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Baumer: Were It Not for You
2008-03-09 20:22:00
Baumer: Were It Not for YouThe South Carolina quartet Baumer, release their sophomore effort Were It Not For You via Eyeball Records.Baumer's style isn't exactly unique. They mix dance punk, glitch pop, and modern rock into a fluid radio friendly blend.When the dancy drums are going and they keyboards are in full effect, Baumer has a little of The Killers circa Hot Fuss in them. When they decide to slow things down, they can get a little Linkin Park-ballad in them.The inconsistency in sound is really the biggest weakness for Baumer. Unfortunately its not their only weakness. Their trite melodramatic lyrics are often times painful, especially one the ballad "Hard Drug".In the end if you can ignore the lyrics, its easy to have a good time with the album. Its dancable and catchy. I guess you have to be happy with what you can get.Rating: 5.5/10MP3: Baumer "Money Tornado"

Murder By Death: Red of Tooth and Claw
2008-03-08 06:57:00
Murder By Death : Red of Tooth and ClawThe Indiana quartet, Murder By Death has gained notoriety as much for their song content as for their instrumentation. Employing a full time cellist, the band seems to be filled with gimmicks. Writing songs about ghosts, zombies, and the Devil has garnered them a bit of a "Hot Topic" band, but on their fourth full length Red of Tooth and Claw they've become a bit of critic's darlings.Although most blog's would not be caught dead reviewing or mentioning Murder By Death, a good friend of mine is a huge fan. I have listened to every album they have put out and I have never been overly drawn in. A lot of that changed on this album.Somewhere between Nick Cave, The Reverend Horton Heat, and Johnny Cash lies Murder By Death. Lead singer Adam Turla's baritone vocals mesh perfectly with the dark lyrical content and the psychobilly-meets-country sound.The album is supposedly a concept album. As Turla puts it, it's a ?Homer?s Odyssey of revenge,...
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Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks: Real Emotional Trash
2008-03-07 05:16:00
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Real Emotional Trash With Pavement reunion murmurs sounding louder and louder, Stephen Malkmus releases his fourth studio album with the Jicks.Real Emotional Trash is an album that no one saw coming. The album takes more than a couple of ideas from Television's seminal Marquee Moon and mixes them with the typical Pavement sound and there's even a slightest bit of Wolfmother thrown in for good measure.The results of these elements is a distorted indie-rock jam band. There are ups and downs to this. The up is a song like "Baltimore" a moody rock number that turns into an up-tempo full-throttle rock song but its end. The down side is a song like "Real Emotional Trash", a 10-plus minute song that just goes nowhere and lets the listener feel like they just wasted 1/5 of an hour of their life.In the end, the album has more good songs than bad songs. The good songs are very promising and some of the best of Malkmus' post-Pavement career. The bad song...
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New Colin Meloy
2008-03-05 15:56:00
By now everyone knows the Decemberists' frontman plans on releasing Colin Meloy Sings Live! on Kill Rock Star on April 8th. But we have the first released track from that up coming CD. Colin Meloy singing the Decemberists' classic "We Both Go Down Together" live. Enjoy it!MP3: Colin Meloy "We Both Go Down Together (live)"

What Made Milwaukee Famous: What Doesn't Kill Us
2008-03-05 05:04:00
What Made Milwaukee Famous : What Doesn't Kill UsThe Austin, TX group, What Made Milwaukee Famous release their second full length on Barsuk Records.The bands sound combines many influences including indie rock, pop, Americana, and alt-country. The band tends to run the gamut of styles. In recent interviews the band has claimed their sophomore effort is just as musically diverse as their debut album but more cohesive.I don't know if I get the cohesiveness part. They go from the Ryan Adams' inspired "Sultan" to the Muse-esque rocker "Resistance St." to the Train sounding adult contemporary ballad "Prevailing Winds".I'd say close to half the songs on the album could be accepted in the genre of adult contemporary. In the end, that's nothing to hang your hat on. I'd call this a nice album, but it certainly doesn't show the growth or the potential you expected after a 4 year lay off between albums.Rating: 6.1/10MP3: What Made Milwaukee Famous "Middle Of The Night"

