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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Classics of Love – Classics of Love
Classics of Love falls into the general category of punk veterans — in this case Operation Ivy’s Jesse Michaels — forming retro 80s/punk/hardcore bands. I’m pretty susceptible to this trend, and Classics of Love is no exception. Nothing here is quite as amazing as “No Return” from 2009’s “Waiting [...]

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Behold! the Monolith – Defender, Redeemist
This trio bludgeons almost equally well at the tempo of an advancing glacier or at a jackhammer thrash pace (Motorhead comparisons bruited about in the press for this ‘un really do make sense). Veteran metal producer/engineer Billy Anderson turns in a recording that’s amazing in it’s cake/eat-it-tooness: crushingly heavy at [...]

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bellwire – “Waterbed” (EP)
Note: we’re not likely to make a practice of this. It’s against our charter. But the band bellwire reached out to us and invited us to listen to their music, and they made that easy and they weren’t rude about it. So we did. And it was pretty good. We decidedly liked [...]

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Alcest – Les Voyages de L’Âme
I’m not usually fond of post-anything genre labels. How can anything be post-rock? There’s still plenty of rock. But Alcest really is post-metal, in the sense that it used to be identifiably a metal act, and now it isn’t. This is shoegaze/dreampop for guitar tone freaks. If you’ve listened Pale [...]

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Every new release I listened to in November (69)

Absu – Azbu
Merrie Amtserburg – “Q Dee Rock and Soul #6″ (single)
An early Christmas present from Merrie Amsterburg and Q Division! Well, except you have to pay for it, so not exactly a present. But these mildly rocked-up versions of “We Three Kings” and “Silent Night” are [...]

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I bought tickets to this show assuming it would feature Tanya Donelly singing and playing guitar, which it did, and which would have been more than sufficient for me, but not necessarily assuming there would be anyone else involved. The actual cast of characters included, in alphabetical order:

Carrie Bradley, of Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, 100 Watt [...]

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Every new release I listened to in October (64)

BDRM Eyes – (demo tracks)
BDRM Eyes blend the pedal happiness of shoegaze with a more energetic delivery and experimental/dissonant aspects that recall indie rockers of a Sonic Youthish bent. I can’t unreservedly endorse the recording quality; the drums are distant and murky. But definitely leaves me wanting [...]

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Every new release I listened to in September (58)

Bangles – Sweetheart of the Sun
Bridge and Tunnel – “Bridge and Tunnel” (EP)
Bridge and Tunnel – Rebuilding Year
Brief Candles – Fractured Days
Apparently they prefer “dream-pop” and “blissrock” to “shoegaze.” Poh-TAY-toe, Poh-TAH-toe . . .
Glen Campbell – Ghost on the Canvas
I admit it. It was knowing Campbell [...]

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I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Frankly, the circumstances sounded a bit suspicious: reclusive artist schedules a mid-size tour after a long artistic silence and immediately prior to a career-spanning archive release. But from the first few seconds of “Oh, Comely,” it was impossible for me to see anything disingenuous in Mangum’s performance; further, [...]

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