May 21, 2008

Electric Six I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master [3.5/5] You aren’t going to find a whole lot of people who can reel off a list of Electric Six songs beyond the viral dance-hall sensation “Gay Bar.” It’s a shame the one hit wonder curse could fall on a...

The Breakup Society Nobody Likes A Winner [4/5] Expanding on their titular thesis, the Breakup Society continue to explore heartbreak and disappointment on the follow-up to James At 35, but with a twist. Where singer/guitarist Ed Masley’s post-Frampton Brothers 2004 debut delivered a power-pop concept album about lovelorn adults mired in emotional post-adolescence, Nobody Likes...

Voodoo Glow Skulls Southern California Street Music [4/5> Voodoo Glow Skulls always knew how to open a record with a bang (“Insubordination,” “Shoot The Moon,” etc.). With what seems like their gazillionth LP, VGS continue that tradition, unleashing “Exorcism.” “Fire In The Dancehall,” “Morning Air Raid Sirens” (a biting political critique with an understandable air...

The Valley Arena Sesso.Vita [4/5] Considering the breakups of everyone from Engine Down to Q And Not U in the past few years, the music world needs acts like the Valley Arena more than ever. While their debut album Take Comfort In Strangers delighted rock critics everywhere (and not many others), the follow-up takes the...

Girl In A Coma Both Before I’m Gone [3.5/5] Fifty seconds into “Clumsy Sky,” a melancholy waltz recalling Chrissie Hynde at her most precious, and you may be wondering how Girl In A Coma ever ended up on Joan Jett’s label, Blackheart Records. Then the feedback kicks in, followed by buzzsaw guitars, a big, juicy...

First To Leave Forging A Future [3/5] Lifetime’s and Saves The Day’s poppiest tracks have clearly had an impact on Bay Area quintet First To Leave. Recorded by prolific producer J. Robbins (Against Me!, None More Black), Forging A Future is almost technically flawless. But though the album is polished and flows well, First To...

Bomb The Music Industry!/O Pioneers!!!! Split [4/5] This split CD/10-inch pairs two of the underground punk scene’s most promising young bands, each contributing four new tracks to plastic/wax (or probably your hard drive, you high-bandwidth pirate, you). As it is with most split records, one band will invariably come out on top (in this case,...

The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza Danza II: The Electric Boogaloo [3/5] As brutal as their namesake’s acting chops, this Murfreesboro, Tennessee, quintet’s second album thunders and rages with torrential tech-metal fury, the molten free-jazz arpeggios plinking and running down the face of a steely death-metal edifice. Chaotic hardcore rhythms prevent the sledgehammer bottom-end from getting...

Opeth The Roundhouse Tapes [3/5] As live albums go, The Roundhouse Tapes is impeccable: Capturing Opeth at a 2006 U.K. gig, after 18 months on tour in support of 2005’s masterful Ghost Reveries, the two-CD set finds the Swedish prog/black/death-metal unit sounding telepathically tight and at the peak of their powers. Thing is, Opeth’s studio...