|
|
Music
Thursday, November 20 2008
By Dan Raper
The Rapture's first mix CD is not quite what you'd expect.
By Evan Sawdey
Secrets Are Sinister is the kind of comeback album that a band like Longwave not only needs, but, surprisingly, actually deserves.
By Craig Carson
Although atmospherically consistent and occasionally beautiful, Alaska in Winter's globe-hopping Holiday isn't the most memorable.
By Vijith Assar
Jazz drummer Steve Reid is a fascinating contrast to the rigid grids typical of Four Tet.
By Bill Stewart
If you want a good approximation of the music on Volcano!’s sophomore effort Paperwork, look no further than the exclamation point at the end of the band’s name.
By Kyle Deas
The instrumentation is a bit more traditional, but Crooked Still remains as fresh and exciting as ever.
Wednesday, November 19 2008
By Andrew Gilstrap
You could exhaust yourself coming up with ways to describe contrasts in their voices, when the real treat lies in the way they come together.
By Chad Berndtson
Listening to UFO as a whole over a steady period reveals its final strength: It's definitely an album, not just a sturdy hodgepodge.
By Andrew Martin
Lee and Hopkins turn some heads on here as they churn out more of what we have come to expect from these eclectic and talented oddballs.
By Ian Mathers
LA quintet continues to balance between agression and drift, even if they're not quite as cohesive this time around.
By Charles A. Hohman
Inara George and Van Dyke Parks can recreate antiquated boudoir music, but cannot push it into this century.
By Sarah Moore
The Portland "four-man orchestra" known as Bark Hide and Horn tell a tale involving a complex storyline that interweaves various tableaux.
Tuesday, November 18 2008
By Dan Raper
With no new material planned, the much-loved Scottish indie group release a compilation of recordings made in BBC studios between 1996 and 2001.
By Mehan Jayasuriya
Debut EP from this soulful psych-punk outfit is sure to please fans of the Murder City Devils, At the Drive-In, and the Mars Volta.
By Evan Sawdey
Quite possibly the finest summation of the band's career as you're likely to find, improving on 2000's Very Best of... in every conceivable away.
By Deanne Sole
Zazou was an eager cross-cultural collaborator. It seems right that his final album should be a cross-cultural collaboration.
By Jennifer Kelly
Ancient tunes and folk melodies turn into a springboard for free experiment on this third full-length from Greek singer Savina Yannatou and the band, Primavera en Salonico.
By Michael Kabran
An album by consummate jazz musicians for consummate jazz fans.
Monday, November 17 2008
By Adrien Begrand
There's not a lick of originality on this debut, but interestingly, that hardly matters.
By Matthew Fiander
Carlberg is at his best when he sifts through the bittersweet layers of teenage nostalgia. Sadly, The Lilac Time veers off that path too often.
By Zeth Lundy
Bo Diddley may be gone, but he is not forgotten, as this two-disc compilation of his prime Checker years easily proves.
By Michael Kabran
Are the songs as hot as the controversy surrounding the first Jean Grae collaboration with Blue Sky Black Death? Yes. And no.
By Blake Boldt
With his first post-Hootie album, Darius Rucker raids the cupboard of contemporary country music... only to find paint-by-number ballads and steady-as-she-goes hillbilly rockers that fail to stamp his identity anywhere.
By Chris Conaton
RFTC's second album of the year, a collection of raw eight-track demos recorded between 1997-2000, sounds pretty darn good for a band that went defunct in 2005.
Friday, November 14 2008
By Christian John Wikane
Despite its bounty of hits, The Definitive Rod Stewart falls shy of delivering in full.
By Matthew Fiander
From beginning to end, Exposion threatens chaos, but the pop sensibility behind White Denim's crazed and sweaty sound is what drives the haphazard beauty of this album.
By John Bergstrom
The British jazz/drum'n'bass pioneers return, sounding as money as ever.
By Quentin B. Huff
Dr. Funkenstein brings his latest sonic potion from the Mothership -- layers of funk mixed with doo-wop and oldies.
By Ian Mathers
Transplanted Swedish singer does it herself and does it well enough you forget about the makeshift origins of her songs.
By Deanne Sole
La Bibournoise probably won't dazzle you straight away, but the album has real warmth.
more  Short Reviews
Thursday, November 20 2008
Wednesday, November 19 2008
Tuesday, November 18 2008
Monday, November 17 2008
Friday, November 14 2008
more Features
Thursday, November 20 2008
By PopMatters Staff
Side Three: It's back to basics once again as the band finds the musical muscle memory to mesh all their influences into seven sensational tracks.
Wednesday, November 19 2008
By Jason Gross
Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison wasn't a pivotal live album or country album or Cash album -- it was a piece of history unto itself, flaws and all.
Monday, November 17 2008
By Karen Zarker and Sarah Zupko
PopMatters shoulders its backpacks and treks to Hamburg to check out Germany's pop music capital, to partake of four days of Kunst und Kultur, historical wanderings, and indulge in a bit of Gemütlichkeit.
By PopMatters Staff
Roy Harper is a consummate musician's musician, straight out of the British folk scene. He chats with PopMatters 20 Questions, sometimes with tear in eye, sometimes with tongue in cheek, about film, literature, and music.
Tuesday, November 18 2008
By Quentin B. Huff
Although "hip-hop" means different things to different people, everyone seems to be confident that they know what "it" is. Through this subjective lens, there is also a unique brand of investment and ownership in the meaning of "hip-hop".
(more Busted Headphones)
Monday, November 17 2008
By Andrew Gilstrap
In a world where you can have a Christian version of pretty much any genre, Woven Hand's David Eugene Edwards is a real outlier because you wouldn't know where to put him if he were a secular artist.
(more Field Studies)
Monday, November 10 2008
By Derek Beres
Today's global music is an extension of the culture that has been emerging over the last century, when airplanes and vinyl recordings made social exchanges possible to an extent previously undreamed.
Thursday, November 20 2008
By Liberty Kohn
AA Bondy's half-spoken baritone and Appalachian influenced indie-folk seem at home in Austin, but I wonder if a lack of sonic force will be a problem in a venue with three well-stocked bars and a crowd that paid to see the headlining act.
Wednesday, November 19 2008
By Andrew Martin
As Atmosphere kicked their set off with "Like the Rest of Us" and "In Her Music Box", two of the mellowest pieces in their catalog, it became apparent this wouldn't be just another hip-hop show.
Tuesday, November 18 2008
By Spencer Tricker
If there’s a singular element that TV on the Radio is capable of delivering on a regular basis it’s surely charisma.
more DVD Reviews
Tuesday, November 18 2008
By Timothy Gabriele
Covering far more sonic terrain than just the astronomy mapped out in the title, this is the rare music film that doesn't talk down to its audience.
Tuesday, November 11 2008
By Evan Sawdey
This may not show Corgan in the most favorable light, but it shows him in an honest one, making for a surprisingly humanizing viewing experience.
Monday, November 10 2008
By B.J. Carter
Considering the effervescence of the performances, what other than this warm, bubbly feeling could have been its aim?
Thursday, November 20 2008
Tuesday, November 18 2008
Monday, November 17 2008
Saturday, November 15 2008
Friday, November 14 2008
Thursday, November 20 2008
Wednesday, November 19 2008
Tuesday, November 18 2008
Monday, November 17 2008
Friday, November 14 2008
|
|
