Rivulets
Rivulets Are You My Home [4/5] While it’s technically a solo disc, this third album from Rivulets (aka Nathan Amundson) packs quite the guest roster: Ethereal songstress Jessica Bailiff; avant-garde cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm; the New Year’s Chris Brokaw; Rachel’s viola player Christian Frederickson; and Shellac bassist Bob Weston (who also records, mixes and plays trumpet)....
Of Montreal
Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? [4.5/5] You never really know what to expect from Of Montreal. Emerging from the Elephant Six Collective, they’ve changed and transformed throughout the years, yet always managed to maintain their identity. On their eighth album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Kevin Barnes & Co. have created...
Moros Eros
Moros Eros I Saw The Devil Last Night And Now The Sun Shines Bright [3.5/5] It’s been a good year for the band formerly known as In Vitro-and if you’ve been reading AP since the Marietta, Georgia, quintet’s last appearance here, you’ll recognize them as former “AP&R” unsigned heroes. What’ll surprise you, however, are the...
Menomena
Menomena Friend And Foe [3/5] This Portland, Oregon, trio a) are often described as “experimental”; b) spent their 2005 sophomore album on an instrumental score for a modern dance piece; and c) are a Pitchfork fave. That brief description will send some of you running to the Barsuk Records website and others running in the...
Ben Davis & The Jetts/Des_Ark
Ben Davis & The Jetts/Des_Ark Battle Of The Beards [3.5/5] Chances are, you probably don’t know who Ben Davis (ex-Sleepytime Trio, Milemarker) or Des_Ark are, but you really should-and this disc is a perfect introduction. Although Davis’ croon sounds strikingly similar to Elliott Smith at times, staccato-strummed songs like “Gorilla Bot” will get even the...
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Some Loud Thunder [2.5/5] Eighteen months ago, they were the inspired, convention-bucking but cumbersomely named Brooklyn/Philadelphia quintet on every hipster’s lips. As the veil on their second act lifts, there’s a blast of electricity in the title track that suggests what’s soon to follow will be every bit as exciting...
Unwritten Law
Unwritten Law The Hit List [3.5/5] Over the past 14 years, Unwritten Law have consistently pushed punk’s musical boundaries with hopes to never conform to whatever the current trend was. The Hit List is a 19-song exposé of the band’s career chronologically from “CPK” off their 1995 debut Blue Room to “Save Me” off 2005’s...
Self Against City
Self Against City Telling Secrets To Strangers [3.5/5] As a relatively recent addition to the Drive-Thru family, Sacramento-based Self Against City have a long legacy of pop-punk purveyance to live up to, but they make a strong case on Telling Secrets To Strangers, their two-years-in-the-making full-length debut. Right from the opening riff of rocker “Becoming...
The Riptides
The Riptides Hang Out [3.5/5] If the words “produced by Mass Giorgini” still mean anything to you, chances are you won’t be disappointed by the Riptides’ muscular approach to, well, really liking the Ramones. Guitars have rarely sounded chunkier, while hooks have rarely been attacked with more precision. These Canucks are at their most aggressive...