Album name: The Suburbs Artist name: Arcade Fire Genre: Indie Rock Released: August 2, 2010 Label: Merge/Mercury ZME Rating: 9/10 Website: arcadefire.com A tremendous amount of hype has surrounded Arcade Fire since they released their self-titled EP back in 2004. By fusing bits of the Polyphonic Spree and Talking Heads and interweaving the more jaunty songs from Pavement’s back collection, Arcade Fire has been able to create a rather interesting, albeit exciting sound that jumps…
“Join our cult. You won’t be missing out. You’ll never want to leave.” Those are the words that Surfer Blood’s drummer, Tyler Schwarz, used to sum up why we should all be a fan of this dangerously fun, pop rock group, and I have to say that statement is just. Surfer Blood mixes complicated and interesting sounds with an indie pop vibe that really hits the spot. The band is co-headlining a tour with The…
Album name: It’s All Up To You Artist name: Deborah Crooks Genre: Folk Rock Released: 11 March 2010 Label: Deborah Crooks ZME Rating: 6/10 Website: deborahcrooks.com/ It’s probably my own fault for not having a wide enough frame of reference for this kind of thing, but still: the first comparison that came to mind when listening to Deborah Crooks’ It’s All Up To You EP was the relatively obscure 1992 solo album Izzy Stradlin made…
A matter of weeks ago, I took a short trip to London, during which I was serendipitous enough to catch an Amber Rubarth gig. Although that may be less down to serendipity, and more to the fact that I flew over specifically for it. She was also gracious enough to allow me to pester her with questions and bad jokes for half an hour or so. Now, following some internal complications and day-job-related lethargy and…
The bellowingly good news coming from last night’s Ham Sandwich gig is this: their new album is shaping up to be jolly good. (This has been calculated using science – specifically, an inventive method involving measuring the size of the bruises on the knees and thighs of myself and my colleague-in-jests, David Kirk, following the frenzied dancing of the girl in front of us, and the resulting pendulous swinging of her abnormally hefty handbag, during…
Album name: Heaven is Whenever Artist name: The Hold Steady Genre: Rock Released: 3 May 2010 Label: Vagrant/Rough Trade ZME Rating: 9/10 Website: theholdsteady.net A while back, I tweeted something to this effect: “If Craig Finn was a better singer, The Hold Steady would be a worse band.” In that respect, it would appear that Heaven is Whenever exists only to mock me. But more on that later. Here, for the hither-to uninitiated, is a…
Album name: The Parallels Amongst Ourselves Artist name: Sugar Army Genre: Rock Released: July 2009 Label: Shock ZME Rating: 5/10 Website: sugararmy.com/au In The Style Of… Mock The Week! SCENE: A RATHER BARE STUDIO. A CENTRAL DESK IS FLANKED BY TWO LARGE CURVED ONES. A LARGE VIDEO SCREEN IS EMBEDDED IN A SIDE WALL. DRAMATIS PERSONAE BRIAN O’HARA – Good-natured Irish host HANK E. FOIL – Caustic Glaswegian ne’er-do-well MUSCLED COWARD – Cheeky chappy Q….
Album name: Ocean, Meet The Valley Artist name: The Literary Greats Genre: Country Rock Released: October 2009 Label: ERROR ERROR ERROR ZME Rating: 7/10 Website: theliterarygreats.com An intro: My inbox appears to have become some sort of primitive, text-based time machine. No less than two – TWO – separate e-mails have arrived recently, directing my bespectacled eyes towards albums that were released in the latter half of last year. Naturally, my hip-to-the-jive neophile tendencies led…
Album name: Memories Are Hunting Horns Artist name: Saredren Wells Genre: Folk-indie Released: 11 May 2010 Label: Rinehart Records ZME Rating: 6/10 Website: Myspace SCENE: A post-post-apocalyptic Earth – burgeoning cities arise next to arid wastelands, the human race who had for centuries abandoned this place having returned mere decades ago. As rugged off-road vehicles race along the desert trails, a passenger-carrying space cruiser glides past the screen, a child waving to camera from behind…
Album name: The Big To-Do Artist name: Drive-By Truckers Genre: Rock Released: 16 March 2010 Label: ATO ZME Rating: 8/10 Website: drivebytruckers.com It’s all about “Birthday Boy” this time. On every Drive-By Truckers album, there’s one song that, quite helpfully, doubles as a litmus test as to whether you’ll like happily gorge yourself silly on what they’re dishing out. On Gangstabilly, their rough-and-ready debut album, it was “The Living Bubba”, probably the quintessential DBT song…
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