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Recordings

To the Moon

by Josh Potter February 16, 2012

This past year has seen a sudden craze for pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès—a mere 110 years after he released his most famous film, A Trip to the Moon. Méliès and his work, of course, ...

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Like assholes, everyone has an opinion—of Lana del Rey. Mine: She’s actually a David Lynch-engineered femmebot designed to plug a Twin Peaks reality TV spinoff, The Voice (of Laura Palmer). Ultimately, she’s not worth paying ...

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Eyvind Kang

by Josh Potter February 16, 2012

While The Narrow Garden would probably get dumped in the “classical” rack at a record store—if those stil existed—violinist-composer Eyvind Kang comes to his solo material from a region as far removed as you might ...

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The Major Lift

by The Staff February 2, 2012

I was excited for the Black Keys’ El Camino, I admit it. While the Keys lost me on Attack and Release with its awkward polish, I fell in love with them again on Brothers. Sure, ...

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Cosmonauts

by Josh Potter January 25, 2012

It may sound like a contradiction in terms but, with The Demise of Daniel Raincourt, Glens Falls rock sextet Cosmonauts have managed to compress an impressively well-wrought conceptual epic into the EP format. To be ...

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Ani DiFranco

by Elyse Beaudoin January 25, 2012

Folk singer Ani DiFranco’s latest album, Which Side Are You On?, sways between liberating marches and light airy tunes. DiFranco’s staccato guitar carries her live-and-let-live spirit, anti-corporate messages, and feminist ideals. Every word, from soft ...

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La Sublime Porte: Voix d’Istanbul (1430-1750)

by B.A. Nilsson January 25, 2012

The music on this disc is both haunting and poignant. Haunting because it’s characteristic of the tunes that come out of the blending of cultures represented here. Poignant because it’s one of the last recordings ...

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Timeless Virtuosity

by B.A. Nilsson January 12, 2012

The all-time, go-to, everybody-loves-it sonata for violin and piano was written in 1886 by César Franck. Edison had patented a recording device eight years earlier, and this piece gave musicians something to record on ever ...

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Objet d’art

by David King January 12, 2012

It’s a rare thing to find something so succinct and perfect as Cynic’s Carbon-Based Anatomy, like a little music box of out-of-this-time, ethereal prog rock. The six-song EP is far from straightforward or bare-bones: The ...

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Best of 2011: Recordings

by The Staff January 5, 2012

Critic: Josh Potter 1. St. Vincent Strange Mercy It’s hard to decide what I like best about Annie Clark: her girl-next-door persona, her voice that can go from bashful to Björk-y in a single song, her band who ...

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Girls

by Taylor Morris November 10, 2011

We last heard from Girls on “Carolina,” the closing track of their Broken Dreams Club EP, released last November. The sprawling, multipart beauty rounded out what amounted to an exploratory EP for the band—a deeper ...

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Michael Benedict

by Jeff Nania November 10, 2011

Bopitude is not Michael Benedict’s first release as a bandleader, but it is his first release as a drummer. He is known for his work as a local vibraphonist with his former group Jazz Vibes. ...

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Randy Newman

by David Greenberger November 10, 2011

In 2003, the year he turned 60, Randy Newman released his Songbook Vol. 1. While eight years seems like a long time to return to the studio to reconsider songs from his own catalog, alone ...

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Homegrown and Fresh-Cut

by The Staff November 3, 2011

We Are Jeneric Our Day in the Sun Our Day in the Sun, an epic concept album about two adventurers’ journey from land to sea and back to find their rightful place in the world, marks a ...

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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

by Jeremy D. Goodwin October 6, 2011

At this point it seems fair to say Stephen Malkmus is the most distinctive stylist to emerge from ’90s alt-whatever rock. His oeuvre isn’t colored by an electronic phase (see: the Smashing Pumpkins) or suddenly-serious ...

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Shabazz Palaces

by Raurri Jennings October 6, 2011

Shrouded in the shiny blueness of his nom de plume “Palaceer Lazaro” for the release of his first two EPs with Shabazz Palaces, rapper Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler (formerly of Digable Planets) has finally stepped out ...

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Jay-Z and Kanye West

by David King September 7, 2011

A CEO and a sex addict walk into a recording studio—stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You probably have, actually, in a number of ways. Jay-Z (the CEO) teamed up with sex addict ...

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Little Dragon

by Raurri Jennings August 3, 2011

With their third album, Ritual Union, Little Dragon tighten up their minimal electro-R&B sound. Singer Yukimi Nagano has pipes but you will not hear any caterwaulin’. Keyboard commander Håkan Wirenstrand has chops but you won’t hear ...

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Battles

by Josh Potter August 3, 2011

It takes a lot of vision, plenty of gall, a touch of arrogance and more than a little bit of chops to start an instrumental rock band. All of which would be limiting factors save ...

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The Black Dahlia Murder

by David King August 3, 2011

It’s always nice to be surprised—well, that is, unless you are a die-hard, slack-jawed metal/hardcore kid who digs Jamie Jasta, Godsmack, Slipknot and Emmure. In that case you want the same thing over and over ...

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The Devin Townsend Project

by David King July 27, 2011

Over the years, Devin Townsend, Canada’s mad scientist of metal and mastermind of the once-great Strapping Young Lad, has combined his absurd sense of humor with his complex metal compositions. You might not have caught ...

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Jad Fair

by David Greenberger July 27, 2011

Over the past 35 years, Jad Fair has managed to never lose his utter believability. That’s no small feat. Some call him a primitive, an intuitive, or an outsider, but none of those terms really ...

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Incubus

by Elyse Beaudoin July 27, 2011

Time catches up with all of us, even mutli-platinum rock stars like Incubus. Brandon Boyd and the boys are well aware that they have hit their mid-30s. Whether they meant to or not, their new ...

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The Major Lift

by David King June 15, 2011

It isn’t particularly important for a pop star to make sense—just to be catchy—but, unfortunately, on Born this Way from Interscope, Lady Gaga buries what makes her good at her job: catchy, dirty, grinding synth ...

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Fleet Foxes

by Raurri Jennings May 11, 2011

In “Montezuma,” the opening song of Fleet Foxes’ sophomore LP, Helplessness Blues, lead singer Robin Pecknold sings, “I’m older than my mother and father/When they had their daughter/Now what does that ...

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