Monday, April 7, 2008

07 April 2008

gwenmars- driving a million
Amazon.com
Halfway through listening to L.A.-based Gwenmars's Driving a Million, you will have a headache. The band is often loud and crunchy, but the brain pain will actually result from the 100 times you'll smack yourself in the forehead wondering what song from alt-rock's late '80s, early-'90s heyday each track sounds exactly like. Sweetly howled Kurt Cobain-ish choruses ("Neon Tom," "Venus," "Train Song"), the fetchingly strumming romance of Echo and the Bunnymen ("She Hung the Moon"), the reverb-soaked shoegazing of a million bands that have since imploded ("Radio Gun")--the list goes on and on, but, thankfully, this is a case of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Driving a Million is the sexy, funky homage to the golden age of college rock that bands like Stone Temple Pilots promised, but never quite delivered. --Bob Michaels
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the comsat angels- waiting for a miracle
Product Description
Waiting For A Miracle is the Comsat Angels debut album, originally released on Polydor in September 1980, and contains the original recording of the classic 'Independence Day', as well as several songs that would be regarded as mini-masterpieces of the Post-Punk era, 'Real Story', 'Total War' and the title track. Renascent. 2006.
i like the title track. the production could be better.
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majesty crush- love 15
late 80s/early 90s shoegaze. they have a song about Uma Thurman, but "penny for love" is my favorite track.
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smashing orange- 1991
classic shoegaze. "my deranged heart" is my jam.
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the oohlas- best stop pop
fuzzy and catchy. mostly female vocals. Three minute blasts of power pop with more hooks than you can shake a stick at and great shared vocals from all three band members; ex-Everclear drummer (don't let that put you off) Greg Eklund, his brother Mark and Olivia (Ollie) Stone. Whats not to like?
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even as we speak- feral pop frenzy
A little bit new wave. A little bit twee. The band's music is an unusual hybrid of accessible pop and more experimental elements. Some commentators consider them to be key figures in the post C86 subculture in the UK, although their music breaks out of conventional pop moulds to experiment with forms.
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magazine- real life
debut album from the Post-Punk band led by former Buzzcocks vocalist Howard Devoto.
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young galaxy- self titled
Product Description
Young Galaxy is the creative confluence of kindred spirits, Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless. They formed in Vancouver and moved to Montreal to live and to record their self-titled, debut album. It's an impressive entry point for a group at the beginning of their ascent. Call it a spark in the dry air of a sub-zero city or the child of a love of making music and of making music with the ones they love. Recorded with Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes) at his Breakglass Studio in the summer of 2005 and spring of 2006, Young Galaxy has borne something concrete of something abstract and ephemeral.
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cranes- future songs
Amazon.com
Future Songs is the seventh album from the Cranes, probably one of the most misinterpreted bands on the planet. The Cranes have often been portrayed as industrial noise merchants, more often as simple goths. One reviewer described singer Alison Shaw as "a baby trapped in a toolbox"; this was intended as a blithe putdown, yet, taken from a different perspective, it's strangely accurate. Deliberately juxtaposing her vocals--her plaintive, unearthly voice delivering painfully open songs of love and loss--with her brother Jim's often punishing soundscapes, the Cranes were always primarily concerned with the way innocents are bruised and broken by life's hard, cold machinery. With Future Songs, they continue along the same path, with Alison still clinging to childlike hopes of happiness, despite the collapse of her relationships, and again producing a heart-wrenching set of melodies. And Jim Shaw, no longer intent upon bludgeoning his audience into submission, creates an ingenious and deeply moving backdrop, ranging from the dubby ambience of "Don't Wake Me Up" to the delicate acoustic guitar of "Even When." Future Songs is another superb collection from a laudably diligent, gloriously idiosyncratic, and tremendously gifted band. --Dominic Wills
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mojave 3- excuses for travellers
Amazon.com
Neil Halstead is emerging as one of the greatest country singers Great Britain has ever birthed. Such a list might be short, but Halstead is leading it nonetheless. Having contributed two outstanding tracks to Manifesto Records' Tim Buckley tribute album, Sing a Song for You, Halstead and his band are on a solid creative roll. Excuses for Travellers, Mojave 3's third album, is arguably the band's best. Any previous tentative feelings have been replaced by the confident, delicate roll of pedal steel that sweeps through these bittersweet tunes. "In Love with a View," "Trying to Reach You," and "When You're Drifting" stick out immediately, but most of these songs unpeel slowly with each listen. Just as the Cowboy Junkies and Nick Drake--to whom they are not necessarily compared but definitely spiritually connected--quietly pleaded their case, Mojave 3 are determined to mature subtly. --Rob O'Connor
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rockethouse- weapons of mass distortion
Product Description
Rockethouse is loud, distorted rock from the mean streets of NYC featuring ex-members of the amazing Aerial Love Feed… With a sound that calls to mind such amazing bands as Primal Scream, Jesus and Mary Chain and Kasabian, "Weapons of Mass Distortion" is sure to leave its mark as one of the best and brashest albums of 2005…
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