Posts by Jamie Lee

The brutal dance of a boxer is sprinkled with check-punches; half-shots and light jabs that unbalance the opponent before the pounding ensues. Similarly, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band’s 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons checks the listener with 12 tracks of eerie squeals, unsettling feedback and white noise before easing into  “1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound,” a molten- lava ooze preceding  an eruption of symphonic fire.

Clinic’s latest batch of punchy British psychedelia, Do It!, is just about what you would expect from a jagged band who imbue a hazy sonic vision. The 11 tracks pulse with a classic fuzz-toned guitar, an acid-drenched set of rock songs that could’ve faired just as well on late-60s radio as it can today.

n today’s world of indie rock Harley Davidsons, Cryptacize is a tricycle, albeit one pimped out with cherry red paint and chrome that shines on the cloudiest of days.

he discovery of an abandoned boom box on a city street would be expected to spew the visceral beats that Rafter creates, his low-fi in approach oddly animated in presence, but infectious none-the-less.

Dark imagery and golden melodies form the foundation of Lazarus Beach, the full-length debut from Birmingham, Alabama’s Through the Sparks. Brimming with indie zeal and uncanny illustrations, the 13 tracks resonate with guitar-and-piano pop that is meticulously crafted and peppered with imagery that reflects the loneliness of life at any age.

e Sea and Cake’s disposition has long been one of elation; Sam Prekop’s lifted vocals drifting above shimmering pop constructions. That disposition remains unchanged on Everybody, the Chicago quartet’s seventh full-length offering and its first in four years.

Bill Callahan gave listeners a glimpse of his new album earlier this year when he released the single “Diamond Dancer” with its penetrating violin and R&B bass line. But this teaser barely scratched the surface of Woke on a Whaleheart, Callahan’s first since stepping from behind the moniker Smog.

Cyann & Ben find very little difference in post-rock’s deconstructions and dream pop’s swirling overtures. The Paris-based quartet spins them into one sound, one experience which drifts through the doors and out the windows of Sweet Beliefs, its third offering.

Menomena bang out songs like they are exorcizing demons. The Portland-based trio ignites fires beneath hook-ready compositions, adding melodic tension to their auditory experimentation. Friend and Foe, the band’s sophomore release, manages to maintain an explosive urgency within accessible throwdowns.

Metallica has never taken itself lightly. From pure metal (Kill ‘Em All) to pure meltdown (Some Kind of Monster), a strand of crippling tension has always held the quintet together.

James Elkington could sing a death notice and still garner applause. His voice is strong yet warm, and eloquent. Black Pompadour, the third album from Chicago’s The Zinc’s, finds Elkington delivering gloomy verse with a quaint, endearing touch.

From tranquil introspection of “Lifetime Ranger,” to the soaring crescendos of “Merit,” Law digs deep into emotion, and draws out a cycling soundscape of highs and lows; those peeks and valleys that are an inherent part of life.

Critical reviews of retrospectives and B-sides/rarity compilations often carry a common label: “For completists.” Gomez has managed to fit just within that context with Five Men in a Hut (Singles 1998-2004), a double disc exploration of the British band’s work spanning five albums and focusing largely on the singles released in the United Kingdom.

Arbouretum's Rites of Uncovering is an adventurous experiment built upon the organic musical tendencies of David Heumann; tendencies which contrast the more architectural and linear constructions often found in modern indie music.

To follow the success of We're Already Gone, The Beautiful Girls decided to move ahead by looking behind, filling in their new American audience with Water, a compilation of tracks pulled from those earlier releases between 2002 and 2004.

Vocal dramatics are the essence of Shearwater's forurth album, Palo Santo, with vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg consistently exposing a forever-fluctuating line between kitten purr and banshee wail.

Starless & Bible Black is guilty of meandering, oft-unfocused compositions; however, the innate ability to craft multi-layered textures which beg to be unraveled forgives most of these transgressions.

The tenacity of Daniel Hutchens makes little sense. Over the course of six albums with his band, Bloodkin, and two solo albums, he has skirted both critical and popular acknowledgement, despite writing some of the most prolific verse to grace southern rock in the last decade.

The Letting Go maintains Bonnie Prince Billy’s trademark style while giving those simple songs the opportunity to puff and billow with passionate, dusty bravado.

Adam Arcuragi is a 40-watt lightbulb in an otherwise dark room; his low-intensity glow isn