Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronauts
Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronauts Let’s Just Be [3.5/5] One day, Joseph Arthur will have an incredible autobiography. The Akron, Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based troubadour already has sections for his encounters with Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed and Michael Stipe and yet, at 35, there’s still much left in this man’s think tank. The latest chapter in...
Various Artists
Various Artists GEMS [3/5] GEMS plays the ambassador for Lobster Records with both the unreleased and the rare, and while the label may have gained notoriety on the heels of arena pop-punk (Yellowcard, Over It), the compilation in question aims to nix those notions a bit. Much like any collection of jewels, a couple of...
Witches With Dicks
Witches With Dicks Manual [3/5] It would be generous to say Witches With Dicks play gruff pop-punk along the lines of Dillinger Four-Witches With Dicks’ lines are straight stacked with theirs. Manual blasts through 10 fun lo-fi punk-rock snapshots in a shade under 20 minutes. The minute-long "How To Cook 40 Humans" simply tears it...
Maxïmo Park
Our Earthly Pleasures [3/5] Maxïmo Park’s new wave-splattered 2005 debut, A Certain Trigger, was more than a record; it was another nail in the coffin of the rave generation. As the first rock release on techno powerhouse Warp Records, it outraged e-tards everywhere. Toning down the angular spazziness of its predecessor, Our Earthly Pleasures won’t...
Leftover Crack/Citizen Fish
Leftover Crack/Citizen Fish Deadline [3/5] If Al Gore’s multimedia presentations couldn’t convert punks into global-warming believers, perhaps Deadline will scare them into going green. Using ominous tones and urgent, pulsating riffs, Citizen Fish forecast a “Meltdown” that leaves society bereft of sunlight, oxygen and, poignantly, waterfalls. Leftover Crack envision “the human race capsized.” Both groups...
J Church
J Church The Horror Of Life [3.5/5] Without broken hearts and/or potty humor, it can be difficult for a pop-punk band to “make it.” Yet San Francisco’s J Church have remained consistently compelling and prolific in their 15-year history, despite-or because of-frontman (and sole original member) Lance Hahn’s intellectually pointed approach. Steeped in a mix...
The Horrors
The Horrors Strange House [3.5/5] Just listening to their CD can’t do the Horrors justice. For the London quintet, it’s far more about their dark, gothic visual aesthetic and I-don’t-give-a-fuck persona than it is about the music, which owes considerable debt to bands like the Damned, Misfits and the Cramps. The cacophonous songs on their...
The Dollyrots
The Dollyrots Because I’m Awesome [3.5/5] When Kelly Ogden laments about unrequited love on “My Best Friend’s Hot,” you’re just going to have to forgive her for not revealing the gener of said friend. The answer to that question-along with the overtly political message of “A Desperate S.O.S.,” the tongue-in-cheekiness of the title track and...
Brakesbrakesbrakes
Brakesbrakesbrakes The Beatific Visions [3.5/5] Brakesbrakesbrakes-formerly called the Brakes U.K. in North America, but otherwise still known as just Brakes everywhere else (got that?)-are still experts at crafting short, tart, spiky post-punk songs similar in style and humor to Art Brut (and the Fall before them). The Beatific Visions features the rockabilly rave-up “Spring Chicken”...