RegnYouth Archives

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Xavier Rudd - Dark Shades of Blue
2008-08-25 20:51:00
There’s a long tradition of acoustic artists plugging in, and Australian singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd now joins an esteemed list that includes the likes of Dylan and DiFranco. With 2007’s White Moth as a stepping stone and touring partner and drummer Dave Tolley along for the ride, Rudd’s latest effort, Dark Shades of Blue , is richer ...
More About: Pop , Rock

Juliana Hatfield - How to Walk Away
2008-08-25 18:25:00
As long as it’s been since the band had any sort of relevance, Juliana Hatfield still remains?and might forever be?a member of the Blake Babies in your mind. The idea of her making her a solo record seems a departure from her main preoccupation as a member of that band. She’s still that Boston college-rocker, ...
More About: Indie , Walk

Apse - Spirit
2008-08-25 05:43:00
With what has been an amazing year of releases from the likes of Alexander Tucker and Fuck Buttons, ATP is proving themselves to be an entity at the forefront of pushing the envelope, bursting with psychedelic and cerebral music. Not your typical shoegazer combo, Spirit is a darkly harmonic mesh of sounds, fusing tribal rhythms ...
More About: Experimental

The War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues
2008-08-24 22:39:00
The major label debut from The War On Drugs is a full bodied and healthy dose of nostalgia and longing that is usually reserved for country singers. The Philadelphia quintet, led by guitarist/vocalist Adam Granduciel, sounds more at home playing in a small bar surrounded by pasture and rolling hills than the city that Rocky ...
More About: Blues , War on Drugs , The War on Drugs

Recommended Film Soundtracks For Any Collection
2008-08-24 21:33:00
From the first rickety pianola riff cooked up to accompany a Keystone Kops comedy to the orchestral pomp and Top 40 pop blasting out of modern multiplexes, music has been crucial to the cinema. Just try to imagine movies without it: dialogue thudding into dead air, chase scenes devoid of suspense, dramas without crescendo, comedies ...
More About: Film , Soundtracks

The School - Let It Slip EP
2008-08-24 16:13:00
Reviving a long forgotten sound is a flourishing band, simply called The School , that evoke feeling and passion in their love of all things ’60s. Fronting the Cardiff group is Liz Hunt, a woman with such an angelic voice that it becomes immediately addictive. Through observation of the musical talent, it’s easy to see that ...
More About: Pop , Rock , Slip

The Cool Kids ? That?s Stupid!
2008-08-24 04:58:00
After receiving some serious blog buzz for the better part of a year, Chicago hip hop duo The Cool Kids released their debut EP, The Bake Sale, last month to polarized reviews. Some saw the EP as an unabashed rip-off of classic late ?80s and early ?90s hip hop sounds saturated with hipster-friendly pop-culture references ...
More About: Stupid , Cool Kids

The Rosie Taylor Project - This City Draws Maps
2008-08-24 01:09:00
The Rosie Taylor Project have produced a charming mini-album that displays a catalogue of indie pop featuring moments of real beauty, but lacking a consistency that will have people shouting from the roof tops about them just yet. Right from the opening The Sun On My Right, you get a strong hint at what is ...
More About: City , Maps

The Walkmen - You & Me
2008-08-23 21:41:00
Hard to believe that not too long ago, some people were writing off the Walkmen. After some recent misfires, many wondered if the Walkmen could recapture the brilliance of 2004?s Bows & Arrows. Well, with You & Me, they have done just that. This is a spectacular return to form for this great New York ...

Thank You - Terrible Two
2008-08-23 19:17:00
The first thing to understand about Terrible Two, the new album by Baltimore ?rhythm/action? trio Thank You, is that it is background music. If that sounds harsh, try and remember some of the great records that work just as well when you?re not paying attention as when you?re digging for details. Can and Neu! are ...
More About: Experimental

Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
2008-08-23 06:11:00
The Rhumb Line may be Syracuse quintet Ra Ra Riot’s first full-length release, but the band has already endured a Behind the Music’s worth of shakeups and tragedy. Less than a year after original frontman Shaw Flick exited the co-ed group, drummer John Pike went missing at a house party and his body was later ...

The Grates - Teeth Lost, Hearts Won
2008-08-23 02:54:00
The Grates have always been a divisive band, as their debut Gravity Won?t Get You High poved with bubbling, fun in the sun sound. And while Teeth Lost , Hearts Won retains the trademark shambolic fun, it injects new layers and grunts into the proceedings. This time, Patience, Alana and John come armed with sharpened technical ...

