The Cure Bloodflowers Elektra / Fiction By: Eric G. Realizing the folly of steering The Cure into the unlikely land of wacky Top 40 hitmakers over the past ten years, Robert Smith has promised a return to form on the band’s eleventh studio release, characteristically titled Bloodflowers. Smith is determined to make The Cure relevant […]

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Hot Snakes Automatic Midnight Swami By: Eric G. If you’ve been missing Drive Like Jehu like I have, then you will be ecstatic to find out that Hot Snakes reunites John Reis (also from Rocket From The Crypt) and Rick Fork, the respective guitarist and vocalist for that seminal early nineties band. Filling out the […]

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One Star Triangulum March By: Eric G. During the first track of Triangulum, “The Jelly Is Set!”, I thought I was listening to an outtake off Cibo Matto’s debut full-length, but, thankfully, One Star has so much more to offer than miming fellow Japanese pop stars with cute but awkward English skills. One Star specializes […]

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Kevlar Let Me Worry Some More The First Time By: Eric G. Kevlar is a quartet from Sweden that, strangely enough, plays an energetic brand of D.C. post-punk a la Fugazi and, particularly, Jawbox. Discordant guitars underpin propulsive rhythms and semi-angry vocals that somehow manage to incorporate harmonies over top all the raucous noise. This […]

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The Frank And Walters Beauty Becomes More Than Life Setanta By: Robert H. It's been ten years since The Frank and Walters formed in its native Cork, but the band has failed to make any noticeable impact in the US, despite having just released its third album of catchy-as-hell pop songs. The reason, one suspects, […]

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Billy Mahonie The Big Dig Too Pure By: Eric G. Ok, so this is an album full of instrumentals, but don’t stop reading: The Big Dig is an amazing amalgam of serendipitous musical excursions and not a self-indulgent collection of masturbatory bullshit (like most instrumental post rock). Billy Mahonie is a quartet that I am […]

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Chappaquiddick Skyline S/t Sub Pop By: Robert H. Joe Pernice can explore the intricacies of sadness in a song as few artists have ever managed, but like the masters of the art he avoids maudlin trappings or narcissistic misery. There's always a slightly energizing hopefulness that shows itself through the care in which the descriptions […]

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