i hate the sound of guitars

The backstory (since you probably weren’t paying attention): Hussalonia is basically one dude writing, performing, recording, and releasing willfully eclectic music; he’s been at it for a while and he’s gotten really good at all aspects of it. 2010 started as the “Year of Hussalonia” with a new album/EP every month, including lotsa awesome [...]

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So, yeah, Fugazi Live Series.
Joe Gross’s write up in Spin seemed like a reasonable starting point, but I’m going to go a lot deeper, and I’ll update this post with the results of my explorations.
001 1987.09.03 Washington DC, USA, Wilson Center
I’m going to go against conventional wisdom and say that the band’s first gig is [...]

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The Lizard Lounge was crammed to the gills for the very welcome work-night friendly early set. Joe Pernice opened with a handful of solo songs, including the title track from Goodbye Killer and “Telescope,” a sneak peek at the in-progress Pernice Brothers album (he said it was mostly too rockin’ to translate well to an [...]

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Holy crap, I haven’t written about Mixtapes before? Really!? I have literally listened to this band more than any other artist this year.
Mixtapes live in a weird intersection between well-produced pop-punk and lo-fi indie pop. On the one hand they have a fatter drum sound than I expect from low-budget indies; on the other, [...]

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On the A-side, Lemuria offer two more examples of the smart, catchy, indie rock that’s made Pebble one of my most-played albums of the year so far. I expected their side to be swell, and it delivers. But the revelation here for me is Cheap Girls’ “Pure Hate.” I’m not quite sure what “And I/Keep [...]

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When I heard “The Heron and the Fox,” it knocked me out. In that subtly arranged song, lovely finger-picked guitar and an extraordinary vocal performance from Little Scream leader Laurel Sprengelmeyer (delicate to the point of fragiliy, with unusual phrasing) unite to deliver a narrative that’s intriguing but ultimately obscure. It’s probably the strongest composition, [...]

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If I didn’t know The Naked and Famous were from New Zealand I’d be positive they were Canadian. It’s not that they sound specifically like, say, Arcade Fire or Metric, but they combine modern indie rock, new wave, and just a smidge of disco in simpatico proportions. The Naked and Famous add a goodly quantity [...]

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Ryan Walsh, leader of the much-beloved-’round-here Hallelujah the Hills, used to be in a band called The Stairs, who released a pair of albums and some odds-and-ends. Looking at ‘em with hindsight, The Stairs recordings seem like a bit of an exploratory/learning/growing experience, with Walsh and crew figuring out their songwriting and performing strengths, and [...]

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Sounds like Joy Division for once not because of a gloomy baritone voice, but because bass and guitar parts recall Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner. Also sounds a bit like the instruments were at one of a tunnel, and the recording equipment was at the other. Some of this is hooky and/or pretty enough to [...]

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I love this band so much, and here are four more reasons why. The first two songs (”What Drummers Get” and “Twin Sisterzz”) operate in JF’s primary mode: high energy, with yelpy vocals, song sections colliding into each other like bumper cars, with surprisingly compelling hooks (and sometimes quiet, pretty bits, too, lurking amid the [...]

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