Weekly Rhythm and Views's Blog (294)

Stefan George: Cloth (Self-Released)

In a recent conversation, Stefan George said he's tried to avoid having his recordings serve as some kind of audio journal. "But that's pretty much what this has turned out to be," he continued, reflecting on the intense personal nature of Cloth, much of which focuses on the recent loss of family and friends.

W… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 24, 2009 at 7:08pm — No Comments

Rammstein: Liebe Ist Für Alle Da (Vagrant/Universal)

With its sixth studio album, Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, Berlin's Rammstein once again delves into a morbid sonic realm of disaffection, chaos and torture with11 industrial-metal tracks. The lyrics are in German, thank God, so you can't understand what sadistic acts vocalist Till Lindemann plans on inflicting upon female… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 24, 2009 at 7:06pm — No Comments

Weezer: Raditude (DCG/Interscope)

I've always found Weezer irksome, but I can't deny the pleasures of Raditude.

Take "Can't Stop Partying," one of the tracks destined to be a single and make appearances on soundtracks galore for future teen comedies and hour-long dramas on the CW (if they can shoehorn it in under Leighton Meester's stranglehold… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 24, 2009 at 7:04pm — No Comments

Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms (Lefse) @ Club Congress, Saturday 11/21

With Neon Indian, 21-year-old Alan Palomo makes roots-pop music for the Internet age. He creates with the hands-on imagination of a gamer, and his sound—including his mostly incomprehensible vocals—is entirely a product of electronics. Neon Indian is his third music project, and one of the others, the geek-electro VEGA, is sti… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 18, 2009 at 4:13pm — No Comments

Wolfmother: Cosmic Egg (Modular/Interscope)

Anachronistic acts make easy targets. They're not innovators; they're acolytes, interested in re-invoking the halcyon days of a particular moment just for revelry's sake. In the case of Wolfmother, that moment mostly begins with the early proto-metal of Led Zeppelin and ends around the late-'70s Bon Scott era of AC/DC. They d… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 18, 2009 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Nancy McCallion: Take a Picture of Me (Mama Mama) @ Primavera, Friday 11/20

A mainstay of the Tucson music community for more than 20 years, acclaimed singer-songwriter Nancy McCallion has created an excellent new album that couldn’t be more timely.

The 12 country, blues, rock and Celtic-influenced songs examine the struggles of America's working poor and homeless populations. (A dollar from ea… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 18, 2009 at 4:08pm — No Comments

Melvins: Chicken Switch (IPECAC)

The Melvins did more to influence the whole U.S. sludge-metal-noise-punk scene than any other band. Sure, you could make a case for Black Flag or Swans as being the genre's true pioneers, but it really wasn't until 1987's Gluey Porch Treatments that it became cool to slow things way, way down, and revel in excruciatin… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 11, 2009 at 12:42pm — No Comments

Grand Archives: Keep in Mind Frankenstein (Sub Pop) @ Plush, Tuesday 11/17

Not one to offer up much in the way of new tricks, Grand Archives' Mat Brooke instead maintains a remarkable level of quality control.

A veteran of both the cult-favorite Carissa's Wierd and the quickly ascendant Band of Horses, the Seattle singer-guitarist sounds content to remain firmly planted at the easy-listening… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 11, 2009 at 12:41pm — No Comments

Headlights: Wildlife (Polyvinyl) @ Plush, Sunday 11/15

The music of the band Headlights combines electronica, chamber-folk and drone-pop, highlighted by minimalist, repetitive keyboard and guitar patterns that bring to mind Brian Eno and Philip Glass jamming with Velocity Girl. Singer Erin Fein, who also plays keyboards, escorts the band through this hypnotic landscape with enchan… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 11, 2009 at 12:39pm — No Comments

Alec Ounsworth: Mo Beauty (Anti-)

This pairing of a nasally voiced indie rocker from the Northeast with a collection of New Orleans musicians has yielded a strange hybrid, like alienation finding a solid footing.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah singer, songwriter and guitarist Alec Ounsworth journeyed to the Crescent City with producer Steve Berlin, who assemb… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 4, 2009 at 2:36pm — No Comments

Mark Knopfler: Get Lucky (Reprise)

Each release from ex-Dire Straits mastermind Mark Knopfler secures his rep as a classic songwriter—at the expense of his ranking as a guitarist.

Knopfler's sixth solo effort, Get Lucky, is his best in terms of his material, yet it’s his weakest fret-board effort. It’s a tradeoff that many will accept given the… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 4, 2009 at 2:34pm — No Comments

Monsters of Folk: Monsters of Folk (Shangri-La)

In moments of cynicism, blasphemous notions pop into my head. One example: There should be a one-month hiatus on all new bands. However, should such a fascistic ban occur, projects like Monsters of Folk might not be born, and the world would be a much darker place.

The artists behind Monsters of Folk are by no means ne… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on November 4, 2009 at 2:33pm — No Comments

The Slits: Trapped Animal (Narnack)

Thirty years after they turned punk and dub reggae on their ears, The Slits are back with Trapped Animal, sounding as uncompromising and relevant as ever. Essentially the first all-girl British punk group to make a mark, The Slits blew a hole in the boys’ club of British punk and held their own with touring mates The… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 28, 2009 at 3:22pm — No Comments

Nurses: Apple’s Acre (Dead Oceans) @ Plush, Saturday 10/31

On paper, the Nurses' formula sounds a shade of awful: hootenanny percussion, two guys singing in layered high-pitched caterwauls, and plinking pianos topped with synthesizers. But what music ever sounds good on paper?

In actuality, Apple's Acre is instantly invigorating, caterwauling and all. Aaron Chapman and… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 28, 2009 at 3:20pm — No Comments

Spiral Stairs: The Real Feel (Matador)

Pavement's Scott Kannberg has finally released his first official "solo" album under his infamously random stage name, Spiral Stairs. Kannberg spent most of the '00s in Preston School of Industry, releasing two glittering albums of anthemic California pop tinged with Americana. