With Understudies, there’s the feeling that somewhere along the way, IndianGiver members vocalized a collective love of Grizzly Bear and a desire to begin a journey toward the same folk-rock-meets-baroque-pop mold.
Joshua Boydston
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Grouplovin’ it
Photo: Pamela Littky Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi set off to Europe in 2008 seeking the same things most young people do in those formative, transatlantic trips: purpose, inspiration and a little adventure. They found a lifetime’s worth in the process. Hooper and Zucconi had just met in Manhattan a week before, but with a […]
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Dustin Prinz – Eleven
He does just that, capably crafting a diverse collection of songs that run the gamut of Death Cab For Cutie-leaning indie (“So Many Deserving”), polished folk pop (“Freedom”) and ’90s alt-rock (“Next Time You’ll Know”), making for a tight, acoustic-driven affair with lots of personality. Stripped-down usually necessitates simplicity, but Prinz is so at ease […]
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Frndz with benefits
When Boyfrndz pulls into Oklahoma City for the last show of its national tour in support of its new album, Breeder, on Sunday, it will have gone through hell and back to get here. Touring is a necessary but daunting prospect for independent bands, leaving behind the creature comforts of home for cramped sleeping quarters, […]
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High heaven
Photo: Steven Ruud Glow God makes the type of music parents warn their kids about. It’s visceral, bloody knuckles, beer-swilling, cigarette-puffing, sweat-dripping rock music that’s about as clean and polished as a dive bar urinal. But that’s just the surface. Underneath, it’s inviting, sweet and earnest all the same, a mosh-pit brotherhood of kindred spirits that […]
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Darkened tones
American alt-metal act Chevelle is facing some interesting conundrums as it releases La Gárgola, the trio’s seventh studio album. You might even call it a life-or-death scenario. “We’re not sure if we are going to be the ones being killed or the ones killing,” drummer Sam Loeffler said of the short horror film they are […]
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X marks the spot
Releasing three albums in four years, Austin four-piece Pure X has shown a lot of promise and even more artistic flexibility. The band’s fuzzed-out, buzzed-about 2011 debut, Pleasure, was a sweet and simple collection of reverb-heavy ballads of the Jesus and Mary Chain persuasion. Last year’s follow-up, Crawling Up the Stairs, let those songs bake […]
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Reverential rock
Jim Heath — the “Reverend” behind Reverend Horton Heat — has never felt all that drawn to trends. Heath spent his formative years in the ’70s, and even as his peers gravitated toward the flashier flavors of the time, he dug into the no-frills blues and roots classics of B.B. King and John Lee Hooker. […]
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Em and the MotherSuperiors — Churches into Theaters
The group builds a wall of raucous noise with bricks from all corners of the rock and blues universe: brassy horns, soulful wails, glammy guitar riffs and pounding percussion. Even if there’s a gap here and there, it’s a largely successful remodel. Em and the MotherSuperiors are especially effective on the sultry, slower turns, be […]
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‘Throe’-back songs
Oklahoma troubadour John Moreland has seen it all. He has played it all, too. Maybe that’s why his sparse, spellbinding folk songs bleed the sort of inimitable heartland wisdom they do; he has crossed the web of American highways performing music from opposite ends of the spectrum. You wouldn’t guess it stumbling upon In the […]