Embarrassing Fruits — Frontier Justice. Out 9/21, Trekky Records. Last fall, I heard Joe and Lee of the Fruits do a cover of Big Star’s “September Gurls”, acoustic and imbued with an obvious deep affection for both the song and the band they were covering. It was at the Trekky Milltown showcase, and I remember…
Category: opinions about albums
ryan bingham — junky star
Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses — Junky Star. Out 8/31, Lost Highway Records. I walked out of a Ryan Bingham set once. I’m not proud; I just want y’all to have all the facts. Two and a half years ago, he played the Local 506, American Aquarium opened, and I won free tickets to…
two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in august
Two sentence reviews of new albums I listened to in August. Behind the jump: Lost in the Trees, Arcade Fire, The Goodnight Loving, Frontier Ruckus, Dax Riggs, the Dead Brothers. Griffin House — The Learner: House’s follow-up to 2008’s stellar Flying Upside Down is a bit of a let-down; he starts and finishes strong, but…
i can lick any sonofabitch in the house — sounds of dying
I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House — Sounds of Dying. Out soon if not now, Suburban Home Records. Okay, so: sometimes when you’re a teenager or a 20-something and you’re really anxious and angry all the time, and you wake up in your late 20s and you realize that all that energy going…
two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in july
pink flag @ cat’s cradle, originally uploaded by minervacat. If I’d saved Gold Motel for this month, I could have made this the all-new-albums-by-people-who-used-to-record-on-Fueled-By-Ramen-now-playing-with-other-bands edition. And Steel Train toured with the Hush Sound once. Alas! Instead it’s just albums I listened to in July: The Young Veins — Take A Vacation!: do you ever feel…
two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in june
Two sentence reviews of new albums released in and/or listened to by me during June: Blitzen Trapper — Destroyer of the Void: This album is what would happen if Queen and the Band had a musical baby, and it’s pretty awesome. I like this more than Wild Mountain Nation but less than Furr, so we’ll…
the gaslight anthem — american slang
the Gaslight Anthem, American Slang. Out 6/15, SideOneDummy Records. Let’s get this out of the way first, because it’s the only thing reviews will be able to talk about until it’s said: American Slang is not as good an album as The ’59 Sound. And now, lest you think everything else I say is a…
two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in may
benji hughes @ cat’s cradle, originally uploaded by minervacat. Short and sweet, stuff I dug this month: The Black Keys — Brothers: this might just be the dirtiest album released this year. Not a bad track on it, and inevitably the soundtrack to my summer. Utterly unsafe for work, my god, and phenomenal. Good Old…
the national — high violet
the national @ the lincoln, originally uploaded by minervacat. The National — High Violet. Out 5/11, 4AD. I have a big vocabulary; I know a lot of multi-syllabic words and generally can string together a sentence pretty well. But I’ve been trying for two weeks, and I can’t write about the National’s new album. I…
american aquarium — small town hymns
american aquarium ‘small town hymns’ cd release party, originally uploaded by minervacat. American Aquarium — Small Town Hymns. Out 5/1, Last Chance Records. “The song is the story of a broken heart and the story of society’s expectations, built to the tastes of a producer, an engineer, a mixer and a master. And if you’re…
brand new kind of photography 