The Thermals The Body, the Blood, the Machine [Sub Pop]

Of the three nouns that make up the title of the new Thermals record “The body, the blood, the machine” it is the machine that is truly represented. Sure, the body, and the blood exist, (to sometimes slightly visceral effect) but only as a reaction to the machine itself. Humanity although present, is undeniably dwarfed by, and forever linked to this machine. Whether that machine is war, god, or a fascist state, it’s all just the same wolf in different clothing.
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The Mountain Goats Get Lonely [4AD]

The Mountain Goat’s John Darnielle is like the kid at the open mic who just wouldn’t quit. Armed with nothing more than a grim determination to exhaustively articulate himself through folk song, Darnielle has made it to where no open mic’er has ever been allowed to tread. The Mountain Goats discography is large enough that, pushed way under your bed, cassettes, compilations, and 7” singles would be spilling out your bedroom door and into the hallway.
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Sigur Rós Saeglopur [Geffen]

When Takk was first released last year I remember feeling a little disappointed. It wasn’t a bad record, but it seemed to me Sigur Rós had wandered out of their caves built of ice, and I didn’t know if I was ready to see them dissolve into a sunnier and more upbeat affair. I missed the Sigur Rós from ( ) when they had the absurd confidence to make an entire album into a droning monochromatic monolith. Even the stark contrasts and experimentation that flooded Agaetis Bryjun seemed absent.
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Golem Concert Review and Photos by Julz Finley

Beachland
August 27, 2006
Cleveland, Ohio

Golem (in this context) isn’t the character from Lord of the Rings, but is a 6 piece band from Brooklyn, NY who is not only schooled in traditional Klezmer/Yiddish Muzak, but kick-ass live performers too. I had the chance to see them play at the Beachland in Cleveland, and I am really glad I went. It was by far one of the best shows I’ve seen in quite some time.
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Snakes on a Plane: The Album [New Line]

So, I live next to a gay sex club. Not a bar, but a sex club. Men go in and come out all night, occasionally sitting outside and smoking, trying their best not to make eye contact with passersby. I have walked past this place for almost a year, and one Saturday at about 3:30 in the morning, my curiosity (and the Red Bull vodka) gets to me, and I decide to finally check it out. Due to my shyness around new crowds, and that whole not being gay thing, I’m pretty shaky before I walk in. My heart’s racing, my neck’s hot, and even though I decide there’s no turning back, I have to wipe the sweat from my forehead before I open the front door.

I walk in and I’m immediately in a small rectangular room filled with mirrors and a ticket booth, like the ones at theaters or carnivals. The plexiglass window is vacant just long enough for me to catch my breath, when a chewed husk of a man saunters up. His skin is pruned like he just got out of a bathtub he’d soaked in for a week and his thinned hair is puffed into a translucent buzz-cut. I try to maintain a cool, calm demeanor but I’m pretty sure the door guy for a gay sex club is going to take about one second to realize the kid with a baby face and jittery eyes probably isn’t a regular. He takes my driver’s license and gives me the basic rate, which at 22 dollars for a 6 month membership and a locker seems kind of steep. It’s not like I’m going to need a locker, I think. He tells me that’s the cheapest he has, and he hasn’t smiled once, so I grudgingly hand him the money before he presses a secret button and the steel door to the right starts buzzing. After just a few minutes being stuck in purgatory between these two worlds, I decide that I’m ready to dive in.
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Sufjan Stevens The Avalanche [Asthmatic Kitty]

If Nature wouldn’t have made Sufjan Stevens, then Pitchfork would have. Mr. Stevens’ 2005 release, Illinois, got about as much cred as any record in recent memory, including #1 on Metacritic – even the big meanie heads at Pitchfork sang its praises. The fact that Stevens had vowed to make an album for all 50 states only added to his appeal – not only was he good, but he was also absurdly ambitious and clearly out of his mind.

Well, to be blunt, if you like the kind of stuff on Illinois, then you will like the stuff on Avalanche, Sufjan’s latest release. Claiming to be “extras and outtakes” from the before mentioned blockbuster, Avalanche goes above and beyond any ol’ compilation of leftovers. According to the Asthmatic Kitty website, Avalanche is in reality the 2nd half of the originally proposed double-disc that was to be Illinois. While the 2 disc idea was dropped early in recording, there was enough material present for a self-conscious Stevens to pick through, re-record, and release.
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