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Various Artists – SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers

By |April 3rd, 2009|Categories: Album Reviews|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

A star-studded cast pay tribute on this anniversary compilation, but who invited Times New Viking?

The Big Pink – London – 13 May 2010

By |June 18th, 2010|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

An hour in the company of The Big Pink is a sensory distorting experiment, and one that also questions your sexuality. It’s not a glam/gay thing, but there is a certain amount of homoeroticism about The Big Pink. The obvious sexual nature of the band name notwithstanding, and their record sleeves are all chicks and tits, but I think that’s to throw off the thinly veiled man-love shared between guitarist/vocalist Robbie Furze and bassist Milo Cordell.

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Who The Hell Are… The Capitalist Youth?

By |October 12th, 2010|Categories: Features, Who the Hell Are|Tags: , , , |

Consider The Capitalist Youth, a trio of former high school classmates who play “acoustic indie rock combining a living room full of misfit instruments with lyrically driven songs about summer camp, existential crises and gubernatorial indiscretions”. They don’t write and play the kind of music that will leave listeners dumbstruck over their redefinition of a genre, but they’re able to adeptly inject something into their music that only a handful of others have done well: humanity, with a laid back sense of humor, and without any of the awkward pauses that come from other bands who get lucky on a song or two and can’t maintain things the rest of the way.

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Who The Hell Are… Zoo Animal?

By |December 21st, 2010|Categories: Features, Who the Hell Are|Tags: , , , |

Picture the scene... in a dark Minneapolis jazz club, three anonymous musicians take the stage. The usual rituals of tuning and testing, smiling and carrying on, and then the lead singer steps up to the microphone. It only takes a few songs to appreciate the underestimated prowess of the band; the churning bass, the precision in the drumming, and a fiesty singer whose melancholy adroitness shines through her toned-down Joplin-esque voice and ferocious, half-prostrated guitar solos. This is Holly Newsom and Zoo Animal, a band marked by a soulful yet minimal electrofolk sound and introspective, sometimes spiritual lyrics.

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Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Los Angeles – 25 July 2009

By |July 30th, 2009|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , , , |

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks played to an audience brimming with the intoxicating scent of bearded, checked-shirt sporting aging rock dudes. Vanessa From Queens was missing but the gang was all there.

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