Fans of Pavement tend to be absolutists; it’s hard to be ambivalent about the band’s music. Their fans love all of the records, all of the B-sides, all of the demos. They enjoy them drunk or sober, on the road, or on the couch. That level of obsession has something to do with their esoteric [...]

Ben Barnett is a musician who has, all his life, documented experiences through song. After releasing eight albums, six singles, and five splits as Kind of Like Spitting over the course of a decade, retiring the moniker and reinventing himself as Music Director of Seattle’s Paul Green School of Rock, Barnett has now emerged triumphant [...]

Is Spoon the New Power Generation for the Pitchfork crowd? That’s the question posited by Spoon’s seventh studio album, Transference. Just think about that funky Batman soundtrack if you don’t get the connection. It’s easily to see Prince’s “Future” slipping between the one-two punch of Transference’s, “Who Makes Your Money” and “Written In Reverse.” Rob [...]

Electric President is made up of Ben Cooper and Alex Kane, both natives of Jacksonville, Florida. Their musical history is scattered — Ben played in bands from the time he was 13, in as many of four at once, sometimes as a guitarist, or a drummer, singer or bassist. Alex first started playing as the [...]

At long last it is upon us. One of the most important and influential alternative bands of the 1990s, Pavement, have reunited.
To commemorate the occasion, Matador Records presents Quarantine The Past, a 23-track best-of collection compiled by the band and fully remastered.
The tracks span the entirety of Pavement’s career from 1989 to 1999, from the scratchy and mysterious sounds [...]

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists have arrived on the almighty Matador Records with The Brutalist Bricks, a nonstop work of musical expertise. It’s a beautiful thing to hear veterans of a genre sounding so fresh and new. And it’s not just Ted Leo’s songwriting (though that is quite strong) — The Pharmacists cannot go unnoticed. [...]

Though a succession of releases for the Gern Blandsten, Ace Fu, Lookout (and most recently) Touch & Go labels, Ted has established himself as one of the best songwriters breathing, regardless of genre. For the sake of argument, however, we’ll testify that Leo’s marriage of modern punk with classic pop is always subject to revision [...]

The Silver Lake quintet Local Natives have been compared to groups such as Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, and other bands that combine modern day indie rock with international influences. However, to this lowly reviewer’s ears, there are no hints of afropop, or lo-fi calamity present on their debut full-length…

Ben Davis was in punk bands Sleepytime Trio and Milemarker, and has developed into a musician with diverse interests and influences.
Lovitt Records released the critically acclaimed The Hushed Patterns of Relief in 2001 which was recorded at Salad Days by Brian McTernan. The record began as a quiet four-track project, Davis’ first release was a [...]

Kill Rock Stars is very excited to announce that on April 6th, 2010, they will be adding Elliott Smith’sRoman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill records to their catalog.
Roman Candle is Elliott Smith’s first solo album and was originally released on Portland’s Cavity Search Records in 1994.
Roman Candle had quite an impact on Slim [...]

James Duke is a soft spoken guy, tall and thin with a broad smile that spreads from ear to ear. He’s the kind of guy who, when asked if he plays the piano, answers with a laugh and says, “That’s a funny question.”
Duke, 21, lives in an apartment on a second-floor loft in Kalamazoo, Michigan, [...]

On March 9, 2010 Joyful Noise Recordings will issue an extremely limited cassette split from Jookabox and Kid Primitive Family.
The Jookabox/Kid Primitive Family split is an ethereal, percussive-heavy exercise in existential musical chairs. Jookabox, who just released their third album Dead Zone Boys (Asthmatic Kitty/Joyful Noise), rediscover their folk roots on Side A. A far [...]

The Ruby Suns have teleported to today from a past where pop was catchy and high-spirited, but they are integrating quite well with us here in 2010. They’ve created a type of hybridized style of ’80s dance and world music that is incredibly intricate in its design. In fact, think The Smiths without any instruments [...]

Xiu Xiu are theater people. I haven’t read a line of their bios, but they are — even if they don’t know it. They’re overstated, obnoxious, and consumed with self-love disguised as self-hate. On the plus side that makes for great theater, and they also happen to be great musicians (even if their songwriting [...]

Fight Softly is the second album for Sub Pop by New Zealand’s pop masters The Ruby Suns. Ryan McPhun has the kind of voracious musical mind that cites as equal influences ‘80s New Jack Swing and modern Angolan kuduro, Fleetwood Mac and Britney Spears, Brazilian tropicalia and Argentinean cumbia. He’s the kind of diligent, meticulous soul that spends [...]