11.11.2009

AC/DC, Backtracks [Boston Phoenix]

How easy is it to admire AC/DC? First, “tenderness” is not in their vocab: they just might be the only working rock band ideologically opposed to ballads.
[...continue reading...]

11.05.2009

Punk & Soul: The Way Maine Should Be

11.03.2009

Morrissey, Swords [Boston Phoenix]

Morrissey — begrudging patron saint of all that is emotionally desolate and otherwise comfortably bummed — is but a mere mortal, as his recent collapse on stage proves.
[...continue reading...]

10.27.2009

David Bowie, Space Oddity: 40th Anniversary Edition [Boston Phoenix]

David Bowie’s 1969 album Man of Music/Man of Words was retitled a few years after its debut, most likely because it was quickly becoming known as Space Oddity and Those Other Eight Songs We Could Care Less About.
[...continue reading...]

10.21.2009

Spiral Stairs, The Real Feel [Boston Phoenix]


As his former band prepare to stage their much-ballyhooed reunion next year, Scott Kannberg is breaking his five-year recording silence with what is arguably his least cryptic post-Pavement release.
[...continue reading...]

10.14.2009

Flight of the Conchords, I Told You I Was Freaky [Boston Phoenix]


The New Zealand “folk-comedy” duo Flight of the Conchords transcended folk and comedy on their debut LP, a soundtrack to the absurdist HBO show of the same name, with genre parodies that were great songs in their own right.
[...continue reading...]

10.06.2009

The Flaming Lips, Embryonic [Boston Phoenix]

If new albums by Super Furry Animals, 50 Foot Wave, and the Flaming Lips are any indication, 2009 is smack in the middle of a new psychedelic age.
[...continue reading...]

9.28.2009

Kurt Vile, Childish Prodigy [Boston Phoenix]


Kurt Vile's punny name, as well as the title of his latest full-length album, bespeaks low-art subversion — surely the classical archetypes are running for the hills.
[...continue reading...]

9.15.2009

The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses (Legacy Edition) [Boston Phoenix]


The Stone Roses' 1989 debut LP has been deified by such dubious tastemakers as the NME and Oasis's Noel Gallagher — and the rest of us really like it too.
[...continue reading...]

9.09.2009

Better all the time [Boston Phoenix]


In 2006, Apple/EMI released the Beatles-soundtracked Cirque du Soleil companion piece Love, which mashed together songs from the band's repertoire in stunning remastered sound.
[...continue reading...]