May 06, 2010
Music
The Monkees
1968 saw the beginning of what would become the end of The Monkees. Their NBC television series was canceled. The movie they were working on with a young Jack Nicholson (the bizarre Head) had been delayed. And the band broke with Chip Douglas, the producer of their previous two albums, both which hit #1 on Billboard’s chart. On its own, the album that came out of all this change is a bit of a mixed bag.
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May 05, 2010
Music
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Draumalandið (or Dreamland, in English) offers an entrancing juxtaposition between lush beauty and encroaching drama, which perfectly complements its visual inspiration. The 2009 documentary of the same name focused on the Icelandic government’s plan to build the biggest dam in Europe to provide cheap energy for Alcoa’s aluminum smelter in Iceland’s fjords, all of which eventually led to that country’s uncertain future.
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May 04, 2010
Music
Issue #31 - Spring 2010 - Joanna Newsom
Written by a core of six players (Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff, and new guitarist Sam Goldberg) and produced by John McEntire (Gastr del Sol, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake) instead of longtime producer David Newfeld, Forgiveness Rock Record represents a different Broken Social Scene than the collective that broke out of Toronto in the early 2000s.
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May 02, 2010
Music
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For those who pine for the heyday of shoegaze glory, the dosed spring still flows freely in Dayton, Ohio. Lab Partners have been at it since 1998, long enough to have actually started back when the vapor trails of their antecedents were ruptured but still visible, and their third album, Moonlight Music, plays like a connection to the original bloodline.
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Apr 30, 2010
Music
Issue #31 - Spring 2010 - Joanna Newsom
When Washington, DC duo Georgie James called it quits in 2008, Laura Burhenn wasted no time in moving on and moving forward. The Mynabirds, named after Neil Young and Rick James’ early Motown band, benefits greatly from her alluring songwriting and singular vocals.
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Apr 29, 2010
Music
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Robyn Hitchcock’s new album with his Venus 3 (Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, and Bill Rieflin) was actually recorded in 2006, after the group’s debut, Olé Tarantula, and before last year’s Goodnight Oslo, its delayed release a product of Hitchcock’s simply not having finished the tracks. But Propellor Time rivals the best of his new band’s work.
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Apr 28, 2010
Music
Quadron
Although adorably anachronistic, Quadron (producer Robin Hannibal and the one-named singer Coco) never delve into kitsch on their self-titled debut album. Instead, the Danish duo faithfully mash up funk, electro, and R&B into a delicious, featherweight sonic brew. The problem is, that while pleasing, Quadron seem content to settle for paying homage to their influences rather than emulating genre originators’ conviction or ennui.
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Apr 27, 2010
Music
Avi Buffalo
Behold: proof youth is not wasted on the young. While you were whittling away your high school years on high-schoolish things, Long Beach four-piece Avi Buffalo was busy crafting breezy pop anthems that would land them a deal with Sub Pop before any member could legally drink.
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Apr 26, 2010
Music
Fang Island
Are they an indie-rock band playing prog, or a prog band playing indie rock? The Brooklyn-based Fang Island has a positive vibe to their sound that seems a bit incongruous compared to the bent-over intensity of many bands playing a progressive type of rock, but their debut album leaves no question that these guys could hold their own in a rumble with Porcupine Tree.
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Apr 23, 2010
Music
Web Exclusive
As Pantha du Prince, German producer/DJ Hendrick Weber’s approach for getting under his listeners’ skin seems deceptively simple. Rather than spearing the cerebral cortex with massive beats and jarring chunks of samples, his music works like a slowly dissolving capsule. It’s gentle but insistent, and by the time a full dose enters the bloodstream it should be clear whether this is a buzz worth prolonging or leaving it to wear off.
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