Reviews
Spokes – Everyone I Ever Met
Sunday, February 13th, 2011 by Eric Loose
It doesn’t take long to figure out that Everyone I Ever Met is orchestrated in a different vein than Spokes’ rookie EP, People Like People Like You. Risks have been taken, and mind you, these aren’t “risks” like we normally think of them. People Like People Like You was a fairly conventional post-rock EP, but this description belies its beauty. Poor Spokes watched from outside the lines as less-worthy post-rockers enjoyed oodles more fame than they. With soaring violins and condensed song lengths, Spokes crafted a mellifluous Shortcut to Enjoying Post-Rock. Somehow the Englishmen crammed the magic of every spellbinding post-rock record you’ve heard into a delightfully accessible package. Three years later, Spokes sound bent on transforming this winning formula, and unexpectedly it pays off. (more…)
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Bright Eyes – The People’s Key
Monday, February 7th, 2011 by Eric Loose
This could very well be Bright Eyes’ swan song. Hinting at the dying days of his Bright Eyes project last year in Rolling Stone, indie darling Conor Oberst sounded like he was ready to say goodbye to the band that garnered him fame as the poster-boy for skinny, bedroom-dwelling high school males everywhere, the 00’s answer to 80’s punk and 90’s emo. The kid is talented too, no denying that. Besides eliciting comparisons to the oh-so-comparable likes of Dylan, Oberst could weave his own warbly lines of genius. Whether they be drug-infused, lovelorn, or downright depressed, Bright Eyes’ lyrics tore at heartstrings with ease. Arriving at his most recent effort with the band’s impending mortality in question, we’re left with one, main query: should this be the finish line for Bright Eyes, is this how we want it all to end? (more…)
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Mogwai – Hardcore WIll Never Die, But You Will
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 by Eric Loose
Grandfathers of post-rock, Mogwai, have had a tumultuous career of highs and lows. Pattern is, Mogwai will either floor on first listen (Young Team, Happy Songs For Happy People) or alternatively leave much to be desired (Zidane, The Hawk Is Howling). The pioneers’ most recent work displays Mogwai both drenched and layers and effects while dabbling in more minimalist pieces also, as Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will spans an impressive array of emotions aesthetics. This sensation is compounded when compared to the tepidness of their recent output. Mogwai’s ferocity on Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is evident at once, and the album lives up to its intriguing name. Immersive and intense, Mogwai’s seventh LP sets the bar high in early 2011. (more…)
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Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
Thursday, November 11th, 2010 by Amanda Nolan
Cee Lo Green, more famously known for his work as one half of Gnarls Barkley, is back with his third studio album, The Lady Killer, which dropped November 9. Ever since the first single from the album, “F*ck You” (or more appropriately titled “Forget You”), was dropped, the music industry was abuzz about Cee Lo, with good reason. The Lady Killer proves to be an album worth giving a listen. Cee Lo transcends the R&B label, with a sound that strikes as being more alternative. This isn’t Gnarls Barkley, and you won’t find anything similar to “Crazy” on the album’s fourteen tracks; however, that does not matter because The Lady Killer offers that great Cee Lo sound.
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Fitz and The Tantrums
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by Ryan Nisley
For some bands, it takes a lifetime to build this success, but few performers deliver an unrestrained blast of soul-clapping, get-down-on-the-floor, moneymaker shakers like Fitz and the Tantrums. Fitz and the Tantrums have resurrected a sound that’s been dormant for decades: the blues of a 1970’s love affair. It all started with a neglected vintage organ, and since then they’ve been keepin’ it real like it’s 1969. The organ became a driving force for the front man, Fitz, and helped him to find his voice. When his ex-girlfriend called him about the old organ, he knew exactly what to write about. It inspired him to compose the breakup song, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” which is also the title of the album.
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Lollapalooza 2010
Monday, August 16th, 2010 by Taylor DeBoer
With 240,000 people, 130 bands, on 110 acres of the beautiful Grant Park, Lollapalooza saw its 19th year as a festival as an overwhelming success for the Austin based promoters C3. Perry Ferrell’s traveling festival is a distant afterthought. Instead we’ve become accustomed to the three-day event and are finally getting used to it as a mainstay Chicago event every August.
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Arcade Fire: “The Suburbs”
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 by Taylor DeBoer
If Funeral was the personal homage to life, love, and loss and Neon Bible was a straight shot at the gut of political immoral corruption, than Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs is merely a simple acknowledgment of the two concepts along with the reluctant but powerful realization that “we can’t run from our upbringing” especially when two story brick houses and shopping malls stand in our way. And as Win Butler and company convey on their third album, each new generation is engulfed in a more brutal “suburban war.” With so much indie cred on the line, Arcade Fire delivers once again with their longest most expansive album yet. (more…)
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Built to Spill – There’s Nothing Wrong with Love
Thursday, May 13th, 2010 by Eric Loose
Built to Spill, the indie-rock band hailing from Boise, Idaho, has one of the deepest and most accomplished discographies you can find in the genre. Yes, I said it.
The name Doug Martsch may not conjure the same thoughts that a mention of Elliott Smith does, and someone bringing up a song from Keep it Like a Secret may be less common than someone mentioning a song from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. That being said, this band is definitely a classic in their genre. The successive albums Keep it Like a Secret, which contains a laid-back summer twang, and Perfect From Now On, Martsch ventures a few tiny steps into progressive territory, are absolute masterpieces. But I digress… I’m here to explain the beauty of the prelude to these, There’s Nothing Wrong With Love. (more…)
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Castevet – Summer Fences
Thursday, May 13th, 2010 by Eric Loose
Open your ears and let that beautiful, simplistic melody flood your brain with ideas of happiness and contentment. As the song progresses, you can feel the emotion begin to well up as the instrumentation becomes more and more complex. You can’t remember the last time you felt this relaxed as you tilt your head back and feel your eyelids shut – but only halfway. And just as the vocals come in, so smoothly and fluidly, from the most mellifluous vo- WAIT! (more…)
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Chuck Ragan – Gold Country
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 by Eric Loose
Summary: Chuck Ragan made me think twice about my hatred towards country music…incredibly consistent and well-structured, Gold Country is not one to miss this year.
Punk and country music don’t have a whole lot in common, right? Chuck Ragan sets to prove that wrong with Gold Country and does a pretty damn good job of it. Former frontman of punk band Hot Water Music, Ragan didn’t have a whole lot to prove. He was already pretty acclaimed in the punk scene. So, when he decided to swap Hot Water Music for a solo country-Western album, I was a little surprised. His first solo album, Feast or Famine, was a bare-bones album that managed to showcase Ragan”s versatility. His follow-up incorporates that same simplicity, but Ragan manages to add a little extra here and there. (more…)
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