The Decemberists: Her Majesty the Decemberists September 10, 2003Who doesn’t love a sea shanty? Well, sea shanties sung by nerdy intellectuals whose only experience on a...
Kings of Leon: Youth & Young Manhood August 20, 2003Now I understand the “southern Strokes” moniker that’s been hung on these guys. Interesting you have to go...
Guided by Voices: Earthquake Glue August 20, 2003This is oddly a bit of a return to form of sorts. Again, Pollard dials it back (to...
Gogogo Airheart: Love My Life… Hate My Friends August 7, 2003This is some crazy stuff. No joke, it’s weird and wacky and tons of fun. The fact that...
The Datsuns: The Datsuns July 4, 2003Break out your beer and cigarettes. Get out your skinny, lace-up bellbottoms and that pomade that makes your...
Guided by Voices: Universal Truths and Cycles June 19, 2003GBV has subtly moved back into a lo-fi groove. Granted, it’s not all tape hiss and broken songs,...
Grandaddy: Sumday June 11, 2003It takes a brave man to go with the neckbeard. It doesn’t keep lead singer, Jason Lytle, from...
The Natural History: Beat Beat Heartbeat June 1, 2003Trying to define hipness in music is very difficult. Some people think Radiohead is hip. They’re not. Some people...
Guided by Voices: Do the Collapse May 22, 2003I must admit that I heard “Teenage FBI” on the radio about a week before this album came...
The Apes: Oddeyesee May 7, 2003These days not having a guitar in your band makes you artsy. We know that artsy isn’t everybody’s...
Goldcard: Goldcard April 30, 2003I bought my first Pond album in college. I dug it. It was glossy and sly. Goldcard is...
Brad: Shame April 27, 2003Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam fame may have one of the cooler names in rock ‘n roll, but...
The Black Keys: Thickfreakness April 9, 2003Jesus, this stuff is heavy. Like a non-hipster version of The White Stripes and a heroin-addled Eric Clapton,...
Guided by Voices: Isolation Drills April 4, 2003That’s a little more like it. After the debacle that was Do the Collapse, Isolation Drills gets back to...
The Exploding Hearts: Guitar Romantic April 2, 2003Tragedy and rock ‘n roll seem to go hand in hand. Such is the story of The Exploding...
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: The Secret of Elena’s Tomb March 26, 2003A softer, gentler Trail of Dead? God help us all. Lord knows what this means for the future...
American Hi-Fi: The Art of Losing February 26, 2003I have a personal investment in this one. No, I didn’t actually pay for the album, but we...
The Postal Service: Give Up February 20, 2003Ben Gibbard can write lyrics that would make even the most ardent metalhead melt. There is a nostalgia...