Listen Before You Buy

Philadelphia-based Benjamin Schurr (Br’er) creates singularly fearless, dark, and challenging soundscapes, welding the dark, industrial background of his city with the sublime.

TweetShare The concept of one guy doing an entire album himself, recording it in his bedroom and playing every instrument, is a far cry from being new or groundbreaking, still I’m blown away by Trevor Powers and his ability to shape his songs so dynamically. Although Powers may not care to impress anyone, “Cannons” is [...]

TweetShare “Matador” is the lead single of Maria Taylor’s newest solo effort, “Overlook.”  I’ll cut straight to the point: it’s the only song on the album really worth listening to. Taylor, who’s known for being a part of Azure Ray and sometimes collaborating with Bright Eyes, has put out a wealth of quality work, but [...]

TweetShare Photo © Olivia Themudo It took me all of about five seconds of listening to Star Commander to be sold. Their debut album “The World Was Sinking & I Was Hardly Surprised” opens with one of the nicer guitar riffs I’ve heard recently, but don’t let your guard down: this isn’t bland vanilla rock. Sure, “Leave [...]

TweetShareClick on the image to listen to the entire album for free.

TweetShare Oh, man. You know that feeling you get when you’re rifling through shelves at a record shop, and you stumble on something that sounds intriguing, and then you play it, and it turns out to be amazing? Well, I had a similar experience recently. Of course, in my case it was a bunch of [...]

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TweetShare There is a fine line between artistic ambition and alienating one’s fan base.  Typically, fans rebel when a renowned artist spreads his wings too wide, experimenting with genres that he simply cannot master. Conor Oberst, the visionary behind Bright Eyes, has taken the alternate route. After releasing two disparate albums in 2005, “I’m Wide [...]

TweetShare One of the great indie rock institutions, Bright Eyes, is set to release “The People’s Key”, its first new album in nearly four years, via Saddle Creek on February 15, 2011. That is the incendiary cover art above. In order to whet everyone’s appetite for quavering vocal lines and borderline-histrionic vocals, Bright Eyes has [...]

TweetShare That song title might sound familiar to you and if you’ve been reading this site for the last couple of months or so then you’ve probably even seen it on here. That’s because it’s a cover of the always excellent L.A. band The Delta Mirror. I posted about The Shimmies back at the start [...]

TweetShare It’s pretty sweet when a band you really like starts recommending new music to you.  That’s what Craig from The Delta Mirror did with The Shimmies. Not only did he recommend them but he even sent me a couple of their songs too.  The four-piece are from a land far far away in Dagobah [...]