Monthly Archives: October 2010

“Sunny” seems to be about the only word that can be used to describe the debut album, “Tomorrow is Alright”, from the cheerful San Francisco-based group, Sonny and The Sunsets. Based around front man Sonny Smith­–a singer/songwriter, author, playwright, and director–the group seems impossible to place in any one genre, or even one decade, for that matter. They ooze a beach-pop sunshine that you would expect from a group of communal hippies who decided they should make a folk group. Then there’s that one guy in the band who’s a huge Beach Boys fan and insists on using them as inspiration on a song or two.  The result? An album that sends out plenty of “good vibrations”. In fact, Sonny’s album is so sun-drenched that you’ve got to know when it’s time to head in for fear of burning.

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What was the first song you fell in love with? Is it as tangible in the back of your head as it was the first time you heard it? It may be, but I can bet that the opening snare drum in “Like a Rolling Stone” isn’t nearly as crisp or sharp in the nether regions of your mind as it was the first time you heard it in your uncle’s basement, or when you play it on your headphones. Love Remains, the debut LP from How to Dress Well, teaches us that that’s not the point: music that you hum along to or recreate in your head is just as valid as the kind you blast through your speakers because of the emotions and memories that you associate with it. Read More »

The live album creates a gray area in the heart of a true audiophile. On one hand, you are exposed to the real, raw nature of the music free from edits and studio touch-ups; on the other hand, however, the haughty listener will shudder at the missed notes and off-key harmonies. With that said, the live aspect adds a whole new dimension to The Avett Brothers, and in Live, Volume 3, they add to their already well-textured songs a layer of rowdy background vocals from a well-versed, foot-stomping audience that more than covers up their musical miss-haps. Read More »

Maybe it’s global warming, but these days it seems like everybody wants to go to the beach. For some, it makes perfect sense: artists with names like Beach House or Wavves who hail from the coast and subscribe to this crazy new thing the kids are calling chillwave or shoegaze or any other mess of made-up words. But what about a group of post-punk guys from Calgary, a grey, effing freezing city in the Great White North? How can they adapt the lo-fi, beachy aesthetic to their dreary, landlocked lifestyle?

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STR8 KILLA, a dynamic gangster rap EP by Freddie Gibbs, was put out by Decon Records on August 3, 2010.  The eight track EP delivers gangster rap music in its purest, most relevant, and unadulterated form. Collaborating on the EP with Gibbs includes Bun B., Chip tha Ripper, Jay Rock, and Chuck Inglish. With the direction of popular hip-hop ever more leading towards the auto-tuned, radio friendly, and uneducated garbage of the likes of Soulja Boy, true gangster rap has been largely lost in the midst of commercialized rap. Gibbs’ words are bullets fired with a subtle angry finesse at anybody standing in his way; he could care less about the big record deal if means sacrificing his hip-hop integrity. Read More »

Business Casual, Chromeo’s third full-length album, permanently stamps the duo as true scholars of outdated top-chart pop music. This record is their first on the major label, Atlantic. Thus, more money means more studio time; more studio time means more perfected, yet experimental, musical footprint. However, this duo will not receive any recognition for originality, or even for distinctiveness, in their album’s footprint; the band drops all personal identity and individuality when placed in the midst of an “old school R&B” playlist. They seem to attempt to relive the Micheal Jackson induced glory days of the 1980′s club hits. Hey boys, FYI, just because the MJ legend passed away in 2009 does not entail a predecessor in 2010 to fill his place in pop culture- He is still the King. Unfortunately, Chromeo did not hear this message prior to the release of the endless keyboard riffs, sputtering synthesized basslines, and robotic beats that surprisingly still manage to pull together a danceable club tune.

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Frank Black, formerly of The Pixies, produced Pete Yorn’s new album. That makes Pete Yorn a collaboration between two artists whose past work evokes polar opposite reactions. On one hand you have the Pixies, a seminal rock group of the late 1980s who deserve as much credit for the invention of indie and alternative rock as any other group. On the other hand, there’s Pete Yorn, a singer-songwriter from New Jersey whose five studio albbbbb—I’m sorry, I nodded off while I was typing that sentence.

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As Titus Andronicus’ set on September 27 at the Rock and Roll Hotel was winding down, their frontman, Patrick Stickles, told the story of how they met the members of Free Energy, their friends and current opener. “We played a show with them last fall at Georgetown,” he stated, eliciting a chorus of boos (who knew we were so unpopular beyond the front gates?). Even this crowd would have to appreciate the genius that brought together two bands that show such strong camaraderie and mutual appreciation their combined forces result in something much greater than they could achieve individually, but enough self-congratulations for WGTB.   Read More »