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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