Judy NelsonSurfer Blood are a weird anomaly: they hail from West Palm Beach, FL, home of Jewish grandparents and all things octogenarian, yet they make refreshingly current indie-rock. The first single from Astro Coast, “Swim,” has been all over...
The Status’ ironically titled So This Is Progress reminds me of the halcyon days of pop-punk where bands like SR-71, Riddlin Kids, American Hi-Fi, Sum 41, and Trouble Is all (briefly) took over airwaves. While bands like New Found Glory have...
Vee Hua 華婷婷Earlier this year, I had the luxury of catching a post-SxSW party at Beerland in Austin. Starting at around noon, the show featured a host of bands that are pretty sonically divergent but tread in similar social footsteps, if you will — such...
What’s in a name? Well, if you have a great name like, let’s say, The Beatles or Fucked Up, it can lead you a place of legend, hearsay, and an always welcome presence on Fox TV. This Time Next Year apes their name from an old song by The...
Eskimo Snow is an album full of what I would call “unseeming pop songs.” WHY? have managed to craft an album of songs that aren’t particularly graceful or classically poppy, but somehow, it works. A couple lines from this song or...
The Green Lady Killers are well-produced, but their album, Just Fine, is repetitive and too familiar. The guitar chords are the same, the drum beats the same, the style the same; everything is the same stuff we’ve heard time and time again...
The lead-in to Arms And Sleepers’ new disc, Matador, is only a little over a minute, but it does what it’s supposed to. In just that short time period, it wordlessly sets the stage for the rest of the disc, with twinkling keys pricking...
The Happy Hollows play slightly discordant indie rock that shines, thanks to witty and provocative vocals by frontwoman Sarah Negahdari. There’s something off kilter and, dare I say, demented about her lyrics and delivery that makes repeated...