Let’s get the public service announcement out of the way first: This is not the new Jill Scott album. Instead, it’s a stopgap compilation, and unhappiness with Collaborations is likely to center around that distinction. Whether Collaborations, a collection of Scott’s duets from over the years, is actually performing a…
Some folks hide from their past while others are content to rehash old glories to the point of tedium. Justin Broadrick is the intriguing performer who does neither. Best known for his affiliation with metal monsters Napalm Death in the ’80s and industrial kingpins Godflesh in the ’90s, Broadrick recovered…
While we waited more than three years for the Shins’ follow-up to Chutes Too Narrow, watching “New Slang” blow up, another indie-pop outfit by the name of Animal Collective released two modern classics: Sung Tongs and Feels, the most glorious and far-out pop music since “Good Vibrations” dropped in ’66…
The Red Tree, the first release from Ontario’s Moneen in three years, is the kind of effort that can even give emo a good name. Dense and complex, the record features the nasally howl of Kenny Bridges fitfully cast against the hyperkinetic rhythm section of drummer Peter Krpan and bassist…
One of rock’s most renowned burnouts, Roger Kynard Erickson was a legend at 18, when he wrote “You’re Gonna Miss Me” while a member of the 13th Floor Elevators, way back in 1965. The ensuing years found Erickson (who openly advocated LSD consumption) institutionalized at the Rusk State Hospital for…
We all know the funky old saying, popularized by P-funk, “Free your mind, and your ass will follow.” It’s a deceptively simple slogan, on the surface just a clever introduction to the best way to learn how to dance, but really it’s a summation of philosophy, of the connection between…
Let me not be too consumed with this world Sometimes I want to go home And stay out of sight for a long time. —From “The Trials of Van Occupanther” The wonderings and wanderings of Midlake’s music is a venture through a romanticized past—an escape from the white noise of…
Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House is a cinematic masterpiece. The sophomore album by the Brooklyn-based quartet borrows both the Beach Boys’ harmonies and wall of sound techniques to create beautiful, intimate and inviting backdrops through which each song develops and unfolds. It’s as much an artistic experience as it is a…
Julio Iglesias’ upcoming visit to the area might take him through Farmers Branch. And some of the city’s political figures want to turn it into a personal platform. For political purposes. But, still, personally. And, again, politically. Actually not at all personally. Just politically. Maybe. “It is our understanding that…
“Faithful Unlawful,” Silver Daggers Part of last year’s Not Not Fun Records 7″ Singles Club, “Faithful Unlawful” provides a dirty introduction to these Los Angeles skronkcore monsters, whose Load debut drops in April. Borbetomagus-friendly saxes slowly unfold like a fine complement to mid-’00s doom drone. When the band finally joins…
Listening to Can’t Go Back, the newest release Jason Quever has made under the Papercuts moniker, it’s not difficult to hear echoes of classic ’60s psychedelic pop such as the Kinks and the Beatles within the pensive melodies and haunting imagery. Even though Quever acknowledges the influences of the past,…
Wild About Harry’s may primarily traffic in hot dogs, but they serve a wide selection of dogs of varying deliciousness. The House on Seedling Lane, the debut offering from local band Raleigh, is sort of like a gourmet hot dog shop, only made up of Beatlesesque folk-pop melodies and Renaissance…
A marked improvement over 2003’s overpraised World Without Tears, West finds Williams at perhaps her most lyrical and deeply poetic. She calls it her “most revealing” record to date. That means this is not a disc you throw on when friends are over on a Friday night playing quarters, but…
If we had heard the Low Stars’ self-titled debut album when we were in high school, we would have had orgasms all over it. With a pair of ratty Chuck Taylors on our feet and a backward newsboy cap on our head, we would have listened to it incessantly between…
These two renowned minimalist composers, though thematically dissimilar, have always stood at the vanguard of what rock guitar could accomplish in a classical setting. Chatham is much less academic than Branca, preferring power and pulse to Branca’s somewhat dour embrace of cacophony and drone, although both have influenced the likes…
From an album whose singles intro’d pretty much any MTV or VH1 show, Bloc Party has officially matured out of the vague-means-accessible indie-dance-punk amalgam of Silent Alarm into a brilliant discussion of urban kid confusion on Weekend in the City. Kele Okereke bravely waves his flag of schoolboy crush in…
Hannibal Raheem, Tree and Oneself Salaam are brothers in the strictest definition of the word. Sure, they’re “brothers” in the way that a lot of musical groups claim fraternity. They create music together as Verbal Seed and share a common vision for the group. But they also share the same…
Despite a bad name (which was changed due to threatened legal action from the equally awful the Broke Down), this Los Angeles quartet is a pleasing amalgam of styles and influences that fully coalesce on their striking debut, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On. Throwing together classic power pop…
According to not-quite-Paul-Bunyan-worthy legend, the first incarnation of the Lumberjack Fest was so named when organizers from Denton literary journal The Porch planned to have a chainsaw sculptor carve a new piece during the event as a tribute to blue-collar artistic ingenuity. The demonstration didn’t pan out, but the name’s…
While Lee Harvey’s front yard fire pits do little to remedy recent weather trends, be they “frigid frosts” or “arctic blasts,” the vibe inside remains warm and cozy. This is mostly because the place has the spatial capacity of a newly purchased tin of breath mints. But it’s the rotating…
The phoenix flight of instrumental rock outfit Red Sparowes continuously rises and falls, peaks and dismantles, with beauty and grace. The quartet, which features Isis guitarist Cliff Meyer, Battle of Mice and Neurosis member Josh Graham and Greg Burns of Halifax Pier fame, released one of the most breathtakingly beautiful…
Delegate rappers from the fine city of Arlington will make a neighborly campaign stop at South Side on Lamar this weekend as Victory Entertainment presents the Jump Off. The evening’s special host is accomplished Agg-Town microphone linguist and juicy booty aficionado, Da’Hitman. Seriously, visit the dude’s MySpace page. It’s like…
