The Ghost This Is A Hospital Some By: Eric Greenwood
The Ghost fits snugly into that crowded den of bands emoting through frantic dynamics, half-sung/half-screamed vocals, intensely personal lyrics, and post-punk noise, but please don't make me say the word. We all know what I'm talking about, so let's just move on. [...]

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The Timeout Drawer A Difficult Future Some Odd Pilot By: Eric Greenwood
It would be easy to dismiss The Timeout Drawer's laborious instrumentals as retro-prog-rock wankery, but the arrangements have such depth and the analogue sounds such warmth and texture that it would be awfully shortsighted to do so. Moving away from [...]

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Moving Units S/T 12 Inch Ep Three One G By: Eric Greenwood
So, yeah, Moving Units sounds an awful lot like The Rapture, but that doesn't change the fact that this Los Angeles trio still rocks. The onslaught of post-Gang Of Four bands is almost overwhelming lately. Who would have thought [...]

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Beck Sea Change DGC By: Eric Greenwood
Is it a coincidence that Sea Change is Beck's most maudlin album to date and he's now a full-blown Scientologist? Doubtful. Paying big bucks to get that alien off your back to reach OT level 7 or whatever must be trying for a sensitive [...]

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The Raveonettes Whip It On Crunchy Frog By: Eric Greenwood
Something dubious is afoot when clear out of the blue both Rolling Stone and MTV – your sources for the sounds of the underground, right? - are showering a previously unheard of band with unequivocal praise. Add to that the fact that [...]

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Little Joe Gould Like The Exorcist, But More Breakdancing Eyeball By: Eric Greenwood
Ok, so it's impossible not to mention the obvious contrast between the silliness inherent to the band's name and its song titles to its darkly gorgeous and tense music. Little Joe Gould (taken from an e.e. cummings poem) is [...]

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Shiner Lula Divinia Desoto By: Eric Greenwood
Man, just as I'm quickly becoming a borderline obsessive Shiner fan the band decides to call it quits. Isn't that always how it works out, though? Discovering The Egg this past summer was one of the most exciting musical obsessions I've had in years. [...]

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Spoon Kill The Moonlight Merge By: Eric Greenwood
This Austin quartet channels its wellspring of melody and angst into such perfect pop songs that it sounds like a brand new art form. I kid you not. Kill The Moonlight is a scaled-back rock record, wherein each song is a skeleton, but [...]

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Sleater-Kinney One Beat Kill Rock Stars By: Eric Greenwood
It isn't broken and Sleater-Kinney doesn't try to fix anything on its sixth album for Kill Rock Stars, which is good news on the one hand, but I wonder on how many more albums the band can churn out music cut from such familiar [...]

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Beth Orton Daybreaker Heavenly/Astralwerks By: Eric Greenwood
Beth Orton has one of those rare voices that just educes sadness no matter what it's actually saying. It's her best weapon by far, especially since she proves on her third solo album that her songwriting chops could use some overhauling. Daybreaker begins promisingly [...]

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Rules Of Attraction Directed By Roger Avary Lions Gate By: Eric Greenwood
Sex, sin, drugs, debauchery, and, oh, lots of cocaine and vomit- everything you always wanted in a teen film but were afraid to ask. Even though it seems like Rules Of Attraction is just a vehicle for James Van Der [...]

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Black Dice Cold Hands Troubleman Unlimited By: Eric Greenwood
Experimental noise is pretentious enough when Japanese noise freaks make it, but at least it's expected, fitting nicely into our lazy pigeonholes and common clichés. When it comes from a bunch of pretty boys from Providence, Rhode Island, it's a bit harder to [...]

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Q And Not U Different Damage Dischord By: Eric Greenwood
In the two years since revitalizing Dischord with its impressive debut, No Kill No Beep Beep, Q And Not U has lost a key member in its bassist, Mathieu Bourlique, and consequently morphed into a slightly unrecognizable beast. This new beast takes [...]

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The Rapture Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks Sub Pop By: Eric Greenwood
The title track of this EP is a mind blowing, neo-post-punk, dance rock fest that I cannot stop listening to no matter how hard I try. The obligatory Gang Of Four reference must be made, but it's [...]

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Nirvana S/t Geffen By: Eric Greenwood
Despite the legal train wreck impeding its release, this Nirvana retrospective kind of gets the blood flowing again. Regardless of whether you give Kurt Cobain's songwriting an ounce of credit or not, Nirvana changed the course of music, which sounds utterly bombastic and over the top, [...]

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Ride Nowhere Sire By: Eric Greenwood
Ride’s first proper album propelled the band to cult status in 1990 in the aftermath of The Stone Roses' massively influential debut. Nowhere expanded the wash of guitar architecture of the band's previous two EPs: Play and Smile- a style similarly pursued by bands like My Bloody [...]

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Bright Eyes Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground Saddle Creek By: Eric Greenwood
It's far too easy to hate Conor Oberst and, therefore, just dismiss him out of hand. That quavering voice still makes me want to throttle his neck sometimes, but I've got [...]

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Pulp We Love Life Rough Trade/sanctuary By: Eric Greenwood
After the dark, hedonistic downer that was 1998’s This Is Hardcore, Pulp returns with the most optimistic and, well, pleasant album of its career. We Love Life is so laid back and serene that it blends into the background, forcing repeated listenings just [...]

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Ben Kweller Sha Sha Ato By: Eric Greenwood
Now that he's old enough to have something substantive to say, Ben Kweller reinvents himself, somewhat deceptively, as a sarcastic slacker songwriter in the tradition of Stephen Malkmus and Rivers Cuomo. Kweller spent the late 1990's as the child prodigy star of the Texas [...]

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Future Bible Heroes Eternal Youth Instinct By: Eric Greenwood
Even genius songwriters with buckets of talent to spare have their weak moments, and Future Bible Heroes has long been Stephin Merritt's flimsiest endeavor. I think it's because of his lack of control over the proceedings. Merritt shares the songwriting with his old [...]

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