November 28, 2007

Every Time I Die The Big Dirty [4/5] Despite all the shit we received for giving Every Time I Die’s Gutter Phenomenon a 2-out-of-5 rating in AP 208, it’s something this music editor still stands by. At the time, the Buffalo, New York, group had completely mastered their just-ironic-enough Southern-rock-meets-metalcore aesthetic. The problem?...

Josh Small Tall By Josh Small [2.5/5] Josh Small’s set at The Fest 4 in Gainesville, Florida, in 2005 was superb. It was a bare-bones performance with just Small-who is a Richmond, Virginia, scene fixture and current member of Tim Barry’s backing band-and his banjo. Tall By Josh Small offers the same twangy folk...

the Perishers Victorious [3/5] Swedish indie rockers as a rule are known for their sugarspun tunes, creating music that’s as glittering and exuberant as sunshine glinting off snow. But the Perishers’ latest album, Victorious, contains the type of wintry songs that call for a wool blanket and a roaring fire. Glacial tempos, spare acoustic...

Okkervil River The Stage Names [4.5/5] Stage Names may be Okkervil River’s fifth full-length (and fourth for Jagjaguwar), but now more than ever the Austin, Texas, septet are poised for the breakthrough they so deserve. The lineup may’ve fluctuated since the band’s inception in 1998, but the leadership and direction from vocalist/guitarist and...

The New Pornographers Challengers After the giddy sugar buzzes of the New Pornographers’ first two albums, the Canadian collective’s 2005 disc Twin Cinema. was a slower-moving, more sedate outing whose gifts emerged only after multiple close listens. Challengers, too, lacks the hyperactive power-pop and dizzying harmonic headrushes that first brought the band indie stardom-save for...

Jonah Matranga And Some have mined the sumptuous ’70s singer/songwriter vibe effectively, but it’s a lot harder to pull off than the rustic cowboy act. While Jonah Matranga has shown a flair for translating a sweet, achy strum into tender confessionals, he’s demonstrated an equal penchant for pop grandiosity, which can quickly curdle to cheese....

Liars Liars [4/5] Liars have come a long way since 2002’s They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top. Initially, they forged urgent, angsty and angular post-punk that evoked the au courant influences saturating the early-’00s Williamsburg, Brooklyn, scene (Gang Of Four, ESG, A Certain Ratio, etc.). During...

the Good Life Help Wanted Nights [2.5/5] When the Good Life released their last disc, Album Of The Year in 2004, selected copies were accompanied by a collection of demos-and while the skeleton-naked songs lacked the dynamics of the final versions, this stripped-down setting displayed what an amazing songwriter Tim Kasher had grown into....

the Go! Team Proof Of Youth [4.5/5] You know you’re backed against a Wall Of Sound when three people are listed as having contributed glockenspiel to an album. By the time the blasts of blaxploitation horns, the Double Dutch chants and a sense of texture majestic enough to suggest what would happen if...