Chris Parker

The Postelles …And It Shook Me It’s easy to imagine the Postelles as freshly scrubbed, sweater clad and crisply coiffed like the album cover for some early-’60s vocal pop group. The New York quartet are definite pop aficionados, lifting liberally from the past half-century, ranging from punchy ’80s rock to doo-wop, power pop and adult […]

The Tossers The Emerald City Since forming in Chicago two decades ago,  South Side sextet the Tossers have released eight albums of boisterous punk jigs and sodden sadness, building a solid cult following somewhat short of their better known peers. They’ve not received the prominent movie placements, nor have they penned a paean adopted by […]

School Of Seven Bells Put Your Sad Down EP One might’ve expected a stylistic shift in School Of Seven Bells after Claudia Deheza left the band in 2010, just months after the release of their second album, Disconnect From Desire. But in recording this year’s follow-up, Ghostory, between tours the remaining duo of her twin […]

Do The Struggle I haven’t been able to put my fingers on documentation, but I’m pretty sure Franz Nicolay is the flamboyant, younger brother of the Mountain Goats’ CEO John Darnielle. Both are notable for their erudite rhymes and narrative vocal style, generally told from a reflective distance as opposed to emotional, knee-deep-in-it confessional. But […]

Freelance Whales Diluvia Ambition’s a double-edged sword. It is typically a plus, but it can lead you to some outlying places steering you from a more direct, digestible track as it has Freelance Whales. They’ve turned from the twinkling twee of their 2010 debut to dreamy electro-tinged indie pop that retains some of their baroque […]

Strike Anywhere In Defiance Of Empty Times Sometimes what we see as limitations are choices. Richmond, Virginia’s Strike Anywhere has always been a pretty muscular act, particularly live. Dreadlocked frontman Thomas Barnett is a human whirlwind onstage, his impassioned shout serving as a rally call coming over the trenches. Their melodic hardcore’s never sacrificed on […]

The Classic Crime Phoenix Give Seattle quartet the Classic Crime credit: They’re not afraid of a little drama. They “wander through the desert under the cover of night looking for a fire that bring us to life,” as they explain on “Young Again” and stand on “The Precipice” where “piece by piece, I build the […]

Continental All A Man Can Do As Dropkick Murphys’ founding guitarist, Rick Barton has a pedigree in rousing, fist-in-the-air rock. He was also a member of ’80s Boston punks the Outlets and, more recently, Everybody Out!—which is to say, Barton’s been around the block a few times. He showcases the tricks he’s learned on these […]

Turbonegro Sexual Harassment For 23 years, they’ve played hook-laden maximum R&B like a garage-punk AC/DC steeped in homosexual panic, or maybe New York Dolls in the hands of the Stooges. Norwegian rockers Turbonegro never had highbrow pretensions, because clearly they don’t take much serious. Their sense of humor’s often juvenile but completely unabashed (“I Got […]