NPR has a first listen to the new record from The Antlers. “Burst Apart” is remarkably different from the bands first album, which was excellent but a bit of a downer. Two years after Hospice transformed The Antlers’ world, the Brooklyn band’s three affable, unassuming members faced the daunting task of producing a worthy sequel. [...]
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart had one of the most unexpectedly delightful albums in 2009, taking the shoegazer, fuzzy lo-fi aesthetic and marrying it to tight pop arrangements and boy-girl harmonies. Belong is the sophomore album from the Brooklyn indie-poppers, which drops March 29 via Slumberland. Right now, the entire album is streaming [...]
I like what I’m hearing from a first listen. The band has really reigned it in on this one, for the better. It’s almost like the band took a collective deep breath. On The King Is Dead, Meloy prepares listeners for change in his opening line: “Here we come to a turning of the season.” It [...]
NPR is streaming the soundtrack (well just a few tracks) from Tron: Legacy, which was composed by Daft Punk. It’s a good way to spend the work day in anticipation of Disney’s new movie. And if that’s not enough, MySpace is now streaming “a condensed version of the soundtrack, paired down to one continuous 21-minutes-track [...]
NPR is streaming the Arcade Fire’s latest LP, The Suburbs (out tomorrow via Merge Records) . And if Pitchfork is to be trusted (which they can be for the most part), it sounds like the Canadian rock group has put out another fantastic album. The metrics of The Suburbs are misleading: At 16 tracks, including [...]
There is an electricity in the air surrounding Delta Spirit. Every year one or two bands makes the leap. This year, it positively feels like it will be Delta Spirit. Their new album, History From Below, doesn’t come out until June 8, but you can listen to it now at KCRW. When lead singer Matt [...]
Dirty Sweet was one of my favorite new bands waaay back in 2007, both for their debut album and their live show; their album Of Monarchs and Beggars is still on heavy rotation for it’s riff-heavy, swaggering, ass-shakin’, pure rawk n’roll vibe. It was surprising then, that they hadn’t released a new album within a [...]
Denton, TX’s Midlake made quite the splash with their debut album, The Trials of Van Ocupanther, though it had it’s moments and seemed to launch a great new talent, the accolades the album earned felt a bit overdone in 2007. A good album, a promising album even!. But that was a long time ago. Now [...]
Have you got 40-minutes to spare, brothah? “But, as with most of Spoon’s work, Transference‘s genius lies in what isn’t said. If the songs lack obvious sonic adventure, they more than compensate with flawless execution and an unshakable sense that something darker or more mysterious is lurking beneath the glittering riffs and poppy beats. [Britt] [...]
