Future of the Left, Travels with Myself and Another [Boston Phoenix]

There's a fine line between stupid and clever, as Spinal Tap once quipped, and don't these Future of the Left guys just know it.
[...continue reading...]

Jarvis Cocker, Further Complications [Boston Phoenix]

For his second solo album, the former Pulp frontman lays waste to his typically polished sound with the help of de-prettier Steve Albini.
[...continue reading...]

He's their rock: Superdrag redeem themselves [Boston Phoenix]

The pantheon of Where Are They Nows is populated with fallen and faded demigods, yes, but could've-beens, almost-weres, and also-rans crowd the wings.
[...continue reading...]

Super Furry Animals, Dark Days/Light Years [Boston Phoenix]

What better way to say hwyl! to this ponderous decade than with a hulking slab of psych jams from one of its most consistent and chameleonic bands?
[...continue reading...]

Micachu & the Shapes, Jewellery [Boston Phoenix]

The brief and ebullient debut by 21-year old Mica Levy et al. is so tic-ridden and childlike, and so packed with dissonant non-chords and chirping calls of hand-clapped rhythm, you'd think a pack of kids had picked out the instruments and written the arrangements.
[...continue reading...]

Isaac Hayes, Black Moses / Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak) [PopMatters]

In 1969, Isaac Hayes went from being one-half of Stax Records’ own Holland-Dozier-Holland (Hayes and David Porter were responsible for many of the label’s iconic early hits, like “Hold On, I’m Coming”, “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby”, and “B-A-B-Y") to the bald, beautiful, and tender face of the Memphis label’s post-Otis Redding (and post-Atlantic) second phase.
[...continue reading...]

The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Communion [PopMatters]

Like many of their contemporary Swedish brethren, the Soundtrack of Our Lives are old-school dudes.
[...continue reading...]

Listening to the Muses [Metro NY]

Kristin Hersh moved her teenaged band, Throwing Muses, to Boston in the mid-1980s not to pursue glitzy urban notoriety, but because they recognized the homegrown solidarity of the city’s music scene.
[...continue reading...]

Solo contender: A.C. Newman adjusts to the limelight [Boston Phoenix]

When Carl Newman walks down a New York City sidewalk and seizes some sudden flicker of inspiration by humming bits of melody into his Blackberry, he tends to feel less like a songwriter at work and more like a character out of some fictional satire.
[...continue reading...]

Boston Spring Arts Preview [Metro Boston]