Flogging Molly: Float
2008-03-04 05:32:00
Flogging Molly: FloatIrish-punk-via-Los-Angeles originators, Flogging Molly return with their first album since 2004's Within a Mile of Home and their fourth studio album overall.It's been a long journey for Dave King and company. Their 1997 debut album was a live recording at Molly Malone's. The strength of that album lead to their signing with record label SideOneDummy.Their first studio album Stagger was launched to unprecedented success with the help of the catchy debut single "Salty Dog".The bands mix of traditional Irish folk instruments and punk song writing carved out a niche of the band many didn't know existed. Their style has been compared to the Pogues who are admittedly a major influence, although Dropkick Murphys may be a more apt comparison.For the most part they sound like a Celtic record recorded on 33 1/3 played at 45 speed, they do occasionally break it down for a good old Irish ballad. The song for which the album gets its name "Float" is in that category...
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A Faulty Chromosome: As an Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit, ..
2008-03-02 18:58:00
A Faulty Chromosome: As an Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit, ..A Faulty Chromosome's self-released debut album, As an Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit, .. is a balancing act between complete sloppiness and complete dissonance.From the first notes of "Them Pleasures of the Flesh" its easy to hear the immediate musical influences. There are obvious musical influences like Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Pere Ubu, but as you listen to more of the album other musical influence begin peeking out.Their keyboard sounds could make one think they are a fan of Suicide and Kraftwerk. Their song writing could make one believe they are fans of They Might Be Giants, the Flaming Lips, or Ween. Whatever the influences the result is something sloppy, confusing, and unique. Occasionally the music is poppy and catchy, sometimes its just unlistenable.In the end I feel like the album has a nice balance of elements. Unfortunately having an equal balance of pop and unlistenable dissonance isn't exactly a god ...

Beach House: Devotion
2008-03-01 01:12:00
Beach House : Devotion The duo known as Beach House's sophomore effort is a haunting yet provocative listening experience.Lead singer, Victoria Legrand's voicals hauntingly echo over the layers of fuzzy keyboards and reverbed guitar. The bands dream pop meets shoe gazer style has drawn strong comparisons to Nico and Mazzy Star.In 2006 Pitchfork named their debut the 16th best album of the year. Devotion has already garnered significant press but I don't really see why. With the exception of the album opener "Wedding Bell" and the clavase-percussioned "Holy Dances" the album is a gray tapestry that blends into one long dismal song.The band clearly doesn't need my approval, Pitchfork will probably hand them over another top 20 album of the year honor. I just don't get it.Rating: 2.1/10MP3: Beach House "Holy Dances"
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Shawty Lo: Units In the City
2008-02-28 04:03:00
Shawty Lo: Units In the City At first glance, Shawty Lo seems like another rapper reppin Bankhead with little to say. I guess both those things are true, but there is more to Lo.I have to admit I came into this expecting not much. The album has gotten significant press on the strength of the first single "Dey Know". "Dey Know" established Shawty Lo as another rapper in the vein of Young Jeezy.Unlike, other Jeezy-sounding rappers (ie Gorilla Zoe) Shawty Lo knows the value of a good hook. The first four songs on the album are contagious.The production is very simple, it mostly comes from Balis Beats and Drumma Boy. The production is DJ Toomp-esqu. Its heavy on synthesizers and has a dark quality to it. The lyrics are simple at best. There are a few key phrases that come up constantly: dough boy, Bankhead, and get money.The thing that wears on the listener is Shawty Lo's voice. He raps like Jeezy whispering. It gets irritating after a while and guests are welcome to break u...
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Pete Rock: NY's Finest
2008-02-27 01:36:00
Pete Rock : NY's Finest Pete Rock is old school. Not many people could claim to have worked with everyone from Heavy D to Nas, from Notorious B.I.G. to Marley Marl. Pete Rock's NY's Finest is his first release since 2004's Soul Survivor II.Rock produces all the tracks on the album with the exception of "Don't Be Mad" which was produced by DJ Green Lantern. Rock's beats are not extravagant. They have a little more to them then classic Wu beats, but not by much.Rock only raps himself on five tracks. The rest of the album features massive amounts of A-list guests. Guests include Jim Jones, Redman, Sheek Louch, Jadakiss, Styles P, Little Brother, Raekwon, Masta Killa, and Papoose.Most of the tracks have that mid to late 90s feel to them but some tracks have varied styles. There is even a reggae track, "Ready Fe War" which features Chip Fu & Rene (Zhane).In the end, the album does truly feature some of New York's finest. Pete Rock being an old school guy, I wish he had d...
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Ghostland Observatory: Robotique Majestique
2008-02-26 03:37:00
Ghostland Observatory: Robotique MajestiqueGhostland Observatory's third album should prove to be their most successful. The Texas duo has been raising their profile since their debut, delete.delete.i.eat.meat. in 2005.The music sounds a little bit like Daft Punk remixing Queen. Lead vocalist, Aaron Kyle Behrens, has a sassy confidence that is so glam rock and Thomas Ross Turner production is so spot on. His sequences are dancy without being techno not unlike New Young Pony Club.There aren't many occasions where the album fails to deliver. I would imagine if you like one Ghostland Observatory song, you'll like them all. Sometimes they get a little boring like in their mid-album instrumental "Holy Ghost White Noise" that sounds like Stevie Wonder meets Ratatat.The only real problem I see in the album is a little bit of monotony. By the end of the album songs seem to blend together with not much distinction from one to another except some songs were instrumentals and others w...

