POSTED // Nov 19,2008 - nPavement Brighten the Corners nDeath Cab for Cutie Something About Airplanes n nI find it very hard to listen to ’90s music. Give it a couple more years, and maybe that nostalgic itch will strike. Until then, I just can’t look back on the joyless (albeit artistically rich) era fondly. However, recent reissues of seminal ’90s bands may prove that my reservations are unfair and,...

POSTED // Nov 12,2008 -  Jurassic ParknAndromeda StrainnCongonR.I.P. Michael Crichton n nnThe Cure 4:13 Dream nnThe Legendary Pink Dots Plutonium Blonde nnDespite Robert Smith’s physical deterioration into a flabby poster child for “goth-gone-wrong,” there’s no denying that The Cure has aged gracefully. Since 2000’s beautifully-subtle Bloodflowers, the band as released solid materi...

POSTED // Sep 10,2008 - Pontiak Sun on Sun It’s rare to find a band so immersed in their surroundings as Pontiak. Hailing from Virginia, every track on Sun on Sun drips with backwoods rural rock that us cityfolk often find unnerving. The album opens with “Shell...

POSTED // Aug 27,2008 - Monorchist DQ’D DQ’D’s cover features a nice-looking gentleman placing his hand oh-so-kindly up a dog’s—well, if you have a good imagination, you get the picture. Inside, the band invites listeners to fill out a form, entering...

POSTED // Aug 13,2008 - Navigator Songs for Mei and Satsuki At first listen one might think that Elephant 6 was back in business and dropping albums from Farmington, Utah. This punk-indielicious sounding album might be Navigator’s seminal release—10 tracks of sweet...

POSTED // Jul 23,2008 - RuRu Elizabeth When I first pushed play, “Why” had me thinking Elizabeth (Northplatte Records) would be an upbeat alt-country album, but it quickly wandered down a path of candid, melancholy tracks and stayed the course. RuRu, aka Isaac...

POSTED // Jul 16,2008 - Death By Salt Vol. 4 Avant music is to the music world what Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ”—ya know, that photograph of a crucified Jesus submerged in the artist’s urine that ruffled all those upper-crust feathers back...

POSTED // Jul 9,2008 - Albert Hammond Jr. Como Te Llama? Sometimes the bird has to fly the coop for a while to do its own thing, and that is what guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. has been doing with his time away from The Strokes. Como Te Llama? is his second album to come out...

POSTED // Jun 18,2008 - Hold Steady Stay Positive It’s hard to defend The Hold Steady, it really is. Detractors aren’t wrong when complaining about Craig Finn’s sing-speak vocals, and their standard bar-rock sound is nothing to write home about. That’s...

POSTED // Jun 11,2008 - Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer Three years since their astounding debut LP, Apologies to the Queen Mary, Wolf Parade continues to produce material rooted in a unique trade-off collaboration two dominating frontmen: Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner. By pairing...