If Cormic McCarthy’s end-of-the-world novel The Road is made into a film before the world actually does end, this album by The Thermals should constitute the soundtrack.
Eleven tracks, each one a number (“Nine,” “Sixteen,” “Fifteen Parts 1 & 2”), none of it sequential, none of it essential.
It’s peculiar that The Hold Steady are considered “indie”, considering there’s no whiney “Mountain Goats/Decemberists/Shins” thing going on. Upon listening to Boys and Girls in America, you’re almost bound to ask “ what Springsteen album is this?” And throw Boys and Girls in any roadhouse bar, and a toothless trucker with a mullet will ask for another round.
If Golem! would have let their raven hair down and stomped around the studio a bit more, Fresh Off Boat could have risen above kitsch.
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.
White Light White Light starts out like the lovechild of Primal Scream and Kasabian, until the vocals kick in to put that unique Supersystem stamp upon it.
While In Concert, Volume One album doesn
Formerly a high profile skateboarding professional of the eighties and nineties, Tommy Guerrero continues to transition his notoriously smooth style, creativity, and technical ability from the pavement to the studio as he settles deeper into his newfound career as an increasingly respected solo artist. On From the Soil to the Soul, he pushes his unique, jazzy, guitar-driven sound into a mature new realm.
For bands that define themselves in the live setting, it
CSS is destined for the underground club scene, sure to get waif-like girls plucked out of an American Apparel ad, dancing haphazardly to the stank that are these songs.
