Getting too attached to one of Montreal’s albums is generally a bad idea. During their 19 years on the scene, the band – or rather, sole consistent member and frontman Kevin Barnes – has released a total of 14 studio albums, constantly changing their style throughout. Starting with simple acoustic guitar ditties, Barnes then […]
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It’s always a strange feeling to hear that a band with a markedly long absence is going to be releasing a new album. The bar is almost always set impossibly high, since listeners are likely going to reminisce about where they were when the band last dominated musical conversations. Last year the Libertines released Anthems
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Metronomy has most recently been known for producing some of the mildest synthpop out there. Their 2011 album The English Riviera placed subdued synthesizer melodies over traditional rock instrumentation, with frontman Joseph Mount providing vocals on almost every track. Its 2014 follow-up Love Letters added a retro tint to this formula, as it was recorded
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As various indie rock trends have come and gone over the years, Band of Horses have remained remarkably consistent. Since the release of their debut Everything All The Time a decade ago, the band has put out three studio albums that all have the same distinct sound – a very American style of indie rock
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Nick Thorburn can’t seem to catch a break. Although he gained a great deal of popularity with indie pop group the Unicorns, they released all of one studio album (Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?) in 2003 before splitting. Despite a litany of musical projects since this time, including five releases as
Review: Islands – Should I Remain Here At Sea?/Taste Read More »
If you’ve paid attention to rock music at all in the past twenty years, you know that Radiohead are a pretty big deal. They’re one of the few alternative bands from the 90s that’s managed to stay relevant after 24 years, they almost constantly receive critical acclaim, and they can sell out an arena in
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For the uninitiated, the Last Shadow Puppets are a side project of Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner and former Rascals frontman Miles Kane. If you haven’t heard their name recently or even at all, that’s understandable given their last release The Age of the Understatement came out eight years ago. This album was also
Review: The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect Read More »
As indie rock has grown to incorporate elements of electronica and pop, it seems like it has done so at the expense of gimmick-free guitar-based rock groups. A band that only has bass, drums and guitar that does not try to incorporate any particular genre or subgenre into its sound really has to make
Review: The Joy Formidable – Hitch Read More »
Listening to Animal Collective is a lot like visiting a modern art gallery. Some visitors may rave about everything they see, calling even the most abstract works “genius.” Others may be less impressed by what they see, not understanding how anyone could find them brilliant (especially without being on drugs) or perhaps just saying “…I
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2015 was an all-around amazing year for music. There were some astounding debuts, great surprises by bands that hadn’t been heard from in years, and high-quality albums by artists that have yet to let us down. There were also a number of good-but-not great albums by indie heavyweights (The Decemberists, Belle and Sebastian, Modest Mouse)
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Indie music fans had a lot to be thankful for in 2015, with some amazing albums released this year. This is not the list for those albums. Instead, this list is for great songs that were on otherwise good-but-not great albums from 2015. Modest Mouse – The Ground Walks, With Time In A Box
The Top 10 Songs of 2015 (That Aren’t from the Top 10 Albums) Read More »
From the mild Coldplay to the stadium-filling Muse to the ever-changing Beck, it seems like music labeled “alternative” is everywhere. “Alternative” is usually known to be short for “alternative rock,” but there’s also alternative country (frequently abbreviated “alt-country”), alternative hip-hop, and alternative metal. In these latter cases one, can deduce that “alternative” means “different from
Better Know A Genre: Alternative Read More »
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