i hate the sound of guitars

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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The Long Tangles have coined a term to encompass the many husband and wife indie pop/rock outfits: matrimony rock. Their take puts wife Courtney Han’s vocals and the keys (piano, specifically, on many tunes) way out front. I find it quite pleasant, if a little unassuming (a lot less thorny than, say, Quasi). Hans’ voice [...]

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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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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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Let’s just deal with it head-on: Ted Billings, front man for Age Rings, sings more than a little bit like Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Age Rings is decidedly a rock band, but one that incorporates a lot of different moods and textures, often with prominent keyboards, bringing in horns and even winds now and then. “Rock [...]

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It’s a measure of my enormous respect for Frank Black/Black Francis/whatever he wants to call himself that even though I thought NonStopErotik was possibly the worst album of his career, it didn’t take me out of auto-buy-his-new-stuff mode. Abbabubba is a b-sides/odds-and-ends compilation, with some fully-formed tracks, some solo/demo stuff, and a few rather superfluous [...]

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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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The Hussalonia Founder generally puts a strange spin on each of his many recordings. The main gimmick here is that the original guitar and vocal guide tracks were erased after the overdubs were done, with a new vocal recorded responding to the overdubs. As the founder describes it, the process leaves “a void at the [...]

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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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