English Teacher's ‘This Could Be Texas’ gets a worthy five stars from NME's Andrew Trendell
It's what we're listing to currently, so thought we'd share why.
Review
STRFKR - Future Past Life
It's been four years since their last record, Being No One, Going Nowhere.
The Prodigy - No Tourists
How many bands from 1990, especially big beat electro rave ones, are capable of putting out a divisive record in 2018?
14 Years of Heartbeats
The Knife's "Heartbeats" is 15 years old now. Not soon after its release, fellow Swedish musician José González released an acoustic version, setting the stage (along with Gary Jules' version of "Mad World") for a genre of pop song renderings that challenge the success of their source material. José's Version The Knife In case you haven't heard it recently, here's the original Tears for Fears version of "Mad World."
Los Angeles Police Department - Eponymous Record
I'm curious. Has Ryan Pollie had any feedback from the actual Los Angeles Police Department? A few years ago, Pitchfork reviewed their first disc and keenly noted the spate of indie bands obsessed with "un-googleable" names. This 10 song followup will be likened to many leaves on the Beach Boys limb of the rock-n-roll family tree. It's definitely not on the Beatles branch. Despite the fact that the singer is from Philadelphia, it is a classically southern California sound. At times, it feels like Washed Out (also not from SoCal). The difference with Mr. Pollie is that he's more than willing to add more doses of rock opera and synth pop syncopation to his material. It's a…
Vagabon - Infinite Worlds
We first heard the song "Sharks" courtesy of Brooklyn Magazine in 2016. Watch the video. I think you'll understand why we loved it. Her eight song album is out now (iTunes) and "Sharks" has become "The Embers." It's also louder, with a great stutter of bass and drums. It's just as captivating. Laetitia Tamko's aesthetic harkens back to so many artists that it's hard to pin them all down. If she wasn't so damn genuine, it might not work. These aren't happy songs but they all shine. Track 7, "Cold Apartment," has been on repeat for the last hour. AV Club, NPR…
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Unravelling
Scotland is a hell of place if you love music (and whiskey) without pretense. So many artists, so many radically different sounding artists: Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Arab Strap and Belle & Sebastien. Hell, even the Bay City Rollers. They might share a homeland but that's about it. We Were Promised Jetpacks--like The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit--are the inheritors of this iconoclastic tradition. Their 2009 release "These Four Walls" was a remarkable freshman record that evoked the arty roughness of their post-punk forebears Josef K, The Prats and The Fire Engines. I still listen to that album. Strand me on an…
Euston - An Overnight Low
Euston is the first in a three-part series of albums from Maine’s An Overnight Low, each release to be named after U.K train stations (Piccadilly and Waverley are forthcoming), and inspired by main songwriter Chad Walls’ experiences living and traveling throughout the United Kingdom while completing his Doctorate at the University of Manchester. You can hear a mélange of rich influences here (perhaps most notably R.E.M in the opener, ‘The Artist in the Wrong World’), but the skillful folk-pop sensibilities of Walls and his talented group of fellow musicians (including Jonathan Wyman, Mac Coldwell, Chris White and Holly Nunan) are…