Small Towns Burn a Little Slower: So Begins The Test Of A Man
2008-02-24 02:06:00
Small Towns Burn a Little Slower: So Begins The Test Of A ManSmall Towns Burn a Little Slower seems to be the classic tale of the short lifespan of modern music. The band formed in 2002 and announced in Nov 2007 they would be breaking up in February of 2008. Now that it is February of 2008, sure enough they've played their last shows and the release their swan song So Begins The Test Of A Man.They say you can never judge a book by its cover, but you can usually judge a band by its name. Authors hardly ever have a say in their book covers, but bands choose their name. So if Slow Towns Burn a Little Slower sounds like a band that's forged in the pop-emo explosion of 2002, damnit you're right.Their sound is a hodgepodge of Saves the Day meets U2 with a Motion City Soundtrack flare and the Taking Back Sunday confusing song titles. Song titles include "Meth is the New America", "Spittin' Truths", and my person favorite "Help! There's a Con Artist Under My Bed!".Despite all the...
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The Hands: The Hands
2008-02-22 21:38:00
The Hands : The HandsHope in your time machine, The Hands want you to listen to their self-titled debut and immediately pull out The Rolling Stones' Out of Our Heads.The Hands basically use blues mixed with hard rock to form a sound that isn't exactly original. The band could easily be compared to everyone from The Rolling Stones to the John Spencer Blues Explosion to Jet. The thing that makes the Hands unique is they might be better than any of those bands.The Seattle group doesn't just steal the sound but they seemingly improve it. Lead vocalist John Healy's Mick Jagger meets Howlin Peter Almqvist is the perfect mix of snotty and desperate. Every howl has a feeling of this could be the last words he ever sings.Although early in the year, The Hands' self titled debut is taking a real shot at album of the year for 08.Rating: 9.5/10MP3: The Hands "Hold Your Head Up"

Panther: 14Kt God
2008-02-22 01:38:00
Panther: 14Kt GodThe duo known as Panther has quickly become a favorite on indie rock radio. The lead single from 14kt God, "Puerto Rican Jukebox" has been all over Sirius' Left of Center.Their music is immediately ear catching through the use of dance beats, unique instrumentation, and their use of odd time signatures. Occasionally their beats can be reminiscent of Vampire Weekend. Their music often sounds muddy with bass playing the major and guitar there as a side note. They use cello quite often as well.At their best they are a unique dance band, but more often than I would care for they slow it down. They over indulge their experimental side and end up with a drifty mess.In the end, I feel like the album is a little disjointed. The album does have more than ups than downs but the downs take away from the albums feel and vibe. Overall, I simply believe this band can do better.Rating: 6.4/10MP3: Panther "Total Sexy Church"
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The Raveonettes: Lust Lust Lust
2008-02-21 03:04:00
The Raveonettes: Lust Lust LustThe Danish rock duo, The Raveonettes release their fourth LP Lust Lust Lust via Vice Records.Released in 2007 in the UK, the noise rock album finally makes its way over to the states. The album features a very minimalistic approach not seen before from the band. It also happens to be their noisiest release.The music is stylistically like the Stone Roses or Jesus and The Mary Chain. In its quietest moments it is reminiscent of Garbage (the band not discarded items) at its loudest times its reminiscent of a Sonic Youth-esque crescendo. The great thing about the album is the little pieces they put in to make each song different."Lust" has a Western beat to it like a Gene Autry tune while "Dead Sound" utilizes a drum machine to add a Echo and the Bunnymen feel.Sometime their music gets too minimal like in the lo-fi slocore snoozer "Expelled From Love". But overall there aren't many missteps on the album. Whether it is the group maturing or just gene...
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Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
2008-02-20 02:56:00
Bon Iver: For Emma , Forever AgoJustin Vernon's debut as Bon Iver is full of sad bastard acoustic tunes that could only be forged in a Wisconsin winter.The world is full of singer/song writers that write entirely shitty acoustic tracks. Most of these artists send out their CD and the CD quickly finds its way to file 13. Somehow some blogger picked the CD out of the line up and decided "if I say this is awesome how many people will follow". It turns out everyone will.Blog after blog after blog lauds Bon Iver as amazing and when I sat down to review this CD I was excited to hear what my blog brethren have been raving about. Like so many times before, my blog brethren have lead me astray.His quiet folk style is reminiscent of Iron and Wine. His reverbed falsetto vocals reminds me of Band of Horses. His song writing reminds me of someone who has been condemned to death.The pure desolate nature of the music he tries to impart to his listener is reason enough for me to hate it. But...

