Buried beneath the clunkiness of this project’s name is Spencer Krug, well-known as the noodling, keyboard-playing, co-leader of Wolf Parade. Yep, you remember them: the versatile Canadian indie-rock outfit who rocked hard over the course of a handful of solid albums and EP”s before taking an indefinite hiatus last spring.
Noctourniquet is undoubtedly the most accessible Mars Volta album yet, one that replaces the overreaching bloat of their last two or three titles with the most DIY display of prog-rock dazzle since Adrian Belew toured with Talking Heads. If The Bedlam in Goliath was their Tormato, then consider this excellent outing to be their 90125. And I mean that in the best possible way.
It’s not often one hears a new recording that immediately grabs the listener as something to which you’ll need to listen over and over. However, Norwegian Ane Brun’s new (and eighth) album, It All Starts With One, does exactly that.
Carnivale Electricos straight through represents one of the group’s famous Lundi Day concerts, playing the jambalaya funk til sun up. Galactic are already ambassadors to the town, but now they add one more staple to their collection and in doing so show the rest of the world just how vital New Orleans is to the sound of life.
Diamond Rugs' self-titled debut, out on Partisan Records, is a 14-song gem lined with country-rock wailing, Replacements’ punk stomping, and bluesy jazz riffs reminiscent of Exile-era Stones. The sum of its’ parts, Diamond Rugs’ song-craft will also remind listeners of the various members’ main projects.
In a similar vein to Neil Young & Crazy Horse, the four members of Austin, Texas’ White Denim took the stage Saturday night in Hoboken, and proceeded to pummel the capacity crowd with an onslaught of frenetically paced and emotionally fueled songs and instrumental histrionics.
Herzog are a new band (much like Surfer Blood) that swims in the same waters of late 90’s indie guitar rock made popular by Modest Mouse and Built To Spill. The guitars are layered and textured at times reaching arena ready levels while the grooves always seem incredibly bouncy. The lyrics are secondary and at times buried to deep but focus on heartbreak or distance without ever becoming bitter.
Ultimately, New Wild Everywhere just doesn’t go many places that the band hasn’t already gone, and instead gives glimpses into the exciting styles of other bands and influences without elevating those for Great Lake Swimmers.
To borrow the description from their fan site The Grotto, The Mother Hips are known as “progenitors of California Soul, songwriting riff-layers, and harmonizing mood-swayers”. These Northern California harmonizing riff-layers brought their roots rock act to The Compound Grill in Scottsdale and gave this intimate crowd a good night of California soul music.
Girl in a Coma is band that has shown tremendous growth since their debut five years ago. While Both Before I’m Gone was a solid though not exceptional debut, it was the vast expansion of their sound on Trio BC and the significant dose of some good ol’ crazy on last year’s Exits and All the Rest, not to mention the ability to really make their mark on covers evidenced on 2010’s Adventures in Coverland, that makes them an incredibly exciting band. Their ability to take their broader sound and really go off on Exits is what made this show so promising.
