On the Record
With World Painted Blood, Cali thrash-metal band Slayer continues to push buttons. However, they don't push the musical envelope. Here, the quartet has plagiarized their own work, but they were wise enough to choose their …
Odd Blood, the new LP from Brooklyn band Yeasayer, doesn't sound new at all. It's a transporter to the ’80s of big hair and keyboard scarves. The album starts off with a dark, rumbling, experimental …
These Hopeful Machines is 112 minutes of tasty dance cuts, driving guitars, skyscraping vocals, and the trademark glitches and breakbeats that have made BT a dynamic, creative musical force since the mid-'90s. Beautiful atmospherics, lush …
Pics and footage from Golden Triangle shows come across as, in no particular order: the beginning of an orgy; a Wiccan gathering; an out-of-control, audience-participation performance-art installation; and, well, a punk-rock show. So, does Double …
Sophie Milman was born in Russia, is Jewish, was raised in Israel, emigrated to Toronto. Yet she is best described by her mastery of a very American musical genre, as an interpreter of the great …
A few lifetimes ago. I sit listening to the local college radio station. I've heard of Human Skab but never heard him. I phone in a request. The DJ with the confident, sexy voice tells …
Despite his 60 years, Gil Scott-Heron is still hip, inspiring informed rappers with star-smashing paradigms like the oft quoted "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." He even got an extended namedrop on James Murphy's cred-laden …
Canadian five-piece You Say Party! We Say Die! hasn't changed its dance-punk sound on their latest, XXXX, but has darkened its sonic palette and refined its arrangements. The band's sound has matured, filling up spaces …
Sojournalism: The Summer Articles, from San Diego's own Sojourn, is proof that performers do not have to resort to using clichés to prove their worth as artists. His spoken word/rap style infuses meaty tracks with …
Those looking for Pat Metheny's trademark experimentation on Orchestrion should be forewarned, the experimentation isn’t compositional but technical. Metheny is the sole human player on this disc, modernizing the concept of the orchestrion, a mechanism …
For the new EP, Portastatic's Mac McCaughan taps into his Merge catalog, covering songs from Spoon, Destroyer, Magnetic Fields, Lambchop, and lesser-known acts from Merge's past: Matt Suggs, Spent, and the Renderers. If you've followed …
More, indeed, than any other American band of their era, Pylon (the amazing-est Athens, GA act you never heard of) sounded like semaphore, like ordinary communications forced into a code and forced upon you without …
Los Campesinos! has made a career out of demolishing the hierarchy between fans and friends. All of their records are thematically (and musically) relatable to what the average indie kid can muster -- simultaneously garnering …
If you're one of those people who hears old-timey, country-fied sounds and opines, "I've heard that -- Beverly Hillbillies theme music," you'll want to skip to the next review. But if you're interested in windows …
Kevyn Lettau and Peter Sprague have played prominent parts in the San Diego jazz scene for several years. Though Lettau has relocated to Los Angeles, she and Sprague have continued a musical relationship. What Is …