Sleater-Kinney: Call the Doctor February 21, 2024Layered and angry and somehow both messy and completely controlled, it feels like a high-pitched, swirling cry to...
Sammy: Tales of Great Neck Glory June 9, 2023Everyone just labels Sammy a Pavement ripoff band, but I contend that they are, in fact, the precursors...
Yatsura: We Are Yatsura March 17, 2023I remember going to Other Music in NoHo in 1996, which was only a few blocks from my...
De La Soul: Stakes Is High January 25, 2015Ah, De La’s much maligned fourth album. For some reason, people and writers have said that De La...
Chisel: 8 A.M. All Day January 18, 2015Damn, if this is what Ted Leo sounds like at 8AM, we’re all in trouble. The band is...
Cake: Fashion Nugget January 17, 2015Cake is kind of the nerd’s alt band. The Jeremy Piven-looking lead singer sports a stupid fisherman’s hat...
Belle & Sebastian: Tigermilk January 11, 2015What the hell is going on here? That is the only question one can ask when the lispy,...
Belle & Sebastian: If You’re Feeling Sinister January 11, 2015Sounding like the title of a forgotten The Smiths album, If You’re Feeling Sinister is an odd album that somehow...
Beck: Odelay January 11, 2015The first time I heard this album was at a friend’s house in New Jersey. It was during...
Braid: The Age of Octeen March 31, 2008Oh, emo, you’ve come a long way. Braid is one of the first, and one of the least...
Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy January 3, 2008There’s no mistaking this for anything else but a Guided by Voices solo project. Granted Tobin Sprout just...
Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce August 1, 2007It’s always difficult detangling Robert Pollard from GBV. I mean they are one and the same. So what...
Buddha’s Little Finger May 1, 2007Wow. Yikes. Um. I have completely reached the limit of my reading comprehension. Remember those ERB things you...
Texas is the Reason: Do You Know Who You Are? May 15, 2006Maybe Texas is the reason this band kinda sucks. I must have been going through my everything emo-core...
Silkworm: Firewater May 15, 2006What more can you ask for than catchy rock songs about drinking and falling down? Almost every song...
Archers of Loaf: The Speed of Cattle April 5, 2004Usually collections of B-sides, outtakes, etc. are hit-or-miss. I love the song “What Did You Expect?” and “Ethel...
Archers of Loaf: All the Nations Airports March 15, 2004It’s obvious the boys at the record label sat these guys down and told them to rein it in,...
Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes Under the Stars December 23, 2002Whoa there. Who is this? Apparently this is Kim Deal of the Pixies’ idea of what GBV should...
