Aug 29, 2017
Music
Web Exclusive
The sixth LP by this San Francisco band doesn’t break any new ground as much as it encapsulates the churning, off-beat guitar rock they’ve nurtured since 2009’s Grey-Eyed Girls.
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Aug 28, 2017
Music
Oh Sees
Oh Sees? Thee Oh Sees? Orange County Sound? Oh, well. More recycled Roky Erickson-isms and smoky garage-rock riffs pollute the ears along with the most odious proggy lyrics this side of Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
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Aug 25, 2017
Music
Queens of the Stone Age
“The Way You Used to Do” marks maybe the darkest chapter for Josh Homme’s Queens of the Stone Age. The direct-input guitar, pumped full of pulpy funk is the sound of a band satisfied with themselves—and that’s dangerous. You can picture it now: Homme hip-slinging, leather jacket wrapped around his towering shoulders, cigarette hanging from his lips.
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Aug 25, 2017
Music
Issue #61 - Grizzly Bear
Sam Beam has stepped away from the brass. He’s once again returned to the Sub Pop of his youth, and surrendered to the embered hues of his storytelling, relying less on an overlay of funk and more on an undercurrent of hushed tête-à-tête.
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Aug 24, 2017
Music
Issue #61 - Grizzly Bear
There’s a simple elegance to Erika M. Anderson’s music, produced under the name EMA. Sometimes her sound fills out with reverb and distortion, giving it a more complicated feel, but at her best she’s a crafter of impressively haunting pop songs that serve rather than distort the message.
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Aug 23, 2017
Music
Web Exclusive
The fourth album from Ghostpoet isn’t an easy listen. Obaro Ejimiwe’s voice is most often a growl, lingering over his sparse rock beats and guitar-driven melodies with a subtle audacity.
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Aug 22, 2017
Music
Issue #61 - Grizzly Bear
In 2014, indie rock’s resident crank Mark Kozelek caused a minor blog uproar over his out-of-nowhere feud with Philadelphia rock band The War on Drugs. Apparently upset The War on Drugs’ set had sound bleed with his set at a festival, Kozelek lashed out, referring to War on Drugs as “beer-commercial lead guitar shit” before finally recording a song called “War on Drugs: Suck My Cock.”
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Aug 21, 2017
Music
Issue #61 - Grizzly Bear
Liars make pitch-black art-rock that morphs and shifts from album to album, but always retains a core of bitter, urgent darkness. Even 2007’s somewhat conventional indie-rock self-titled album and 2012’s pretty, Kid A-biting WIXIW feel like examinations of the grimy corners of the soul.
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Aug 18, 2017
Music
Everything Everything
U.K. art-pop quartet Everything Everything rightfully gained plenty of attention in 2015 for their bombastic third album Get to Heaven. It easily highlighted everything great about the band: propulsive dance grooves, quirky and creative instrumentation and chord progression, cleverly cutting lyrics, and frontman Jonathan Higgs’ powerful, unique vocals.
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