I wouldn’t envy the task of following-up the accolades bestowed upon an album like Funeral. It was one of those fluke cultural bubbles, wherein a band rides a wave of impenetrable hype that escalates its record sales from 0 to pop-culture-reference-point in a matter of a few heavy-handed reviews. The trouble is The Arcade [...]

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On its Myspace page (which it hasn’t check in over a year), under the “Sounds like” section, Hella’s description reads: “If crack was music, thrown into a blender with fruits. yeah.” And, honestly, that’s not too ridiculous of a way to characterize its frenetic, musically dense, freeform sound. Your first few encounters with Hella [...]

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The Life and Times is slowly turning into the colossal beast it’s always intended to be. On this EP for Japan’s Stiff Slack records, Allen Epley unleashes his heaviest riffs since Shiner’s heyday. But the atmospherics are just as potent, as the band eschews technical bravado in favor of a taut synergy.

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Getting a shitty burned CD in the mail is not a good way to make it to the stereo. But for some reason I put this one in, and I listened to it all the way through. And then I immediately had to go look up everything I could learn about Cortney Tidwell.

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So, there’s a rash of bad follow-ups lately. And, unfortunately, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is one of the victims. On its second full-length, the band manages to subvert all the nuances that made its debut great, while magnifying all the annoying bits. Alec Ounsworth’s voice has always been one unhinged-spastic-horse-neigh away from unlistenable, [...]

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I fear that Bloc Party has succumbed to the self-important band disease far too soon. Already, the band is lined up for every do-gooder festival on the circuit this year, which is all well and good, but we like a little spice in our punk rock. A little controversy. A little daring do. Kele [...]

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The thing is I’ve actually grown to like this record a good bit. It’s just that after the bloated pomposity of Worlds Apart, I expected so much more. This band had the music scene by the balls a mere four years ago with its heavily lauded opus, Source Tags & Codes. Guitars slung low and [...]

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Despite a reputation for being a spoiled, egomaniacal prat, Damon Albarn makes no apologies for his talent or his drive. Having led Brit-pop to international heights with Blur (although more elusive in America, save for the woo-hoo-ing of “Song 2″), Albarn cemented his top billing in this country, ironically, with the cartoon dance-hip-hop mash-up band, [...]

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The Hold Steady Boys And Girls In America Vagrant By: Eric Greenwood
Lyrics can often make or break a band. Even an otherwise rocking song can be destroyed by a few clumsy clichés. And since most bands have jumped right into emo's pandering, self-pitying cesspool of over-used lamentations, it's refreshing to listen to a band [...]

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Lily Allen Alright, Still Regal By: Eric Greenwood
I was a fan of Lily Allen's long before I even heard a note of her music. Her reputation for trashing her peers and calling bullshit on the hypocrisy of the rock star lifestyle preceded her. On Pete Doherty: "I do think he needs to be exterminated." [...]

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The Slits Return Of The Giant Slits!: History And Conversation Saf By: Eric Greenwood
As much as I hate the idea of reunions, I must admit I can't resist certain regroupings. It's just as easily a case of morbid curiosity as it is genuine excitement that forces me to go see bands decades past their [...]

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The Mars Volta Amputechture GSL/Universal By: Eric Greenwood
Despite its post-punk pedigree, it's hard to imagine The Mars Volta sharing many fans with today's typical indie kid. You know the type cuddled up with his Sufjan Stevens records, wearing a nondescript striped sweater, faux frames, and spotty facial hair. That kid hates The Mars Volta [...]

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The Lemonheads The Lemonheads Vagrant By: Eric Greenwood
Mastering slacker ennui just before Pavement made it trendy, Evan Dando forged a career out of backhanded compliments and unabashed, dopey sincerity. While the name The Lemonheads denotes a band, it's been Dando's show from the beginning. With a revolving cast of part-time members, Dando swindled his [...]

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Appomattox Appomattox Self-released By: Eric Greenwood
Boston's Appomattox has been slowly cultivating its unique brand of noisy indie rock since splintering away from guitarist Cliff Rawson and its lavish and dynamic former incarnation, Araby, just over two years ago. With a pummeling schedule of Northeastern shows, the band has taken its time producing its [...]

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The Rapture Pieces Of The People We Love Universal Motown By: Eric Greenwood
I liked The Rapture a whole lot better back when it blatantly ripped off The Cure and Bauhaus and Gang of Four as opposed to cheesy, cheesy dance music. The Rapture fell off my radar the moment Echoes finally came out. [...]

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Cursive Happy Hollow Saddle Creek By: Eric Greenwood
The Ugly Organ is my favorite Cursive album, hands down, and it was Kasher's post-post break-up album. It was the culmination of all the promiscuity, drunken nights, and wrong words said turned into a corrosive morass of regret, jealousy, anger, and frustration. It played into [...]

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Journey Greatest Hits Columbia By: Michael Jones
While the remaining members of Journey besmirch their legacy touring with, of all things, a former Gap employee filling in for Steve Perry, Columbia Records is re-mastering and re-releasing Journey's entire back catalog, beginning with Greatest Hits, and the timing couldn't be better: a new audience, too young [...]

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Alaska The Tiger Now We're Familiar Naked Kids Doing Karate By: Eric Greenwood
Yes, Alaska the Tiger's name follows the same convention as Pedro the Lion's, but any similarities to the Jade Tree sound end right there. This Columbia, South Carolina trio owes little to nothing to the modern day emo movement, harkening back [...]

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Junior Boys So This Is Goodbye Domino By: Eric Greenwood
In today's gimmicky, instant gratification and overly niche music market, bands that present themselves in vagueness and anti-image often seem married to a sense of bittersweet nostalgia that doesn't have much bite in 2006. However, mystery still has an inexplicable allure, especially when it's cloaked [...]

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Phoenix It's Never Been Like That Astralwerks By: Eric Greenwood
Pop music rarely gets any proper respect, what with all the schlock that permeates commercial radio, but it's pop's melodic accessibility that inherently marks it as music for the masses, which, of course, is typically frowned upon by any discerning arbiter of taste. Thus, [...]

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