i hate the sound of guitars

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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Somewhere between roots-rock and power pop, with some swell vocal harmonies. Veteran producer Ed Valausksas stitches it all together nicely. If I were in a quibbling mood I’d say some of these songs are stretched out a tiny bit more than might be optimal, but the under-two-minute “Braedon” certainly isn’t; it’s my fave. Other highlights [...]

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Yep is Al Chan (of The Rubinoos) and Mark Caputo (of Belleville, who I vow to investigate) singing extremely tasteful, alt-country-flavored arrangements of a bunch of covers they like (and one Caputo original) with a large (but cohesive) cast of supporting musicians. The centerpiece here is Chan and Caputo’s vocal performances, which are impeccable. They [...]

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I wound up with this odds & ends collection on the strength of a friend’s recommendation and sympathy for the band’s recent broken-down-tour-van plight; it’s perhaps an odd way to be introduced to an act, but I’ve decidedly been enjoying it. Murder by Death could loosely be classed as Americana, but only loosely; prominent use [...]

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Not to slight the other tunes on The Baseball Project’s Volume 2: High and Inside, many more of which (especially Scott McCaughey’s eerie “Here Lies Carl Mays” and Steve Wynn’s rollicking “The Straw that Stirs the Drink”) are also quite swell. But “Buckner’s Bolero” is something else again, a powerful early entrant for the [...]

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