NEU! -- Neu!/ Neu! 2/ Neu! 75
Neu! is a band that you've probably heard of, but maybe never heard. Like many other bands, they are probably more well known by the effect their influence has had than for their actual music. Negativland stole their band name and record label name from Neu! song titles, while Stereolab basically stole everything that was left over... [more]

Amy Rigby -- The Sugar Tree
I once had the distinct pleasure of sitting pretty much literally at Amy Rigby's feet as she performed "Magicians." Nobody in the audience had heard it before, but we were happy to listen, since Amy Rigby's not really the type of artist that has hits to cheer for (a situation with benefits as well as drawbacks). And the song, which captures the last moment of the night (or relationship, if you're so inclined) when nothing exists but two people, was beautiful and devastating... [more]

US Maple -- Acre Thrills
For my money, the US Maple experiment is one of the most interesting going in music today. It's sort of like -- and I mean this in the best possible way -- watching an infant learn to speak, only they're developing an entirely new language and you don't know what's coming next, but the more you hear of it the more it makes sense... [more]

Okkervil River -- Don't Fall in Love With Everyone You See
After listening to Okkervil River's debut, Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See, I have to wonder if the album title's meant as a warning, sort of the musical equivalent of "danger ahead" scrawled in the dirt. It feels like a cautionary note, one that says "yes, you could end up just like me..." [more]

Madonna -- GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2
Nobody ever said Madonna was stupid. Shallow, perhaps. Washed up, a bunch of times. Manipulative, certainly. But it is her very calculation that nettled those who would tag her as a bimbo and release her back into her natural habitat. The damn woman wouldn't go away, and even those who couldn't stomach her reluctantly admitted that she was, if nothing else, a shrewd businesswoman... [more]

Radio Birdman -- The Essential Radio Birdman (1974-1978)
The language of record reviews is usually filled with comparison to other musical entities. One big problem with the "sounds like (insert band name here)" comparison (of many), however, is the implication of some kind of stylistic debt to those entities. So, if I say Radio Birdman evokes the best parts of the Stooges and the Buzzcocks in my ears, for instance, it's certainly not because of any chronological debt to the Buzzcocks... [more]

Aesop Rock -- Labor Days
The beautiful thing about much music is the way it always reacts to check itself and react to itself. Too many keyboards and too much pretense in your music? Just wait, and punk will come along to save the day. Hip-hop works under the same guidelines, and while one could never say that the more intelligent and "underground" hip-hop only comes around when it's needed most (since it's always there, albeit out of popular view), it does seem to come into vogue right around the time when its counterparts in popular hip-hop seem at their most brainless and materialistic... [more]

Waterdown -- Never Kill The Boy On The First Date
Jimmy Eat World meets Snapcase? Believe it. Waterdown is part of the next wave of Victory bands that really showcase the diverse monster that hardcore has become. Not content with playing monotonous crunch-scream-crunch-slow part-scream type songs, Waterdown runs the gamut from melodic choruses to guttural screaming and everything in between... [more]

Interpol -- Interpol
I've just gone cold on the whole New Wave revival trend that was happening for a while, I'm afraid. Sure, it was fun at first, but even the bands I like aren't bringing a whole lot new to the table, beyond updated production values, beefier-sounding keys, and a bigger dose of punk aggression. All of that's fine in and of itself, naturally, but unless it's backed by substance, well...the end result is an homage to a dead art form, nothing more. Just because that's the norm, however, doesn't mean there aren't exceptions... [more]

Thalia Zedek -- Been Here and Gone
Ms. Zedek is probably best known to you -- as she is to me -- for her work in Come. I always thought of Come as a downcast mix of Slint and the Rolling Stones, which is probably a glib and unfair assertation, but regardless, I always wanted to like them more than I actually liked them. They never quite worked for me, and quite frankly, I blamed the Stones... [more]

Kait0 -- You've seen us...you must have seen us/Montigola Underground EP
Kait0 is a four-piece noise-pop indie band from England. For me, they are such a breath of fresh air; I love 'em. Kait0 are something of a throwback to an earlier era (the early- to mid-1990s, I guess), when bands that seemed to be having fun playing what would become known as noise-pop still roamed the land, bringing smiles to faces and ringing to eardrums at the same time... [more]

Small Brown Bike -- Dead Reckoning
You probably already know who Small Brown Bike is. If you don't, well, remember when "emo" had a "core" attached to it? When it wasn't well on its way to becoming an insult ("That's so, ugh...emo...")? This is where Small Brown Bike comes from, like their contemporaries in Planes Mistaken For Stars, Waterdown, and Boy Sets Fire... [more]

Techno Animal -- The Brotherhood of the Bomb
This is Monster Island hip-hop. That's the absolute best description I've been able to come up with, after a couple of weeks of spinning this disc on my way to work (by the way, I'm claiming I was under its influence when I got a speeding ticket this AM; I think it'll hold up in court once I play it for 'em...) [more]

AMBIANCES MAGNETIQUES 4
CHARM SOUNDTRACK
CHICAGO CITY LIMITS 1
COMING UP
DOWN TO THE PROMISED LAND
FREEWAYS
EMO DIARIES V
EMO DIARIES VI
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS
LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID
LIVE AT THE HOOTENANNY 1
LIVING TOMORROW TODAY
MAGNETIC CURSES
RIGHT IN THE NUTS
SOUND SPIT FURY FIRE
WITH LITERACY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

PLANET OF THE APES
MADE
THOUGHTS ON MAXIM

The Planet of the Apes
Yes, I saw the movie back when it came out, and no, it wasn't the absolute worst thing I've ever seen (that award still belongs to Barcelona, a movie so dull it managed to drive away everybody but me when I rented it with some friends one night, and I only stayed out of sheer stubbornness). That said, I do have some fairly major problems with Tim Burton's latest opus, and I'd like to lay them out for you here... [more]

Made
Jon Favreau's a good guy. He's not the greatest of actors, it's true, but he's a good, solid player in the right situations; the thing is that he's at his best when playing the straight man (see the "good guy" comment, above), and for that he really needs a foil, somebody to bounce dialogue off his character. Thankfully, Favreau seems aware of this, as well... [more]