The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride
2008-02-19 01:47:00
The Mountain Goats : Heretic Pride Heretic Pride is the 16th full length album for John Darnielle and company.John Darnielle had began writing autobiographical songs on his past three albums: We Shall All Be Healed, The Sunset Tree, and Get Lonely. Heretic Pride sees the return of Darnielle writing songs about others. For those who felt Darnielle was getting too mushy will be relieved to hear the albums contents.The album starts off with "Sax Rohmer #1" assumably about the prolific English author. The song is a nice upbeat folk-rock number with a full band arrangement with none too serious content.Besides prolific English authors, other characters making appearances are a boy in a Marcus Allen Jersey, a Murduk t-shirt, and Michael Myers. Yes, Darnielle is up to his old tricks again.Besides the full band arrangements and lack of cassette tape lo-fi quality, this is a classic Mountain Goats album. Everything the past three albums weren't, this album is.Rating: 8.8/10MP3: The Mount...

Various Artists: Keep Singing - A Benefit Compilation for Compassion Over K
2008-02-17 15:55:00
Various Artists : Keep Singing - A Benefit Compilation for Compassion Over KillingFinally a non-PETA benefiting animal rights comp. The album benefits the animal rights group, Compassion Over Killing. The comp features such big name artists as Strike Anywhere and Ampere.The album does a good job of showing where veganism stands in modern music. The compilation for the most part features only hardcore bands and singer songwriters and that is exactly who I think of when I think of vegans.The album starts off truly horribly with the ham-handed political anthem "Too Cool to Cry" by Gina Young. The first few seconds of lyrics made me not too cool to cry for the death of subtlety in political music.Strike Anywhere turn in their usually sociopolitical melodic hardcore outing. The song is good and will live up to any expectation their fans might have.Noisy hardcore bands like Life At These Speeds, Attrition, and In First Person rule the first part of the compilation while wussy soft roc...

Michael Jackson: Thriller 25th Anniversary
2008-02-14 00:10:00
This album celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the last positive news story about Michael Jackson . Okay, that's a lie but it feels like the King of Pop died long ago. This album attempts to show the relevance of Michael Jackson to a generation who didn't grow up knowing Michael as the King of Pop.Listing to Thriller at this point, its amazing how many songs are in the subconscious of every American. With the exception of "Human Nature" and "Lady in my Life" every song on it feels like a single you've heard a million times.The real review here is of the bonus tracks on the album. Will.i.am, Kanye West, Akon, and Fergie take their best crack at remixing MJ classics. Fergie's take on "Thriller" adds so little to the original that you could easily mistaken it for the original. Kanye West's remix of "Bilie Jean" only fares slightly. The addition of a hip hop beat in the background is hardly a remix and Kanye doesn't even spit a verse in it. What a rip off?Akon basically does...

