Contributions
Wallpaper. - Ricky Reed Is Real
Wallpaper. Ricky Reed Is Real The music of Wallpaper. is not meant for close scrutiny. You won't pull any deep insight out of this Bay Area pop group's songs—that is, unless your chief concern is how much bandleader Ricky Reed (the alter ego of Facing New York frontman Eric Frederic) gets wasted and makes a […]
Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
Fuck Buttons Slow Focus The third album seems like the appropriate one to make the grandiose statement; the fence swinging effort that could truly cement a band's place in the temple of sound. For Fuck Buttons, that musical pronouncement couldn't be more perfectly timed. The Bristol, U.K.-based duo found their second album Tarot Sport slathered with […]
Pity Sex - Feast Of Love
Pity Sex Feast Of Love Shoegazer pop is a rare genre that is so very indebted to a specific set of sounds and approaches. If you want to toss that descriptor on to your band, you'd better have invested all your bar mitzvah money in guitar pedals and some psilocybin mushrooms to help haze up […]
Sean Nelson - Make Good Choices
Sean Nelson Make Good Choices If you count yourself among the fans of the departed but not forgotten rock outfit Harvey Danger, you have to wonder what took that band's frontman Sean Nelson so long. Surely a mind as capable of startling turns of lyrical phrase and a singing voice so assured and emotional couldn't […]
Disclosure - Settle
Disclosure Settle Electronic dance music producers looking to late-'80s/early-'90s house music-inspired club sounds as a template for new material was perhaps an inevitable move. We are now in full retro sway, 20 years removed from the chart successes of Black Box, Deee-Lite and Snap! after all. The real surprise is how much inspiration they were […]
Passport Japan: A look inside our international music scene
Punk and heavy rock have never truly been in vogue throughout Japan. Sure, some of the bigger names from the U.S. and the U.K. have managed to do well in the island nation: Bands like Green Day, Paramore and Fall Out Boy continue to draw huge crowds for their concerts there, and lesser known groups […]
Shy Kidx - Orion EP
Shy Kidx Orion EP Shy Kidx has to be one of the most anachronistic acts that Epitaph has aligned itself with in its long history: an actual electronic dance music act. These aren't club remixes of punk tunes, or hard-hitting industrialized ragers. The three songs on Shy Kidx's first EP for the California label are […]
Big Eyes - Almost Famous
Big Eyes Almost Famous If the musical evolution of Kate Eldridge is anything to go on, apparently living on the West Coast has something of a mellowing effect on a person. Back when she was living in New York, the vocalist/guitarist was all spitfire energy, leading her former band Cheeky to nitro-fueled pop-punk glory. She […]
Iggy & The Stooges - Ready To Die
Iggy & The Stooges Ready To Die Anticipating a return to the Stooges' serpentine, napalm-hearted '70s sound? You'd be better served dusting off your copies of Raw Power or Fun House. Looking to rubberneck on another soulless effort just like the band's first reunion record, The Weirdness? Well, you're getting warmer. But here's the strange […]