So much has already been said about The Flaming Lips’ live shows. It’s a little like the summer of 1999 when all anyone could ask you was, “Have you seen The Sixth Sense?” With the Lips, though, there’s really no such thing as a spoiler. You could watch a hundred hours of [...]

The Dø, (rhymes with “glow”) named after the first and last notes of the musical scale, recently became the first French act to reach #1 in France with an album sung in English.

Quasi’s American Gong is a solid album. Cinderblock dorm room bookcase solid. There’s not a single track that would make you reach forward to flip off the radio if you were driving cross-country and sick of everything on your iPod by Arkansas. In fact, most of the tracks would probably inspire a speeding ticket. I [...]

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 [...]

There are plenty of reasons other than the Winter Olympics to set your sights on the second-largest country in the world right now. Canadian contributions to the indie music scene have always been healthy, but in the last decade they’ve become downright probiotic. Basia Bulat’s holistic presence was first felt two years ago when her [...]

Listening to The Chambermaids’ album Down In the Berries is a strange experience for anyone who was a kid when the Athens sound had yet to change the face of alternative music, back in the day when MTV’s 120 Minutes was the show you stayed up late to watch Sunday night, not caring how tired [...]

Yes, you are reading that right. Before I even talk about the music I have to address the elephant in the room that is the band’s name. There are plenty of otherwise good bands with asinine names. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Saturday Looks Good To Me could both have probably come up with [...]

This album has a serious DIY sound and feel. Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but in this case sorta is. The Push-Pull sound is a patchwork of influences with no discernible heart. When Joey and Dee Dee were pounding out walls of noise, there was something distinctly Ramones about the whole enterprise. [...]

Timber Timbre’s self-titled album is one of those outings that would best be described as the soundtrack to a film that’s yet to be made. A movie that would most likely be directed by David Lynch. The music is moody, but quirky in a way that makes it playful even when it’s talking about decomposing [...]

I don’t know if it’s a criticism to say that something Goth-based takes itself too seriously. Waxing melancholy in dark black eyeliner really only plays heavy-handed. You can’t fault Robert Smith for it — hell, you can even love him for it. Probably because for every “woe is me” song of The Cure’s there’s a [...]

I’m one of the biggest fans of the garage rock revival, but it’s a canvas concerned near-exclusively with primary colors. That being said, Zeus plays seamlessly right alongside groups like The Hives or The Libertines. I would add, though, that the low-fi grit of the guitar and vocals – everything, really — from Zeus doesn’t [...]

The Readnex Poetry Squad’s sound is theatrical, but that’s mostly the slam-lyrical vibe at work. Social Issue is a revolutionary hip-hop album at heart, but not quite in the same way that releases like Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions… made the mix of politics and music feel. PE albums present a united [...]

Punk is alive and well. Its board of directors seem to have upper-middleclass backgrounds now, but the music itself moves forward. The voice of rebellion being relayed over the SMS network of an iPhone somehow aligns perfectly with the “American Psycho” sentiments (and resources) of today’s punk audience. Just shy of 30 years since Sid’s [...]

Inane lyrics over passionless strumming guitar, percussion that is so simplistic it may as well be canned but is impossibly emanating from an actual band member striking drums, and arbitrary strings which do nothing to elevate or drown out a truly lackluster vocalist. Track one, “Once,” has a contagious hook and harmony. The same guilty [...]

Although Youth Group’s third studio album is my first experience with their music, I have an immediate point of reference for what I’ve found there. Many children of the ‘80s will want to start their first drive of Casino Twilight Dogs with track eight, a cover of Alphaville’s “Forever Young.” I did at least. Seeing [...]