She and Him ‘Volume 3’ Merge M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel are entertaining enough people. Ward is a perfectly acceptable guitarist and Deschanel gamely holds up the vocals. But there’s this niggling part of me that can’t help but ask: If Deschanel was just another girl, would this group have
Read More →Ira Grace and The Bible Belt Prophets ‘Big Tent Whiskey Revival’ Independent There are a few bands in town for which the magical alchemy of male/female harmonies mean everything. The High Crest and Dustin Smith and the Sunday Silos immediately come to mind as prime examples, with the former setting
Read More →The Melvins ‘Everybody Loves Sausages’ Ipecac Previous Melvins releases have been more than a little cover-heavy, but with “Everybody Loves Sausages,” the Washington state rockers have gone all in. Boasting 13 tracks, “Sausages” is wildly creative and covers everything from Queen and Bowie to Throbbing Gristle and The Jam. The
Read More →Rob Zombie ‘Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor’ Zodiac Swan Rob Zombie has smeared his fingerprints all over heavy metal, industrial and three-chord garage rock, as well as the realms of film and the written word. Not everything he has done with his career has necessarily been a rousing success, but Zombie
Read More →H.D. Harmsen ‘Papoose’ Maximum Ames Maximum Ames’ biggest strengths also the biggest knock against the label: It encourages everyone, so you never really know what you’re going to get. Some of it is really good, really interesting music; some of it is navel gazing and ego masturbation. “Papoose,” for the
Read More →As For You ‘The Process of Separation’ Independent As For You describes itself as “a breath of fresh air” and, after listening to “The Process of Separation,” I’m not inclined to argue all that hard. The thing that makes the album so interesting is As For You’s ability to change
Read More →Alkaline Trio ‘My Shame is True’ Epitaph As a punk band, Alkaline Trio has always left me flat. They’ve never moved me the way that Green Day was capable of, but they’ve also never driven me to fits of bile and rage like, say, Blink-182. And so, “My Shame is
Read More →Aimee Mann ‘Mann on Mann Action’ Nonesuch Aimee Mann has toiled for three decades as one of those “musicians’ musicians,” but she’s never exactly been known as a hit machine. Easily Mann’s most commercially successful and recognizable work is “Voices Carry,” the title track off of her band ‘Til Tuesday’s
Read More →Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ‘Specter at the Feast’ Abstract Dragon This is barely the same band as the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that released 2005 high water mark, “Howl.” Gone is dummer Nick Jago — enter Leah Shapiro — and the band is also clearly still deeply affected by the
Read More →David Bowie ‘The Next Day’ Columbia Remember when David Bowie was DAVID BOWIE, and everything he touched was beautiful and amazing? He stopped being transcendent right around 1990, and since then has been releasing albums that have seemed to grasp more desperately at some kind of social relevance. Time had
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