Burning Airlines: Mission: Control! November 6, 2023This is still one of my favorite album covers of all time. Probably because I love orange. And...
Les Savy Fav: The Cat and the Cobra January 31, 2023When I reviewed Les Savy Fav’s 2010 album Root for Ruin, I had no idea it would not...
Grade: Under The Radar January 12, 2023I’m not sure how much hardcore I was listening to in 1999. In fact, I know I was...
The Bicycle Thief: You Come and Go Like a Pop Song July 1, 2016It feels like just about everything from 2001 that wasn’t 9/11 was lost to history, including this album....
Death Cab for Cutie: Something About Airplanes January 25, 2015This was my first experience with Death Cab. As well it should be, as it’s their debut album....
Centro-Matic: Navigational January 17, 2015As the album starts, the homemade recording and finger-plucked acoustic guitar made my eyebrows perk up at the...
blink-182: Enema of the State January 12, 2015Ah, the clown princes of the pop punk scene go head over balls into the teen-dream world of...
Beck: Midnite Vultures January 11, 2015I’m not sure I get it. Is this a joke or a serious exercise in musical genre exploration?...
The Apples In Stereo: Her Wallpaper Reverie January 7, 2015Ah! What the hell is that racket? Why start an album with an awful kid’s xylophone solo? You’re...
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: Madonna January 6, 2015Just listening to the beginning of the album’s real first cut, “Mistakes & Regrets,” one might think these...
Pinback: Pinback July 17, 2011This, their first album, is a meditation on calmness and kind of circling rhythms and melodies. It feels...
The White Stripes: The White Stripes February 9, 2011Laid bare of all pretension, this album is a straightforward, raw foot-stomping preview of a career to come....
Television Personalities: Part Time Punks December 4, 2009If The Young Ones had a band (or did they?) this would be it. Recorded with the pocket...
The Intuitionist September 5, 2009I’ve heard this type of fiction called “fantastic realism” in recent years. Although I’m not sure that really...
The Promise Ring: Very Emergency September 29, 2008This generation’s emo is crap. They have like Red Jumpsuit this and Three Times Dope that. It’s all...
Bonnie Prince Billy: I See a Darkness August 24, 2008Welcome aboard the sadness train. This maudlin ode to death and dust is like the slowest of Sebadoh’s...
Blackalicious: NIA June 29, 2008I’m too stupid–and white–to understand the whole Nia, earth mother theme going on here. Apparently “Nia,” meaning purpose,...
Tobin Sprout: Let’s Welcome the Circus People March 3, 2008Look I’m Pink Floyd or something. For his third solo album, Sprout returns to the whole kiddie-themed thing...
