It appears that the market for Cake's finely-crafted music is as strong as ever, as the band quite unexpectedly sold out four nights in a row at the Fillmore. Not bad for a band that just released their first album in seven years.
Smith Westerns is a band with potential and they deserve the opportunity to develop and grow into their sound and style. However, with the raves coming in hot and heavy for Dye It Blonde, the peak may have crested and the accolades may never be as strong as they currently are. Here’s hoping the opposite comes true, and the youngsters are given the chance to do even bigger and better things.
George Clinton and his P-Funk crew have gone through countless changes since their heyday in the 70s and 80s. Along the way, their catalog became the reservoir for rap beats, with Dr. Dre and others liberally sampling their unique grooves. Clinton’s musical and biological family grew, and he now shares the stage with his rapping grandchildren and other young disciples. Key members such as Bootsy Collins parted ways with Clinton and company, and just months ago, the band lost Garry “Diaper Man” Shider.
The Valence Project was created in an attempt to revitalize trip hop music and bring it into a new era of creativity. Combining acoustic and electronic sounds, the collective strives to create trip hop that is more artistic and emotionally charged. The result is a mixed bag that succeeds at times and falls short on occasion.
Leftover Salmon's Twice in a Blue Moon DVD isn't a full-fledged documentary like the band’s brilliant Years in Your Ears, but there's still an inherent anthropology to Twice in a Blue Moon despite its focus on concert footage. There's nothing epic about the camerawork or audio quality of the music presentation, and the performance itself is merely above average. More memorably, the release's 13 songs and ample bonus content reveal more about the sometimes hazy legacy of the nation's first and only "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass" artist.
For only the second time in ten years members of the Disco Biscuits stepped onto the fertile ground of the Pacific Northwest. The sane ones of us here in Portland, Oregon and the Northwest at large have long given up hope of Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner’s titanic livetronica innovators returning to our beautiful corner of the country but for one night at Peter’s Room inside the Roseland Theater we were fortunate to have another chance to dance with their side project Conspirator.
Civilian feels like the most decisively authentic, relaxed and dynamic expression of Wasner and Stack’s talent thus far. This era is vital for the band, as it may be exactly the time that they break through into indie-rock stardom. If there’s ever an album with which to do it, Civilian is it. Come December when everyone is compiling “Best of 2011” lists, Civilian will no doubt be featured abundantly.
Ethan Gold’s debut, Songs from a Toxic Apartment, began as a 75-song epic recorded in a dilapidated apartment that was literally toxic. Though he vacated the unit when it was condemned by the health department, all of the grime, restlessness and despair remained intact in the 12 songs that made the final cut.
Once again they have bucked the system. Released worldwide this past Saturday through their website, Radiohead’s eighth studio album arrived for consumer download roughly one week after a succinct press
Obviously Bright Eyes has entered a new world of discovery that is a few crystals short of entering Enya territory, making The People's Key a love it or hate it recording. But like Bob Dylan during his Slow Training Coming/Saved era, this will serve as another chapter in his still burgeoning career.
