POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - THE START Initiation **** The reason The Start aren’t as big as Ashlee Simpson and sliced cheese right now is probably because the lead singer is over 25. Kidding. No, not really. The Start have put out a solid album, an amazing EP and this second...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - REIGNING SOUND Too Much Guitar **** The Reigning Sound’s performance at In the Venue last month was lackluster, even if the drummer had a wicked-cool Pleasantville vibe goin’ on. But their CD slays. Blues-based garage rock similar to this...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - A GIRL CALLED EDDY A Girl Called Eddy **** You might want to hate Eddy after encountering her narcissistic artist/album title and over-romanticized love-lost lyrics. But within the first 30 seconds of the first track, Eddy Moran’s honeyed alto...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - P.J. HARVEY Uh Huh Her **** Despite her claims to the contrary, Uh Huh Her seems to land fans splat back into the twisted, maze-y, inexplicably addictive Everglades of P.J. Harvey’s midnight-hued psyche. It’s about time! Stories From the...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - THE ROOTS The Tipping Point **** The Roots are one of the most important, potent rap groups of the last decade, and The Tipping Point continues their legacy of daring to eschew samples in favor of organic instrumentation, straight beats for jazz fusion,...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - JADAKISS Kiss of Death **** Like every hip-hop album that has schemes to break it big, Jadakiss aligned himself with the stars and will assuredly reap the benefits. Kiss of Death boasts a list longer than Santa Claus’ of “feats”—Snoop...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Musical categorization sucks. Most musicians agree on that. Categorizing takes music from a three-dimensional, soulful, original plane and shoves it into the crude box that language affords: post-punk, emo pop, garage. Yet sometimes you can’t get...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - I leaned against the counter at Kinko’s on a Sunday afternoon last winter, waiting for one of the employees to print out my ward newsletter from a Zip disk. The ward newsletter editor was my first LDS church calling in two years, and I was impressing...