On Pixel Revolt, Vanderslice graciously straddles the bridge between songwriter and story-teller (there is a bridge, trust me), taking a J.D. Salinger meets Conor Oberst approach and layering his lyrics with dusky cellos, lightly strummed guitars, and floating beats.
Halloween Alaska’s latest Too Tall To Hide, delivers a unique sound. It is tough to elicit a “warm” feeling from electronic music, but Halloween, Alaska has mastered that difficult task. There are flashes of the eighties, and peeks of bands like The Postal Service here and there, but ultimately this CD reaches out and seeps into the cracks with far more mood and substance.
The King of France’s quirky pop came to fruition when Steve Salad, who had previously fronted underground rock heroes Deformo, met up with rock journalist Michael Azerrad. Today, they might be the best band you still haven’t heard.
You can blame The Arcade for Montreal suddenly losing the biggest secret in rock title. And you can blame The Arcade Fire for bringing art rockers Wolf Parade out on tour and transforming them into the North Country
Capturing the sound of Minneapolis bands like the Replacements and Husker Du, The Hold Steady are lead by Craig Finn’s Kerouac-like observations. The Brooklyn band’s songs radiate with nightlife energy and vivid characters you
The Rosebuds are one of those charming indie bands emerging from the storied North Carolina scene featuring such legends as Superchunk and Archers of Loaf.
Having first butted heads over the respective merits of metal and pop-punk in middle school, King Elementary eventually made up over Strokes and At the Drive-In covers, and Kudzu, the second album from the still adolescent Mississippi quartet, moves them one step closer to the final post-teen realities of manhood. King Elementary still aren
No doubt the Fruit Bats have had to endure endless comparisons to their label and sometime tour mates the Shins. But with their second Sub Pop release, Spelled in Bones, the Fruit Bats challenge listeners to set aside those comparisons and to judge them on their own really, really catchy merits.
