I’m sad to say I somehow missed The Color Bars two years ago, when they released their 8 song EP Making Playthings on itty bitty Paranoiac Records. The band originally called New York City home (they’ve since relocated to Seattle), but could easily have fit in with the, yes, Athens-based Elephant 6 crowd during [...]

Sam Genders (vocals) and Mike Lindsay (producer) form Tunng, whose debut full-length, Mother’s Daughter and Other Songs, compiles previous singles and new offerings onto one disc. Their sound, which draws immediate comparisons to the Beta Band due to Genders’ timbral association with Stephen Mason, relies heavily on rhythm and ambience, combining the electronic and [...]

The same Northeastern area of England that gave the world The Futureheads and Maximo Park now gives us Field Music, whose eponymous debut album is, amazingly, better than either of the previously mentioned two (both of which have devoted former or current members to the band). Comparisons abound elsewhere to, believe it or not, the [...]

The release of the sprawling, succinct, well-selected and perfectly titled career retrospective 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong has given me cause to take a step back and look at the long, prolific career of Mark E. Smith’s band. For rabid fans, a “best of” is bound to exclude 20 or 30 essential tracks, destined [...]

First up is the new one from Sleater-Kinney, for “Jumpers,” (.mov) one of the best tracks from The Woods. The theme of avian escape from corporate ennui is very cute, but of course the best part about any S/K video is seeing the band members themselves, all of whom are hot. This one features not [...]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s sudden (and well-deserved) word-of-blog-derived fame essentially rendered this show a double-bill, with as many or more fans showing up for the opener than the slightly-more-established headliner. They started an hour or so late at about 11pm, and immediately launched into two “new” songs, “Me and You Watson” and “Graceful Retreat,” [...]

Google has become a powerful tool for dissemination of all matter of information, most of which falls under the heading of, well, pornography. Certain terms are destined to conjure certain hits regardless of intent–a not-too-recent example noted by a friend of mine during a preview for the film “Holes”: “I wonder what’ll come up when [...]

I’m posting this list in the interest of providing visitors an idea of what I’d consider my “canon”–for the last five years, at least. Any music aficionado would agree that a list like this actually goes together pretty quickly, by sorting one’s iTunes by year and taking a glance at the CD rack. My main [...]

I have to admit that I’ve been guilty of the occasional bit of unfair book-by-its cover judging. Despite the great songwriting and musicianship on Minus the Bear’s 2002 LP Highly Refined Pirates, I reserved proper evaluation of the album due to the, well, annoying song titles. “Thanks for the Killer Game of Crisco Twister,” “Monkey!!! [...]

If life is fair to even the slightest degree, Sweden’s Labrador Records, the home of Acid House Kings, The Radio Dept., South Ambulance, and the modestly titled The Legends, will gain recognition as one of the best and most consistent purveyors of indie pop. Until then, we can rely on marathonpacks to provide the best [...]