I’m putting together end of the year lists, like everyone else, but I couldn’t let these two slip through without writing about them. Both out today, 12/6. The Black Keys — El Camino: my love for the Black Keys is pretty well described as primal; their 2010 album Brothers remains an album that I think…
Category: opinions about albums
magnolia collective — ghost stories
Magnolia Collective — Ghost Stories. I owe a debt of gratitude to MagCo — I’d been shooting local music for a few years, but I really got a introduction to the center of the Chapel Hill scene thanks to their regular Thursday residency at the Station this year. I met people I’d never have met…
top 25 albums of 2011
The usual caveat before we get into the list: I make my list with a mix of objectivity and subjectivity; I’ve left albums I loved off other lists because they weren’t actually very good, and occasionally an incredibly impressive album I’m not wild about will sneak in. In short, this is a list, basically, of…
two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in november
The final Two Sentence Reviews of 2011! December is all year-end lists and Christmas songs. And maybe six paragraphs of gibbering about the new Black Keys. Maybe not, though. Anyway: two sentence reviews, boom. Behind the jump: Grand Tetons, Los Campesinos!, Ian Cooke, Low Roar, Frank Turner, 13ghosts, the Miracals, the Violet Lights, Matthew Mayfield….
home is wherever i’m with you
the Deep Dark Woods — The Place I Left Behind. Out now, Sugar Hill Records. I have to retract what I said about Blitzen Trapper being the band most likely to slay a deep cut cover by the Band (although they’re still second on the list); that honor really belongs to the Deep Dark Woods,…
mister heavenly — out of love
Mister Heavenly — Out of Love. Out 8/16, Sub Pop Records. I’m never at a loss when it comes to describing a band, even if my descriptions are out there. I once said that Augustana sounded like trees, as you might remember, and earlier this year I compared Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr to salad dressing. But…
girls make noise
Girl In A Coma — Exits & All The Rest. Out now. I’ve broadened my horizons this year; sometimes on purpose (mostly thanks to Pam) and sometimes accidentally (Doughty’s opener this tour is avant-garde jazz dub step trio Moon Hooch, who he found playing in a subway tunnel in NYC). But sometimes you want your…
two sentence reviews of reasonably new albums i listened to in october
Two sentence reviews of reasonably new albums I listened to in October; one of the only good parts of October! Quiet Americans — Medicine EP: belying their name, this EP is fantastic fuzzy garage rock, full of distorted vocals and guitars run through so many pedals it’s amazing they sound like guitars at all. It…
mike doughty — yes and also yes
When I was getting ready to listen to Yes And Also Yes, my buddy Rusty told me that it felt like a Soul Coughing album. He didn’t say it in a bad way, or a condemnation, or a I-preferred-that. It was just a statement; we went on to discuss how righteous Haughty Melodic is, how…
sinful savage tigers — the last night of the revels
I developed a new metric over the weekend, for whether or not I should be writing about a band because I might be too close to them personally: could I call any of the members and ask to borrow a PA on short notice on a Sunday afternoon? If I could, maybe I should skip…
brand new kind of photography 