The Dears

Allusions of Grandeur

Nov 01, 2008 By Lorraine Carpenter Year End 2008 - Best of 2008

“Like all Dears records, there’s a grand theme,” says Murray Lightburn, referring to the feeling of being under threat, the underlying idea behind his band’s fourth album, Missiles. It’s a universal enough concept, in step with the record’s mid-paced marvels of melody, harmony, rhythm, and riffage, located at one of the more soulful intersections of pop and rock. Missiles may not seem a particularly fitting title for such romantically inclined music (“paced to love-making,” says the band’s blog), but melodrama remains at the core of The Dears’ oeuvre.  More

Franz Ferdinand

Dancing to Disappear

Nov 01, 2008 By Matt Fink Year End 2008 - Best of 2008

It took a few years, but as the lines between genres and cultures have blurred, it seems like we’re now finally at a place where fans of loud guitars and shouted vocals can admit to liking dance music. Hot Chip, Of Montreal, Girl Talk—these are all acts that have designed songs for the dance floor only to be accepted and celebrated by the kind of listeners who likely once would have cringed when rock bands embraced disco. More

TV on the Radio

Scientists of Political Pop

Nov 01, 2008 By Marcus Kagler Year End 2008 - Best of 2008

“I feel dumb for being on the road promoting a record; I feel like I should be learning how to grow my own food,” says TV on the Radio’s vocalist/guitarist Kyp Malone, referring to the economic crisis in the United States. “The whole thing seems like a big card game played with a bunch of cheaters. The worst thing about it, from a human perspective, is the people who have been suffering from the injustices of the economic system are going to bear the brunt of the greedy pigs’ tomfoolery at the top. If there isn’t some complete change of value systems, there is going to be a lot of pain and suffering ahead.” More

Fleet Foxes

The Sound of (Dis)satisfaction

Oct 31, 2008 By Matt Fink Year End 2008 - Best of 2008

Imagine that you're feeling a little overwhelmed. Imagine you and your band have made a first album that is arguably the most widely acclaimed release of the year. Imagine you're Robin Pecknold, and you write the songs for Fleet Foxes. More

Apse

Spirited Away

Oct 01, 2008 By J. Pace Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

"We understand why we get the post-rock thing, but we hate it,” says Robert Toher, guitarist/vocalist of Apse, speaking from his home on Cape Cod. Apse can’t seem to avoid the comparisons to Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and their ilk. More

Vivian Girls

We Don't Need No Education

Sep 01, 2008 By Frank Valish Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

For Cassie, Katy, and Ali of Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, being in a band began as a fun extension of a life filled with other pursuits. When the band started in March 2007, Cassie was studying illustration at Pratt Institute, Katy was finishing degrees in physics and education at Rutgers University, and Ali, also at Rutgers, was majoring in German. However, after three 7" singles and a limited-run pressing of the band’s debut album—which sold out within a week of its May release—things have been heating up. In fact, Cassie, Katy, and, Ali—who all prefer to be referred to only by their first names—were lucky to make it out of school at all. More

The Week That Was

Kill Your Television

Sep 01, 2008 By Evan Rytlewski Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

If you want to watch broadcast television in the United Kingdom, you must purchase an annual “television license” that costs well over 100 pounds. For Peter Brewis—who along with his brother, David, forms the core of Sunderland indie-rock band Field Music—having to pay the fee again after moving into a new apartment was all the excuse he needed to finally do what he’d long threatened: get rid of his television. More

The Verve

History Repeating

Sep 01, 2008 By Marcus Kagler Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

The fact that The Verve’s 1997 breakthrough mainstream hit was a song called “Bittersweet Symphony” is apt in almost every way. Not only did the track catapult the little-known and criminally ignored band from Wigan, England into superstardom, it also epitomized their future (or lack thereof) and proved to be a fitting epitaph for a band on the cusp of continually falling apart. Indeed, when “Bittersweet Symphony” became a hit, it already seemed that The Verve’s days were numbered. More

Okkervil River

Another Bad Movie

Sep 01, 2008 By J. Pace Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

Okkervil River singer/guitarist Will Sheff is having more fun these days. Before 2005’s Black Sheep Boy charmed critics, he was seriously contemplating throwing in the towel. “Basically, I was broke,” he says from his home in Brooklyn. “I was totally broke, and I’d been broke for my entire adult life.” More

Of Montreal

Dirty Minds and Super Freaks

Sep 01, 2008 By Lorraine Carpenter Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

"Everybody involved is so emotionally invested in Of Montreal that it’s become like a cult,” says Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal’s master of ceremonies. He’s assessing not only the status of his band in the public eye—due to mount with the release of the band’s exceptional new album, Skeletal Lamping, to be promoted on tour with a “show to end all shows”—but the drive among its members and in the extended family that makes all their DIY dreams come true. More