Nicholas and JB wonder if they made a mistake after discarding a janitor’s dead, mangled body in the dumpster out back.
Pocket Symphony is the fourth studio album by Air, and was released today. Please decide for yourself if the following mp3 sounds pleasant, or if it sounds like a couple of dorky Frenchmen trying to sing who should maybe should re-enlist the help of Beth Hirsch.
Rating: 3.0
Is this a Pearl Jam outtakes record culled from their recent self-titled album? Switch out the open avocado with a wooden ghetto blaster and the album cover is almost exactly the same. This CD, however, has nothing to do with Eddie Vedder and his hard rock cohorts. This is a fellow who goes by the name Money Mark, not Marky Mark, and his fourth album lies on the opposite end of the spectrum from any brand of aggressive guitar based rock (or hip hop). The newly released Brand New By Tomorrow often comes across as the kind of music that you would hear at low volume in the summertime when attending your bosses fourth of July barbecue.
Rating: 7.0
Cohesive debuts are few and far between. Here is an album in the ruff: the Mezzanine Owls are sure-footed in their fledgling sound, which is all the more grown-up for standing on the shoulders of giants like R.E.M. and The Jesus and Mary Chain. As a Los Angeles based band, the Owls sound native to Southern California about as much as Pink Martini sounds indigenous to Portland. What they do sound like: Silver Jews, My Bloody Valentine, Built to Spill, and Slowdive.
Rating: 6.0
I wouldn’t have predicted Explosions in the Sky to be such a popular band. They appeared on Conan O’Brian on February 20th, and an upcoming show at New York’s 1,500 capacity Webster Hall sold out a solid month in advance. Other successes have been easier to predict—the Smashing Pumpkins-influenced Silversun Pickups, the Led Zeppelin incarnate of Wolfmother—but the method behind Explosions in the Sky’s appeal remains more challenging. With shimmering, orchestral grandeur, their latest LP All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone is a provocative album of moody instrumental soundscapes. If you’re a fan of Sigur Ros or Mogwai, you’ll like Explosions in the Sky’s version as well.
Neumo’s
Seattle, WA
February 28, 2007
Montreal pop quintet Malajube takes risks. Their hugely operatic sophomore album Trompe L’Oeil veers into melodrama with drunken abandonment: like a friend made in a Parisian hostel, they’re loads of fun, mysterious and a little reckless—but in a way that only our less-jaded, foreign counterparts can be, they’re also somehow innocent and refreshingly free of self-consciousness.
HALEY, BILL
He sang “Rock Around the Clock.” When that song was popular Elvis had yet to chart nationally, Chuck Berry’s first single had barely been recorded, and Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly didn’t even have contracts. Haley was at the time, in other words, the only white rock ‘n’ roll star in the world. Now there are all sorts of white rock ‘n’ roll stars, like Nelson. Without Bill Haley, there might not be “(I Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection” and we’d all be the worse for it. Thanks Bill Haley. Thanks Matthew. Thanks Gunnar.
Rating: 7.0
In 2005, Hrishikesh Hirway relocated from Los Angeles to Mumbai, India, where he shaped much of what would become the fourth full-length from The One AM Radio. The thought-provoking lyrics and seamless blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation make for an exceedingly pleasant listen. Though not rife with intensely memorable moments, This Too Will Pass is an album that will seep into your brain, unbeknownst to you, and make itself at home. It’s too pretty not to.