Saturday 18 May
 
 
CD reviews

Various artists — Never Give Up: Celebrating 10 Years of The Postal Service

Few indie bands have had the impact on current music that The Postal Service has. Even fewer have done so with only one album.
05/15/2013 | Comments 0

Big Worm — Bench All-Stars

Fans of the comedy classic Friday may recognize the name Big Worm, but the Big Worm behind Bench All-Stars is rooted not in South Central L.A., but on the streets of Oklahoma City.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Code 22 — Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!

The guys of Oklahoma City’s Code 22 seem like a likable group of fellas. Their latest release, Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!, is likable enough as well — so likable that on first listen, I took its clean, acoustic sound and clear, unstressed vocals as an alternative praise-and-worship band.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Eureeka — Polysynthetic Fields

It’s always refreshing to hear music that embraces its own eccentricity, yet presents it in an accessible and meek fashion. Eureeka — the Norman-based duo of Jordan Vargas and Devin Wahl — has tapped into this rarified air on its self-released EP, Polysynthetic Fields.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Tom Skinner — Tom Skinner

Sincerity is nearly dead in songwriting. The image of the earnest singer with eyes tightly shut and a crack in his voice as he plunges to emotional depths has become a joke.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

MP-Free Vol. 5: I can feel it coming in the air tonight


Snow in the air, summer in the ear

By Stephen Carradini January 31st, 2011
skulltape_1

Snow’s a-comin’, y’all. I look over the top of my cubicle, and I see the wind shaking the pine (yes, pine) in front of that metal gray sky, and I can feel the snowflakes in my blood. I’ve only ever lived in temperate climes, but I was born for cold.

If I weren’t still catching up on our MP3 cache (one more day and we’ll be there!), I’d drop some wintry tunes. But today, you get this six-pack, which has only upbeat tunes in it and one track with the word “Summer” in the title. Oh, well. It’s hard to take yr iPod in the snow, anyway. Kudos to Phil Collins for the title of this post.

1. “Summer Gold” by Duke Garwood. Somewhere between talkin’ blues and Two Gallants-style minimalist indie rock, this uniquely beautiful track will stick in your mind.

2. “Whip My Hair (Drowning in Blood)” by Skull Tape. Hip-hop gets a synthy, aggressive, white-boy treatment while turning Willow Smith’s girl-power anthem into a terrifying battle cry. Super yikes.

3. “Locomocion Capillar (Solar Gambling)” by Omar Rodriguez Lopez. Mathy, erratic, international and flat-out bizarre, there’s truly no one who plays the guitar like ORL (At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta).

4. “The Cake and Eating It” by Zoey Van Goey.  The band's herky-jerky pop features some neat rhythms and melodies.

5. “I Don’t Want Anyone That Wants Me” by Make Out. Sneering, New York Sound punk that makes it here mostly on the strength of their “why hasn’t anyone taken that already” awesome band name.

6. “Middle of the Road” by One Hundred Flowers. Boy/girl indie pop whose clean production and enthusiastic drums keep it from the trash pile. 

photo Skull Tape, looking suitably creepy.

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
 
 
 
Close
Close
Close