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 | Released on Vice Records, 10/10/06 This is a headphones album. One of those "pop it in your media player of choice and turn it way up" albums. The opening song, “Come Out (Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone), begins with a distant siren, steady heartbeats of drums and slight electrocutions of sound interjected here and there. The beats thicken, the sound swells, and the vocals kick in. It’s classic, timeless, a perfect execution of the slow build electro-dance rock song. 120 Days have successfully combined the worlds of early eighties experimental electronic music with seventies rock and nineties drone -- and it’s actually pretty good!More |  | Released on Vice Records, 9/12/06 Musical theater! Wow! I imagine Favourite Sons’ live show as being devised from behind a heavy red velvet curtain which, when raised, reveals a somewhat seventies-stylized more rockin’ adaptation of “Hair”. This is a band John Cameron Mitchell would love.More |  | Released on Suicide Squeeze Records, 10/10/06 These dudes deserve a medal. They have been through a lot. After their initial formation in 2001, the Chicago-based quartet released a well-received self-titled EP, catching the attention of media and fans alike. They were named one of MOJO’s favorite new art-pop bands and they launched into an extensive US tour with the likes of Pinback, Pedro the Lion and American Analog Set. Not bad for a newbie. It was in the midst of recording their first full-length, [b]We Never Should Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers[/b], that disaster struck when bass player (Chris Saathoff) was killed by a hit-and-run driver on his way home from a show.More |  | Released on Highpoint Lowlife Records, 10/16/06 Delay is the new Black. Gone are the days of the three-minute confessional pop song and screeching screamo ballad. Well, as long as Live 105 and MTV2 aren’t on. It seems that a new wave of instrumentalist rock and rollers have been emerging with a songwriting style that challenges traditional rock methodology and approach. The songs are long, pensive, and heavy with dark rhythmic surges. Repetition of phrase is key, as is the aforementioned delay, giving a sense of the never-ending, or the ever beginning.More |  | Released on Asthmatic Kitty Records, 10/24/06 This album sure does make me uncomfortable. I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps the sneaky flats thrown into a routine pop progression, or the jarring yet certain lo-fi approach taken to the recording. The flash flood stops and starts. The seemingly nonsensical guitar and keyboard insertions. Heck. The vocals. Period. The Curtains’ latest release, [b]Calamity[/b] may be just that, but in one of the best ways possible. It’s interesting. It’s weird. And it leaps and bounds above the majority of music being pumped into the ears of the youth of today. Hoorah Curtains! You are interesting!More |  | Released on Matador, 6/20/06 Brightblack Morning Light make me believe in summer again. They are the heat, they are the light, and they are the way. There could be nothing as soothing as the voice of singer Nathan Shineywater and his whisper-wails, heavy with reverb, and yet somehow shallow, as if tinned for mass-market.More |  | Kickin’ Out the Jams on Their Way to the UK San Francisco’s own Luxxury are causing quite a stir as of late. Their anxiously awaited album, [b]Rock and Roll (is Evil)[/b], is due out October 10th and already they are headed to the sunny UK for a whirlwind tour before they head back to the US for their release shows. You may be wondering what this Luxxury sound like, and you are in luck: “New Order being strangled by David Bowie while Paris Hilton blows Daniel Ash at an LCD Soundsystem show”, write the band on their painfully pink Myspace page. Hmmm.More |  | Released on Dim Mak Records, 06/06/06 This debut from London’s Scanners leaves something to be desired. Don’t get me wrong, the quartet have the formula down. [b]Violence Is Golden[/b] is rich with three-minute pop songs, comfortable changes, and anthemic synth-lines reminiscent of the early 90s British re-invasion. But beyond the hooks and catches, this album lacks the staying power of its peers.More |
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