May 24, 2006

Taking Back Sunday Louder Now Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three years or so, you know all about the near-end of Taking Back Sunday and the subsequent splintering of the band, with vocalist/guitarist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper starting up Straylight Run. But what you may not know about...

The Flaming Lips At War With The Mystics [4/5] The last time we heard from the Flaming Lips, they were obsessed with flesh-colored androids, karate-kicking Harajuku girls and questions about their own mortality. Well, a lot has happened since the 2002 release of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots: Oklahoma’s favourite oddballs toured as Beck’s backing...

Streetlight Manifesto Keasbey Nights [3/5] Before we get to the music, let’s sort out the back-story: Keasbey Nights is technically Streetlight Manifesto’s second album, which is a reinterpretation of the first album by the mid-’90s ska band Catch 22. Streetlight Manifesto’s Tomas Kalnoky used to sing for Catch 22 back when ska was looking like...

Liars Drum’s Not Dead [5/5] The critical thrashing Liars’ last album, 2004’s They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, received hasn’t deterred the trio at all. The band moved from Brooklyn to Berlin to escape the Williamsburg hype and get their feverishly creative heads together, and the change has done them good: Drum’s Not Dead, a...

Morrissey Ringleader Of The Tormentors [4/5] Lyrical hero to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, raison d’etre for Brand New’s Jesse Lacey, tourmate to Tiger Army, and patron saint of emo boys everywhere, Morrissey made a triumphant return to the spotlight after seven years of musical silence with 2004’s slick, striking You Are The Quarry. A...

Mates Of State Bring It Back [4/5] Nine years into their career, and just as many into their romantic relationship, married duo Mates Of State have hit a series of firsts on Bring It Back. It’s the pair’s first album for the tastemaking indie Barsuk, after a string of releases for the tiny Polyvinyl (and...

From First To Last Heroine [4/5] Let’s just get it out of the way, for the scene police who won’t even bother finishing this review before posting crap like “Don’t hang with kids who use Heroine” online: If you’re convinced From First To Last are the devil, Heroine won’t convert you, so you can stop...

Anti-Flag For Blood And Empire [4/5] Let’s deal with this right away: Although Anti-Flag are now on a major label, For Blood And Empire isn’t where they sell out worse than the Clash circa Combat Rock. No, the closest the Warped generation’s most political of punk bands get to the mainstream here is “One Trillion...

Various Artists See You On The Moon! Songs For Kids Of All Ages [2/5] There’s something so innocent about this compilation–a collection of kids’ songs performed by some of the most creative minds in indie music; and yet, there’s also something completely pedantic and evil about See You On The Moon!’s subtext. Okay, sure: As...