk certainly didn’t pay off for the indie rock icon. But Jenn Grant does it right, and with sincerity. She bravely leaves behind the devastating folk of Echoes to follow her heart wherever it leads—from the dance floor to the warmth of her kitchen […]

Who doesn’t like the golden nuggets of ’70s glam rock performed by the likes of David Bowie, T. Rex and Mott the Hoople? Although initially coined as a passing fad of sugary British pop, its heartfelt sentimentalism and rollicking guitars has left an indelible mark on pop music. It’s hard to believe Dye it Blonde, […]

This fine Halifax- and Truro-based trio’s latest offering further intensifies the band’s insanely catchy, slap-happy pop-punk, circa ’90s-era Superchunk. Melodic lines delivered with a smile yet carefully adorned with guitar bliss, overloaded amps and feedback swirling around your head on angel’s wings. If the first two new tunes on side A haven’t convinced you about […]

For the first six tracks of this third Ceti Alpha release, Nick Bevan-John uses the power-pop side of his brain. He finds like minds in Michael Jackson (guitar), Ken LeBlanc and Mike O’Neil (bass) and James McNeil (drums). The album kicks off with “Cocaine Teenage Riot,” an opener built around a spiky riff, which pairs […]

Hudson, keyboard man and best beard in The Band, has selected 18 songs from the catalogue and invited fellow Canucks to have a go. When it shines, it’s a revelation. Mary Margaret O’Hara is eccentric and passionate on “Out of the Blue.” Both artist and song are elevated by the performance. Similarly, Neil Young and […]

I don’t think the guys in Halifax’s Tupperware Remix Party take themselves too seriously. Mixing the sounds of classic Rush with the electronic textures of Daft Punk, TWRP creates highly danceable rock music devoid of pretension. Because seriously, it’s hard to look cool when you and your friends are playing intergalactic hard rock dressed in […]

The subtitle to My Chem’s newest concept album is The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, about a team of somethings saving something from the apocalypse, maybe? There are a lot of laser synths—way too many—to indicate when we’re inside the Killjoys story, but the band would’ve been better off abandoning such high-octane grandiosity for […]

The Drums are a preposterous band. Hailing from Florida and looking like what would happen if The Smiths and The Thompson Twins had four babies, these Brooklyn transplants dance awkwardly with their instruments and sing sentimental love songs that recall the 1980s. But it’s not the ’80s, which makes these guys’ musical merit seem questionable […]