Listen Before You Buy

If there’s one genre of music I never expected to start getting into, it’s country. I mean, is there anything likeable about it? How often do we need to hear a downtrodden ex-cattle rustler growl about the tribulations of the trail, or how he’s called Sue, or whatever? Don’t even get me started on steel [...]

“Hey dudes. Listen to us. If you do not like us, then you are not cool.” Well, it seems that for the first time in my life I’m cool, because I do quite like MAGIC EYE [though they could afford to lose the caps lock. No excuse for that.] The band describe themselves as ‘Aquarium [...]

  If The Cure did electro-pop, they might end up sounding something like Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Maybe Robert Smith could get a haircut while he was at it, although I guess that would just be a nicety. Also, I heard that that’s where he gets his power. He’s like a really miserable, weedy [...]

Can I get a “huzzah”? Of course I can! Hot on the heels of last month’s “I Needed You“, Antipodean electro-poppers Contrakids have just delivered their first full EP, “Into You”. If you weren’t happy before, then you really ought to be now. It features some polished versions of their previous demo releases, “Come Over”, “Into [...]

Buy the album from Amazon – Vinyl / MP3 / CD Fruit Bats’ fifth LP, “Tripper”, kicks off with an urgent acoustic guitar, strumming with a kind of determination akin to the beginning of a long road-trip, an escape. The addition of a driving bass drum and a spindling, dirty electric guitar reinforce this sentiment, [...]

Buy the album on Amazon – Vinyl | MP3 | CD Sweden has quite the reputation for producing outstanding electronic acts, among them Lykke Li, The Knife and, for the purposes of this review, Little Dragon.  Little Dragon was formed in 1996 by Swedish-Japanese vocalist Yukimi Nagano and three high school friends.  Since then, they’ve [...]

At the time of Beirut’s debut album release it didn’t take long for me to find out, and subsequently feel extremely unaccomplished in life about, the fact that Beirut‘s songsmith and main man Zach Condon was only 19 years old. Add into the mix the fact that he did everything himself just made me want to quit [...]

Allow me to introduce you to Buildings. Actually, that should be B U I L_D I N G S, but that’s a bit of an effort to type every time. Something tells me you’ll still get what I’m saying. Anyway: London four-piece Buildings (sic) have been playing together for just over a year now, and [...]

Hip-Hop is something that’s rarely posted around these parts but it’s a beast that when it is posted, you know it’s good. Big K.R.I.T. has been on my radar for a few months now but it’s only been in the last two or so that I’ve been getting into his music, mainly due to love [...]

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Buy the album from Amazon – MP3 There’s a little delusion when it comes to punk’s more contemporary and tamed musical alterations. UK trio Fair Ohs (which we previewed last month) interplay a few select variations on it in their newest album “Everything Is Dancing,” from surf, to tropicalia, to disjointed fuzz-pop, evening out a [...]

It’s not an official video but instead Burnt Ones lead singer Mark running through this new song on his own.  It’s the first new music we’ve heard from the Indianapolis/San Francisco-based band since last year’s excellent debut album “Black Teeth & Golden Tongues”. Connect with Burnt Ones - Facebook | MySpace | Website | Last.fm

Well, this settles it: there is definitely something in the water in Wales. It does something to musicians. I’m not saying it’s bad, and I’m not saying it’s good, but it’s definitely a bit odd. As a case in point, I present Trwbador (I don’t claim to speak or read Cymraeg, but I’m guessing that’s like [...]

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The Mhurs gave us a generous preview of their album “In Another Tongue” a couple of months ago. The four tracks they shared, two of them tender emotional outpourings and two of them loud, adventurous rockers, had us pretty excited for the full length, but they did beg the question: can these two styles be [...]