Atlas Sound, Oasis x2, & Simian Mobile Disco Remixed
2008-08-19 01:16:00
Brandon Cox is nothing if not prolific. He also happens to be very generous, giving away countless amounts of non-album material on his Deerhunter/Atlas Sound /Lotus Plaza blog. Of these many tracks, the especially noteworthy ones come in the form of Virtual 7-inches, in which Cox updates the concept of the single to the 21st-century. Number ...
More About: Mobile , Oasis , Islands , Disco

Brendan Canning - Something For All Of Us
2008-08-19 01:08:00
This is the second in the Broken Social Scene Presents series, but unlike vaguely BSS-related projects like Metric or Feist, this one features so many band members and shares so much musically that it easily serves as a substantial snack to hold over hardcore fans of the band until they come out with a proper ...
More About: Canning , Brendan

Silvery - Thunderer And Excelsior
2008-08-18 19:46:00
London quartet Silvery have already been drawing deserved attention for their carefully crafted and craftily curated forays into musical eccentricity of an especially British kind. They are this year’s Darkness, though it has to be said they acquit themselves with bucketfuls more sophistication than the Queen-wannabes. The cover of Thunderer And Excelsior, Silvery’s 14-track debut, ...

Fightstar - Alternate Endings
2008-08-18 18:54:00
The post hardcore / screamo scene has become somewhat glutted with mediocre bands, which is why Fightstar ’s debut was a refreshing listen. Contrasting chunky, Helmet-esque riffing with ultra melodic choruses, the four piece wrote fist in the air anthems that deliver a powerful emotional punch on Grand Unification, released in 2007. Alternate Endings offers a ...

The Dutchess and The Duke - She?s The Dutchess, He?s The Duke
2008-08-18 04:35:00
The Dutchess (Kimberly Morrison) and the Duke (Jesse Lortz) initially met in the short-lived post-millennial R&B outfit The Flying Dutchmen, and regrouped a few years later in The Sultanas, a modern girl group that never got off the ground. Given the nostalgic bent of those first two outings, it?s not surprising the pair is still ...
More About: The Dutchess

Zozobra ? Bird Of Prey
2008-08-17 23:45:00
Following last year?s debut, Harmonic Tremors, Caleb Scofield (Cave In/Old Man Gloom) and his moniker Zozobra have returned with their latest Bird of Prey . Following in the post-metal footsteps of his other side project, Old Man Gloom, Scofield is joined by Isis drummer Aaron Harris, who lends his hand both behind the mixing board and ...

Silver Summit - Silver Summit
2008-08-17 22:26:00
Brooklyn outfit Silver Summit just dropped its self-titled debut on psych-folk imprint Language of Stone, and its revenant, deep sound is right at home there. Sondra Ow Sun-Odeon sings as if reading ancient chants straight out of the Cosmonomicon, while Shawn Bosler?s array of guitars wrap her in darkly patterned blankets. If the duo?s sound ...
More About: Folk

Hall & Oates: The Blue Eyed Soul Hit Makers
2008-08-17 18:35:00
Praise for this Troubadour-bound duo, hit makers in the ’70s and ’80s, comes from the likes of Ben Gibbard, Rilo Kiley, Gym Class Heroes and Brandon Flowers. Daryl Hall and John Oates were the Hugo Boss-clad kingpins of Reagan-era pop and seemed destined for the casino-circuit dotage most pop stars eventually face — their new ...
More About: Soul , Blue , Makers

Tilly And The Wall - O
2008-08-17 16:28:00
For those of you who don?t know Tilly and the Wall yet, here is the basic recipe: they are an indie-pop boy-girl group risen from the ashes of Conor Oberst?s first band and signed to his Team Love label. They have a tap dancing percussionist and dual female vocalists. They also named themselves after a ...
More About: The wall

Stereolab - Chemical Chords
2008-08-17 04:03:00
Tim Gane set out to write shorter, louder, faster tunes for the new Stereolab LP, Chemical Chords . In that he has definitely succeeded. He’s also managed to put together Stereolab’s most diverse set since the one-two punch of Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops. Gane and long-time collaborator Lætitia Sadier are looking back on tracks like Self-Portrait with ‘Electric Brain’ (which would fit nicely on 1999’s Cobra and Phases), Neon Beanbag (which sounds like a long-lost The First of the Microbe Hunters cut), and The Ecstatic Static (which could be either early Stereolab or late Belle and Sebastian). They’re also looking forward, getting a little darker on the hip-hop laced One Finger Symphony and a little more metal on Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1). The vigorous hi-hats on the title track even manage to bring to mind the late Isaac Hayes. Check out the four-on-the-floor drive of Silver Sands. Those retro-synths sound familiar, and when it ...

Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
2008-08-17 02:44:00
For Toronto’s death-country trio Elliott Brood, setting is everything. They recorded Ambassador, their last full-length, entirely in an abandoned slaughterhouse, and the outcome was a bleak, sombre march. In contrast, on their newly released Mountain Meadows they chose a variety of less macabre settings, from town halls to proper studios. The resulting album is a mélange of dark, rollicking jams and subdued slow numbers, striking an ideal balance between the band’s facets. Kicking off with the steady crescendo of Fingers and Tongues, the boys remind us of their penchant for epic guitar-driven rock. Without missing a beat, the album veers off into the land of banjo- and ukulele-driven country jams, with Mark Sasso’s delightfully raspy voice providing an early high point in the jaunty Write It All Down For You. As the album continues, vocal contributions from Casey Laforet on tracks like Without Again and The Valley Town provide an excellent counterpoint. Mountain Meadows is at...

Lykke Li - Youth Novels
2008-08-17 00:04:00
That she’s the weakest element of her debut’s two spoken-word pieces, the dreamy intro Melodies & Desires and the midway interlude This Trumpet in My Head, speaks to either Swedish pop artist Lykke Li’s strength as a singer or, more likely, the strength of the album’s musical arrangements and production, which come courtesy of Peter Björn and John’s Björn Yttling and Lasse Mårtén, who has worked with such above ground pop singers as Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Celine Dion. There’s a daintiness to Li’s reverb-drenched voice, and it borders on parody (of both herself and her ilk) on the precious Time Flies. Li doesn’t possess the necessary bravado to pull off a lyric like “For you I keep my legs apart” (Little Bit), but she summons enough rancor—even without the vocal distortion—to make the kiss-off Breaking It Up an album highlight. By sheer virtue of the fact that English is not its singer’s first language, C...
More About: Novels , Youth

Various Artists - The Tracey Fragments Original Soundtrack
2008-08-16 19:46:00
The latest Ellen Page (of Juno fame) movie, The Tracey Fragments, features a brilliant score by Broken Social Scene, fitting so perfectly and seamlessly into the film. And while the soundtrack album doesn’t include the whole score, there are a choice selection of Broken Social Scene’s tracks and all the other songs used in the film. The opener, Horses, is a gem of a track and is used in one of most climatic parts of the movie. The following Broken Social Scene songs are a bit hit and miss, very atmospheric and similar to Feel Good Lost in their post-rocky sound, but nothing that stands out on their own, Unfortunately the brilliant little song that’s included in the trailer doesn’t seem to be present, which is a shame. However, The Tracey Fragments Original Soundtrack has its merits without BSS: Each New Day (Rose Melburg) is one of the non Broken Social Scene songs that sticks out in the film at one of the more tender moments and overall the soundtrack stands...
More About: Artists , Original Soundtrack

The 21 Most Criminally Overlooked Post-Punk Classics
2008-08-16 05:11:00
After the punk revolution in the late seventies, an endless number of bands inspired by the DIY spirit and raw sound of punk were formed. Many of these bands forged into more experimental territory (instead of replicating the sound of the Sex Pistols), taking cues from a range of artists and styles, such as Roxy ...
More About: Punk , Classics , Post , Post Punk , Post-punk

The Dandy Warhols - Earth To The Dandy Warhols
2008-08-16 01:14:00
The only company likely to use a song from the Dandy Warhols’ new album in an ad are the makers of Spaceman cigarettes. This time round the Portland quartet, who will be remembered by many as the Vodafone band because of the song Bohemian Like You, are out there floating in space. Following Thirteen Tales ...
More About: Earth , The Dandy Warhols

Broadcast 2000 - Building Blocks EP
2008-08-15 22:54:00
Written, recorded and mixed in the bedroom of his North London flat, Joe Steer AKA Broadcast 2000 delivers a mini-album of folk infused indie pop with his debut Building Blocks , recalling such artists as Adem and Sufjan Stevens . Combining cello, double bass, guitar, ukulele, glockenspiel, banjo, percussion and his own layered vocals, Steer successfully employs ...
More About: Britpop

El Ten Eleven - These Promises Are Being Videotaped
2008-08-15 19:31:00
A two-man Los Angeles sound machine, El Ten Eleven was previously known for stoney instrumentals, courting fans of post-rock. But on their third effort, These Promises Are Being Videotaped, a switch to dance has been paying off. Deciding to join the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Justice, they do create music to sway to ...

Melvins - Nude With Boots
2008-08-15 16:43:00
During their 24-year existence, the Melvins have been pushing the boundaries of “heavy” music with the force of a bulldozer. This has included forays into electronic experimentation, noise-rock and playing at the pace of a senior citizen on the freeway. Such tinkering has produced a variety of results, some definitely more successful than others, but ...
More About: Rock , Boots