Rachel HelmStarting strong with those home-styled, apple pie sensibilities, You Didn’t Know I Was Alphabetical quickly declines into another emo-folk album — a hair shy of Conor Oberst and not quite as satisfying. “You, Too” opens the...
This album could probably be used as a case for why recording equipment should not be so readily available to the public. At least back in the day when shitty bands were making shitty albums, it was on shitty-quality cassette tapes that could be...
One-man bands usually call to mind images of a comical minstrel barely standing under the weight of a drum-and-harmonica contraption and self-penned songs that probably belong in a sideshow rather than on a CD. But Chris Otepka, the indie rock...
Kasey Anderson’s Nowhere Nights is the worst alt-country album I have ever heard. If Ryan Adams could be photocopied, and that copy could be copied, and that copy was faxed overseas, the result could very well be this record...
It might take a few listens to get into, but Raina Rose’s third full-length album, When May Came, will surprise you with its cohesion and simplicity. Between her big voice, with its unusual blend of twang and jazziness, and her whimsical sense...
The path that led Francesca Lee to her musical career markedly sets her apart from other soft-spoken female musicians toting a piano or guitar. As the daughter of a Polish mother and Korean father, she scraped together money herself to attend...
It’s been just over 20 years since Juliana Hatfield started playing with the likes of Evan Dando and Blake Babies. The scene back then was new and different; “college alternative rock” was truly alternative. There were no iPods...
Vee Hua 華婷婷João Orecchia has a new album coming out on Portland-based label Other Electricities. Here’s a video for “Falling Out,” which gives animations textural treatments and delves in and out of digitalized landscapes layer by layer...