British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?
2008-02-13 00:20:00
British Sea Power : Do You Like Rock Music ?I'm not going to lie, I like rock music. When you first hear the question "do you like rock music?" you expect what follows to sound like AC/DC or at least like Led Zepplin or something. British Sea Power sounds nothing like AC/DC nor Led Zepplin.British Sea Power is instead extremely well-read in the art of sonic ambient rock. The music is comprised of a wall-of-guitar and early Thom Yorke-esque vocal musings.So far all the reviews I've seen have either bowed at the altar of British Sea Power or have panned the album. I guess I'll be the first to lodge an indifferent review. The band manages to make some pretty catchy hooks but their often muddled in the wall-of-guitars. When they lose the wall-of-guitars its for awkwardly slow songs that just don't live up to the energy of the rest of the songs.In the end, this is a pretty good album but I know it could be better. Sadly, I feel a completely listening of this album in one sitting...
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Idiot Pilot: Wolves
2008-02-12 05:15:00
Idiot Pilot : Wolves Released electronically in October of 2007, Idiot Pilot 's sophomore album finally gets the CD treatment.The band has been compared to Radiohead and on this album they employ Travis Barker for drums and Mark Hoppus does production work. I don't think they sound anything like Radiohead nor do the former members of Blink 182 have any effect on the bands music.The music sounds like a remix of Muse burned onto a faulty CD. There are computer glitches and beeps throughout every song. The songs are overcomplicated and the complicatedness is only overshadowed by confusion when they mix in elements of screamo.The band clearly has some talent but their effort seems so purposely disjointed that its completely unfixable and unlistenable in my eyes. Better luck next time boys.Rating: 2.7/10MP3: Idiot Pilot "Elephant"
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Bob Mould: District Line
2008-02-08 03:03:00
Bob Mould: District Line There was a point in time when Husker Du ruled the American underground scene. It's leader Bob Mould was the key to the whole project. Creative tensions drew the band apart.Immediately after the break-up Bob Mould locked himself in a wooden cabin and kicks drugs and alcohol and recorded his first solo album. That album was released in 1988 and so was the start of Mould's solo career.Listening to District Line its so hard to believe Mould is the same man that was in Husker Du. At 47, the angst has soured and turned to bitterness. Acoustic Mould to me means "Never Talking to You Again" but District Line is far from that.This god of punk could now pass as adult alternative contemporary. The music is acoustic with layers of symphonic strings in the back ground. There are some electric rockers like "Return to Dust" but they are a far cry from Zen Arcade. He even ventures into techno with "Shelter Me" which is both odd and disconcerting.I can safely say t...
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Sheryl Crow: Detours
2008-02-07 03:37:00
Sheryl Crow : DetoursA sparse few days before her 46th birthday, Sheryl Crow releases Detours, her sixth studio album.Detour is produced by Bill Bottrell who produced Tuesday Night Music Club. Perhaps that's why this album feels so much like her debut album from way back when. Sure Sheryl does a couple new things. She sings in Arabic "Peace Be Upon Us" but it doesn't add much to an otherwise bland song.Overall, what Sheryl seems to rediscover on this album that she had on her debut is lyrical depth. Her debut was more concerned with person exploration but Detour is a tactful political album. She stated in interviews the album was in the great tradition of Bob Dylan. That sentiment resonates throughout the record."Gasoline" is an alt-country version of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" while the lo-fi solo acoustic "God Bless This Mess" could be this generations "Blowin' in the Wind".The really good songs on the album may be amongst the best of Crow's career but unfortunately fo...
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Nada Surf: Lucky
2008-02-06 00:46:00
Nada Surf : Lucky Not many bands can go from 90s-alt-rock-one-hit-wonders to indie darlings, but that's exactly what Nada Surf has done. In 1996, Nada Surf scored a hit with the part spoken word, part teenage angst anthem "Popular". They recorded a follow up album but were dropped from their major label which pushed the release of their sophomore album 2 years late to 2000. Now the band releases their 5th album, Lucky via indie powerhouse Barsuk Records.Nada Surf continues where they left off on The Weight is a Gift. Lucky combines elegant acoustic guitars, electric rock and Matthew Caws' emotive song writing.I've always been on the fence about Nada Surf. They have the ability to write excellent rock songs such as "Deeper Well" or "Hi-Speed Soul". Caws can even write extremely catch slower songs like "Blizzard of 77" or "Inside of Love" but Caws also has a disturbing ability. That ability is the ability to write U2 "One"-esque power ballads.For U2 "One" was a huge hit, but i...
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Super Tuesday
2008-02-05 15:53:00
As a resident in a Super Tuesday state and a registered member of the democratic party, I will be voting in todays democratic primary. As a resident of the least influential Super Tuesday state, I can only wish that all of you eligible to vote in this primary will vote. I'm not going to try to sway you in any particular direction. Whether you're a republican and choosing between McCain or Romney or you're a democrat deciding between Clinton or Obama, just do your duty and vote.That's enough soap boxing for me. I'm not gonna try and sway you but for you voting in the democratic primary Daedalus wants to sway you to vote for Obama. He just released this MP3 simply entitled Obama. Enjoy!MP3: Daedalus "Obama"

