Wes AndrewsWith Setting The Paces, BOAT has written an album that slots into my demographic with an almost startling precision. Did you spend your mid-to-late-twenties in the Pacific Northwest? How about a wannabe Northwest town like Madison, Wisconsin? If you...
Rachel HelmThe past few years of mellow European albums show the poorly-executed experimental turn that melodic pop has taken. Replacing the simple, guitar-accompanied vocals of bands like Death Cab for Cutie are the synthesized sounds of Phoenix and nameless...
Peter WoodburnThe Satanic Satanist is a heart-warming pop effort that also relies on one's ability to connect with the softness and imagery of Gourley's lyrics. Interspersed also are more "nerdy" things -- covert as they may be -- that are inspired by...
Greg HealeyA good way to see if a label’s music matches your tastes is to check out a sampler they’ve released, and 23 Seconds’ A Shortcut Past The Fear compilation album is certainly worth a click. Available from the label website as a free...
Ryan PangilinanInto It. Over It’s mastermind, Evan Thomas Weiss, is a member of Damiera and played in Up Up Down Down, a band that I consider one of the most underrated power-pop bands of all time. With that in mind, I expected some good songs, but was a bit...
Karla HernandezIf Aim And Ignite, the debut album by fun., was a character in a play, it would be the type of person that exaggerates every emotion. When that person is sad, he/she is really down in the dumps. When the person is happy, he/she skips around and does...
The instrumental, post-rock landscape is a bit crowded as of late. But in just three albums, the Chicago/Seattle trio Russian Circles have cemented themselves at the top, and this fact is readily apparent in their fantastic new album, Geneva...
Holy crap, this is lo-fi! The self-titled release from the trio Okie Dokie sounds like it was recorded in a human-sized garbage disposal unit. Somehow, that description is doing the sound quality a favor as well. This EP is a short-as-hell blast of...