January 21, 2009

Jenny Lewis Acid Tongue [4.5/5] Jenny Lewis broke into show biz as a child TV actor before growing up into an indie-rock pinup girl as co-singer of Rilo Kiley. Her third career as a part-time alt-country bandleader is her best shot at syndication, though. More lively and consistent than 2006’s Rabbit Fur Coat, Lewis’s second...

Land Of Talk Some Are Lakes [2.5/5] Land of Talk’s debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, stood out from the Canuck-pop pack because of its urgency (from its snarled riffs and Pixies inflections, right on down to Elizabeth Powell’s apprehensive vocals). The Montreal group’s full-length debut, Some Are Lakes, frustratingly lacks that energy, as well...

I’m From Barcelona Who Killed Harry Houdini? [3.5/5] Little more than a year after charming the blogging elite, I’m From Barcelona-a 20-plus-member collective with no actual ties to the Spanish city-have already moved on from the instantly infectious sense of fun that made the better cuts on Let Me Introduce My Friends so damn endearing....

Sebastien Grainger Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains [3.5/4] After their super-promising 2004 full-length You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, Sebastien Grainger’s last band, Death From Above 1979, burned out way too early. Fans left in the lurch will be happy to know Grainger’s first solo record largely fills the void. The musical differences that split...

Deerhunter Microcastle [3.5/5] Deerhunter’s quest on Microcastle is to prove that they are more substantial than the shadow of their own street cred. Having risen from unknown to blog-loved on the strength of two albums and a scattershot of smaller releases, the Atlanta-based band were drenched in that weird kind of underground overexposure to a...

Deerhoof Offending Maggie [4/5] Deerhoof hit their prog-indie stride on 2007’s Friend Opportunity, which followed the equally stellar Runners Four. To best such a gilded musical legacy is no easy feat. Yet Offending Maggie continues Deerhoof’s winning streak, displaying a band running at peak performance. They meld playful vocal melodies onto strident instrumental bombast-their calling...

Bears Simple Machinery [3.5/5] Cleveland, Ohio’s Bears are stubborn iconoclasts, a band whose harmony-puffed pop and brisk riffs harken back to ’60s legends (the Kinks) and ’80s influences (the Smiths) alike. But the music on Simple Machinery lacks any sort of calculated nostalgia: Plaintive vocals envelop acoustic guitars like a wool sweater (the vulnerable, melancholic...

Fucked Up The Chemistry Of Common Life [4.5/5] Some might say punk rock doesn’t need saving. Though if it did (and it does), Fucked Up are among the only bands who could rescue it. The Chemistry Of Common Life is not so much the next logical step for Fucked Up as it another reinvention that...