Instead of using it for chillwave or dream-pop, The Morning After Girls go back to 1991 and stomp their pedals to make shoegaze. They do a good job of modernizing the sound; it’s not the genre that’s off-putting about “Alone.” The band cleans up several of the trademark moves of shoegaze for a modern […]
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Jonny Burke — Distance and Fortune
From Austin, Texas, where they know a thing or two about both genres, Jonny Burke excels at folk tunes, but is off on his rock tunes, on “Distance and Fortune.” It’s not the instrumental execution that’s off; Burke blasts out of the gate with “Broke Again,” which sounds somewhere between Springsteen and The Hold […]
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Jon Hardy and the Public — A Hard Year
I acquired their recent EP, “A Hard Year,” on the strength of this first impression, and it does not disappoint. The four tunes sound like Wilco, The Jayhawks and Bruce Springsteen got thrown in a blender, then went and jammed with the Old 97’s. It’s loud, twang-less country or it’s pensive, evocative rock, depending on […]
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Foxes in Fiction — Alberto
And when the songs are as evocative as the tunes on Foxes in Fiction’s “Alberto” EP, the phenomenon makes perfect sense. Foxes in Fiction’s take on the genre is a vocals-heavy one, as it sounds like Warren Hildebrand can actually sing. He still runs his voice through the requisite reverb, but it seems unnecessary. The […]
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Exit Calm — Exit Calm
The reverb-laden guitar cacophony, buried vocals and mood emphasis of the former were swapped out for focused distortion, pop melodies and distinct song structures of the latter in listeners’ minds. Shoegaze never recovered. If Exit Calm had appeared in 1993, shoegaze might still be going strong. Armed with ear-splitting waves of reverb-heavy guitars that came […]
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Colin Stetson — New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Colin Stetson (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, among others) is of the last category, as his upcoming album, “New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges,” is a cerebral experience unlike any other I’ve heard. It drops Feb. 22. Stetson plays saxophones primarily; there’s one 76-second French horn suite, but the bulk of the […]
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Broken Records — Let Me Come Home
Instead of Frightened Rabbit’s stripped-down rock sound, Broken Records goes for an expansive, “Funeral”-era Arcade Fire sound based as much in pounding piano lines as in charging guitar riffs (although they have their fair share of those, too). They set up their ambitions from the outset, as opener “A Leaving Song” builds to a crescendo […]
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British Sea Power — Valhalla Dancehall
If you didn’t catch them at Norman Music Festival 1, check out their Wikipedia article, which details their antics. Despite their wild stage presence, their music has never been incredibly confrontational or extreme; they’ve more often than not cranked out solid rock music and called it a day (see title and music of previous release, […]
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George Strait, Reba McEntire and Lee Ann Womack
With combined album sales of more than 100 million, the reigning King and Queen of Country aimed to assert that time could be now Saturday night with its near-capacity show at Oklahoma City Arena. Being the top-selling country tour of 2010 — the second leg starting just a night before in Austin, Texas — and […]
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Candi & the Strangers — 10th of Always
Well, one wishes radio sounded even half as sweet as the cotton-candy swirls the dreamy space-pop combo whips up in a whirlwind of mid-tempo grooves. (Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that that song closes with her noting, “Just for you.”) The Austin, Texas, quintet comes packaged from the same producer of The Octopus Project, Maserati and […]