// Category Archive for: Music Reviews

Music Review: Bowling For Soup, Songs That People Actually Liked, Volume 1

By Tyler Hodg

Here’s something that might make you feel old: Bowling for Soup has been making music since 1994. With the release of their first official greatest hits album Songs That People Actually Liked – Volume 1 – The First Ten Years (1994-2004), the band reminds us all that music doesn’t need to be taken seriously to be enjoyable.

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Music Review: Murder By Death, Big Dark Love

By Melissa Bratcher

With a band name like Murder By Death, I wasn’t surprised by the heaviness of their latest, Big Dark Love. It’s a heavy record lyrically, touching on depression and chronic illness, obsession, and isolation. It inhabits a dream-like space, but the kind of dream that borders on a nightmare—the kind of dream where things are just a bit wrong, but you can’t put your finger on why exactly. It’s the kind of dream where you always end up alone, in an unfamiliar, sinister place, with wolves baying. Big Dark Love is unsettling in that subtle way, and quite effective.

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Music Review: The Westies, West Side Stories

By Tyler Hodg

On the surface, The Westies appear to be nothing more than a generic soft-rock band, but when examined more closely, they are much more than what meets the eye (and ear). The stories behind the band and their music are equally intriguing, and both lend a hand in creating a more extraordinary picture, in the form of their debut album West Side Stories.

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Music Review: Various Artists, Stoned – A Pscyh Tribute To The Rolling Stones

By Melissa Bratcher

Tribute cover albums occupy such an odd space. If a band covers a song too faithfully, they’re destined to be compared, probably unfavorably, to the original. If you add nothing to your interpretation, then why cover the song in the first place? If a band goes too far afield in their musical choices, and they make the song truly their own, then they have the purists who complain that they haven’t hewed closely enough to the source material. It’s a tightrope.

On Stoned – A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, the artists from the neo-psych scene (the Allah-Las, The Tulips, Clinic, Tashaki Miyaki, Yeti Love, et al.) tread that tightrope. Some of the covers are straightforward, faithful renditions (with more reverb, because it’s neo-psych music), and some take the songs in a much different direction. It’s an intriguing record.

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Music Review: Jim White Vs. The Packway Handle Band, Take It Like A Man

By Melissa Bratcher

Jim White’s collaboration with The Packway Handle Band is an early entry in the “most delightful albums of 2015” list that I am currently compiling (in my head). Full of clever, cinematic lyrics and ripping bluegrass, Take It Like A Man is a joy from start to finish.

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Music Review: The Decemberists, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

By Tyler Hodg

In their 15th year as a band, The Decemberists continue to release albums that sound nothing less than pure, and What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World is no exception. It’s modest. It’s relatable. It’s fantastic.

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Music Review: Elephant Micah, Where In Our Woods

By Melissa Bratcher

Elephant Micah’s (Joseph O’Connell) songs on Where In Our Woods sound archaic and primal, but in a quiet kind of way. They’re hushed and spare, connected to the earth and the air and the migratory patterns of birds. Where In Our Woods haunts and moves me, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

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Music Review: The Vagaband, Medicine For The Soul

By Melissa Bratcher

It’s difficult to describe the sound of the UK’s The Vagaband. They’re a little folky, with a dash of vaudeville, a generous dollop of rock, and a not fleeting resemblance to Pink Floyd. They traffic in pastoral sounds with interesting instrumentation. Their second album, Medicine For The Soul, is a pleasant surprise; it’s chock full of banjos and horns, jaw harps and fiddle, and charming, ear-wormy tunes, as well as a smart cover of a Ween song.

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Music Review: Psychic TV, “Alien Be-In” Remix EP

By Ben Van D

For many, Acid House is inextricably linked to a place and time—the dim, sometimes garish, and impossibly vibrant rave culture of the early ’90s. It harkens back to an intoxicated era of manic excess, quasi-spiritual tribe mentality, and devastatingly harsh comedowns. If you missed it, imagine Cirque de Soliel performing in 1960s revival costumes in an underground parking lot at twice the BPM through a set of broken speakers.

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Music Review: Dan Mangan + Blacksmith, Club Meds

By Tyler Hodg

Thanks to Dan Mangan + Blacksmith’s new album Club Meds, the year 2015 has gotten off to an impressive start musically.

But before you listen to it, first thing’s first: grab your headphones, find an isolated area, and make sure to turn off all of the lights. Some albums deserve proper atmosphere for an optimal listening experience, and Club Meds is a prime example.

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