Air Traffic: Fractured Life
2008-02-05 00:42:00
Air Traffic : Fractured Life Fractured Life is the debut album by the British alternative band, Air Traffic . Their music is not unlike fellow imports Coldplay or American alternative group The Fray.With piano generally being the main instrument, the band gives a banal over view of the instrument mostly with ballads. The more choice songs on the album are the more up-tempo numbers when you can hear a little more Supergrass in their sound.The lead single from the album is "Charlotte" which contains very little piano and is actually more reminiscent of Superdrag. This song is the reason they have garnered popularity in their native Britain and are being imported to America."Charlotte" is a great song, one which is not replicated often on the album. Tracks like "I Like That" manage to replicate its energy and catchiness but in order to get to that track you need to sit through Five For Fighting-esque ballad "Time Goes By".Overall, for a debut I guess this album is not bad. They have p...

Superbowl XLII
2008-02-03 21:58:00
People often complain about an East Coast bias but its so hard not to be biased. Sure Chicago is a great city and I got love for LA being born in CA, but there are very few cities in the world as cool as Boston or New York.The Red Sox and Yankees have for the past century have been the greatest rivalry in sports. Now the great New York and Boston rivalry continues in another sport. The Giants and Patriots meet in Arizona to decide the National Championship. Everyone knows the story line, the undefeated vs the underdog.As a huge Red Sox fan everyone assumes I'm rooting for the New England Patriots, but I'm a Miami Dolphins fan. So in the interest in preserving the Miami Dolphins as the only undefeated team ever, I'm rooting for the Giants. Go Big Blue! Wreck some dreams to keep Mercury Morris relevant for a few more years.Enjoy some related tracks!MP3: Nas "New York State of Mind"MP3: Frank Sinatra "New York, New York"MP3: Big D And The Kids Table "New England (Jonathan Ric...
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MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
2008-02-01 02:58:00
MGMT: Oracular Spectacular The New-York-via-Wesleyan-University duo MGMT release their debut full length album Oracular Spectacular.The bands beginnings saw them experiment with noise rock and electronic before settling on what they call "psychedelic pop". Those old genres do however creep in to their music more often than one would expect.The most apt comparison is Of Montreal but they do have some similarities to another band from Wesleyan, Battles. Their experimental vibe makes the songs all sound very different. From song to song, there are occasions when you can't believe its the same band.It's hard to make a cohesive album with such variety in their songs, but somehow MGMT pulls it off. I would not usually be favorable to such albums but something about this bands brand of pop just rubs me the right way.Rating: 7.7/10MP3: MGMT "The Youth"

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
2008-01-31 05:29:00
Vampire Weekend : Vampire Weekend The debut album from New York indie band Vampire Weekend reminds us that even though a band's name sucks doesn't necessarily mean the band sucks.Vampire Weekend is one of those pretentious indie bands from New York that I would usually hate but something about them just won't let me.They came to rise through several blogs hyping them including Stereogum and Ear Farm. Earlier this month Rolling Stone called their song "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" one of the best songs of 2007.Their music is a blend of indie rock and tribal African rhythms. The band members pretentiously refer to their genre as "Upper West Side Soweto". Perhaps my liking of them comes from the fact that I was raised on Paul Simon's Graceland.The truth is that the band has a great grasp of what makes pop music pop. Their addition of infuences like African rhythms just is a way to make pop music more interesting than a generic 4/4 time, three chord song.Rating: 8.3/10MP3: Vampire Week...
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The Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath
2008-01-30 05:03:00
The Mars Volta : The Bedlam in GoliathThe ex-At the Drive-In boys bring their unique blend of post-punk and neo-prog rock to Island Records for their fourth full length release.The Mars Volta has never been accused of being normal. Perhaps that is what has made them so polarizing. They don't seem to be the type of band that people can peacefully co-exist with, you either love them or hate them.Before you read on just note, I am one of the people that hate them. I can respect their talent but there is something so unabashedly pretentious about them that I harbor a deep despise for them.The Bedlam in Goliath is really no different. Cedric Bixler-Zavala's voice is so unique that it really has the power to do amazing things (see At the Drive-In), but Omar Rodríguez-López's musical direction since the split of ATDI has been so weird that I can't help but feel like they have abandoned everything that made them once great.The Bedlam in Goliath once again pushes the boundary of what ...
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