AV Club:
"Taking their name from Echo & The Bunnymen’s debut, Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell employ an equally indebted pop template, cribbing shades and poses from The Jesus And Mary Chain in equal measure. But it isn’t just a genre study. The heat-seeking “I Wanna Kill,” though something of a sonic Frankenstein, boasts a carrier-sized chorus and four-note lick that’s simple, addictive garage candy."
Allmusic:
"The crunchy guitars bring to mind Spacemen 3, the tremolo keyboards and drum machines show reflections of Suicide, and the production style of cavernous vocals masked by sheets of white noise comes straight out of the Jesus and Mary Chain handbook. While many other bands out there have attempted to rehash the scummy sounds of yesteryear, rarely does anyone take it to another level so successfully."
Fat Possum:
"Poppy vocal melodies are crushed with harsh electronic drums or lifted and left floating in spaced-out noise and echo. loud, wiry guitars jab wildly like mutant synapses skirting along a tightrope drone.This is the dark side of the California sun."
Pitchfork:
"This sucks."
Via Matador:
"Recorded in Hoboken and Nashville in early 2009 with longtime associate Roger Mountenot, ‘Popular Songs’ finds the trio of Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew at the height of their creative powers, fashioning an epic work that’s cooly confident as it is wildly adventurous."Popular Songs is out on September 8, but if you get down with their Buy Early Get Now scheme you'll get the full album stream starting August 4, with exclusive bonus MP3s to follow, a vinyl LP featuring Yo La Tengo’s Orginal Score from the Motion Picture “Adventureland”, and a fancy poster. You can also pre-order ‘Popular Songs’ directly from The Matador Store.
Half of Sonic Youth’s name doesn’t really apply anymore, as three of its four members are in their 50s. This year’s The Eternal is the band’s first independent release in 20 years, but all that really matters is that it’s a new Sonic Youth album — meaning it’s smart and punky, arty and strange. And if that all sounds brainy, the band remains a slayer on stage.Sonic Youth will play the 7pm slot on Sunday at ACL Fest, opposite Girl Talk and Dan Auerbach. Decisions, decisions. Go to aclfestival.com to check out the full schedule. Here are two songs from The Eternal, with descriptions written by the band.
Seven and a half years in the making, culled from hours of recorded material sculpted in at least seven different studios, the new Circulatory System album is an absolutely stellar document of song and sound. Still concerned with matters of the inner/the outer, the incomprehensibly huge and the very, very small, Signal Morning is an imperative blast of kinetic motion. Featuring all the members of The Olivia Tremor Control, as well as Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel, Signal Morning has been eagerly anticipated since the release of the first Circulatory System record earlier this decade.
A Place To Bury Strangers release their sophomore album, "Exploding Head" via Mute October 6, 2009. The band had one simple goal during the recording process: "The original idea," says vocalist/guitarist Oliver Ackermann, "was to create the craziest, most f'ed-up recording ever."
The result is 43 mesmerizing minutes of pain as pleasure. You'll be checking the levels on your living room stereo from the moment "It Is Nothing" pulls everyone in earshot through a vortex of groove-locked rhythms and back-spun power chords (hammered out by drummer Jay Space and bassist Jono MOFO).
You'll be sucked in and blown away by the paranoid android pop of the album's first single "In Your Heart," the gorgeous gate-crashing melodies of "Keep Slipping Away," the Chinese water torture chords of "Lost Feeling," the sputtering percussion of "Everything Always Goes Wrong," the apocalypse now effects of "Ego Death," the sinewy, slightly sinister overtones of the title track, and the firework finale flare-ups of "I Lived My Life To Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart." The collection makes up the band's most realized recording to date.
During the "Exploding Head" recording process engineer Andy Smith (Paul Simon, David Bowie) took the band to "a whole other level" says Ackermann. "I love the interplay and contrasts between something that's pretty and something that's scary," he explains. "Taking listeners to different places—even in one song—is so important, whether it makes them cry or pissed off. If you listen closely, some of the riffs on this record are actually like Ramones songs or '60s bubblegum pop."
Called "the most ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you'll ever hear" by the Washington Post, A Place To Bury Strangers are now poised to blow minds and speakers alike. Says London's NME; "The pleasure pain threshold has rarely been more blurred, but rock this ferociously soulful is only good for you if it hurts," as they noted A Place To Bury Strangers as on of the Ten Best Bands of SXSW 2008. Their debut release earned them a "best new music" distinction and enduring support from Pitchfork, and they have toured with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, MGMT, Holy F**k, The Dandy Warhols and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
"This marks their first full studio set in three years following their Grammy Award-winning At War with the Mystics. EMBRYONIC, The Lips' 12th album, was recorded in Fredonia, NY and Oklahoma City, OK, with studio whiz and general co-conspirator Dave Fridmann and just may be their most sonically adventurous and compositionally vernal form of musical expression ever."
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"Neon Indian delivers equal parts synthetic nostalgia, Dreampop lullabies, and grinding guitar noise to create something eerier than the sum of its parts. Forged after a hazy winter gathering in Texas, this initial batch of tracks were the result of field recordings, record samples, a collection of bizarre synth sounds. Orbiting around the themes of drug induced heartbreak, weary afternoons, and lost chances, this music provides a lush soundtrack to the deadbeat exploits of teenage ennui."The only show on Neon Indian's calendar so far is at the Monolith Festival in Colorado this September. The lineup also includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Girl Talk, The Thermals, HEALTH and Deer Tick. Sounds like a damn good festival. You can catch VEGA at Club de Ville on Friday, July 17th.
Ratatat - Live at Lee's Palace:
