Duster Contemporary Movement Up By: Eric G.
This is the last band you’d expect a former member of Mohinder to be in. Or, maybe, this is the next logical step. Relentless noise has its limitations, but melody is expansive. Duster explores rock through drifting textures and lazy, laid back vocals. [...]

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Elastica The Menace Atlantic By: Eric G.
Let's face it, the bag of tricks was pretty small to begin with- Justine Frischmann had a sexy haircut, good taste in music, and a famous boyfriend. Now she looks like Chrissie Hynde, has the same taste in music she did five years ago, and [...]

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The Queers Beyond The Valley… of The Assfuckers Hopeless By: Eric G.
No matter how wimpy and sensitive punk continues to grow, there will always be bands like The Queers, who, despite being older than your dad, will churn out silly, numbskull pop punk until their guitars are buried with them in punk [...]

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Spring The Last Goodbye March By: Eric G.
Spring is part of that retro-French-pop contingent, where fashion and taste are almost as important as the music itself. There are throngs of imitators trying to capture this mishmash of light, dreamy pop, sixties art, and ultra-modern lifestyle, but they pale in comparison to [...]

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Six By Seven The Closer You Get Mantra / Beggars Banquet By: Eric G.
Everybody knows that a bass guitar should never be played through a wah-wah pedal. Six By Seven breaks this rule by the third song on its second album, The Closer You Get. It’s a forgivable mistake, though, [...]

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Fantastic! Sun: What A Wonderful Word! Aquatic / Riviera By: Eric G.
Twee French pop is something of a cliche these days because of all the American indie rock imitators, so it’s kind of strange to hear the real thing (or what purports to be the real thing). Fantastic! is another French [...]

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Tracker Ames Film Guerrero By: Eric G.
Tracker plays country-tinged indie rock for those with a little blues in their blood, but the blues here doesn’t always sound quite real. You can sniff out everything from Neil Young to Slint on this Portland, Oregon quartet’s debut album, which is a mix of [...]

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Future Bible Heroes I'm Lonely (and I Love It) Merge By: Eric G.
If I had to pick the weakest Stephin Merritt side project I’d have to say it’s Future Bible Heroes, hands down, and I firmly believe this is because Merritt doesn’t write the music himself (as he does in all of [...]

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Shellac 1000 Hurts Touch And Go By: Eric G.
It's amazing how many people are jealous of Steve Albini. Jealous of his bulletproof reputation as some sort of an underground God. Jealous of the fact that people kiss his ass no matter what. Jealous of not knowing about him or [...]

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Paris Texas Brazilliant! EP Polyvinyl By: Eric G.
Paris Texas' explosively catchy pop punk combines the bubblegum harmonies of UK legends the Buzzcocks with the manic, upbeat energy of Chapel Hill's Superchunk. The dual guitar assault doesn't hurt the band's momentum, but the real key is the infectious songwriting. Scott Sherpe's [...]

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Graham Coxon The Golden D Transcopic By: Eric G.
Blur guitarist Graham Coxon's second vanity album is an even noisier mess than his first attempt to distance himself from Damon Albarn's songwriting two years ago. Coxon plays every instrument himself, and his musical tangents veer into cacophonous skate punk, discordant indie rock, and [...]

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Snake River Conspiracy Sonic Jihad Reprise By: Eric G.
I wouldn’t normally waste my time (or yours) reviewing such a stinking piece of shit as this, but since Snake River Conspiracy goes so far out of its way to suck I thought I would oblige it with a few words. How does [...]

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Silkworm Lifestyle Touch And Go By: Eric G.
It’s easy to overlook Silkworm if you’re not paying attention these days- not because of any musical digressions but simply because its method of expression has become more subtle over the years. When Silkworm first started making waves with L’ajre in 1992 the guitars [...]

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Laika: Interview Laika's Guy Fixsen Talks About Listening To Can And Pil, Writing Songs, And Zora Neale Hurston's Imagery Too Pure / Beggars Banquet By: Eric G.
DRAWER B: I read a few years ago that you don’t really listen to very much contemporary music. Do you still look to the past for [...]

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Cursive Cursive's Domestica Saddle Creek By: Eric G.
If you read the lyrics before listening to this record, I doubt it'd make it to the turntable. Even a glance at the cover art might steer you away. Hell, this album sat in a pile for months before I could even bring [...]

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B. Fleischmann A Choir Of Empty Beds Fuzzy Box / Darla By: Eric G.
Go ahead and add B. Fleischmann to your list of must have Austrian electronic experimentalists. Your list not that long? Neither is mine. I guess Falco doesn’t count. Fleischmann’s brand of experimentation is unsurprisingly very [...]

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Tristeza Dream Signals In Full Circles Tiger Style By: Eric G.
Finally, an instrumental rock band that doesn’t sound like fourth generation Slint. Tristeza opts for more esoteric soundscapes than the recent crop of boring instrumental bands all clamoring for a piece of Chicago’s prog-rock pie. The music builds subtly with [...]

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