You have to understand that the Crows are, like, the most important band of my youth — of my early teens (August And Everything After) and of my early twenties (Hard Candy), at the very least. The first was formative; the second is the album that most resonates my heart with Travis, because they were…
Category: opinions about albums
album reviews: the old 97’s — most messed up
Better late opinions than never! The 97’s play the Cradle tonight, 10/8, with David Wax Museum. I’ll be in ATL with Trav, but I saw them last week at Trans Pecos in Marfa, TX, and they fucking rocked. Much has been, is being, and will be made of every single place on Most Messed Up,…
concerts: carolina still @ cat’s cradle
I love these guys so much. Too much fun.
concerts: rock*a*teens & the love language @ cat’s cradle back room
What a lovely night of Merge Records indie pop rock last Wednesday — despite starting at 10:30pm (much too late for this old person), the Love Language’s set was shimmery delicious danceable goodness, and Rock*A*Teens made me doubly sad that I missed their set at Merge 25, because they were equally great. Give me hooky…
album review: cory branan — the no-hit wonder
When Cory opened for Gaslight earlier this year, he told a story about a friend who occasionally covers his song “The Corner” and sings a line wrong; he sings down on the corner of what I want and what I intend to get, where the actual line is what I tend to get. They both…
album reviews: caleb caudle & fire mountain
A double shot from This Is American Music! You know I love those guys like whoa. Fire Mountain – All Dies Down: this is an album full of contradictions; it’s lovely but lonely. The rough vocals and the acoustic guitar driving the songs play against the electric guitars and piano that sound the way heat…
bloodshot records spring: bobby bare jr & dex romweber
Bobby Bare Jr. — Undefeated: once a year or so, Bloodshot’s new release schedule affords me the opportunity to dig into the back catalog of one of their artists, someone I’ve never really listened to before; this year it’s Bobby Bare, Jr., and it starts with his 2014 release Undefeated. It’s a gem of a…
album review: party dolls – love wars baby
I’ve decided to get rid of the phrases “side project” and “supergroup”. Henceforth if someone plays and / or writes for multiple bands, they will just play and write for multiple bands. Because, yes, technically, Party Dolls is both a side project — an outlet for Athens rockers the District Attorneys’ frontman Drew Beskin to…
album review: lydia loveless – somewhere else
If Lydia Loveless’s 2011 Indestructible Machine was a 38 minute punch of broken hearted and bitter but not down or out cowpunk, 2013’s Somewhere Else starts with a blast of guitars that can’t be mistaken for anything but rock and roll. “Really Wanna See You” has a typical Loveless theme: an ex who broke her…
preview: panic at the disco on tour / too weird to live too rare to die
Panic! at the Disco’s fourth albums opens with a fuzzy, electronic plea; it sounds nothing like anything else they’ve ever done, and then it explodes into Brendon Urie’s unmistakeable voice and a chorus crying that this is the beat of my heart. Urie lets it all out on the line if you love me, let…
brand new kind of photography 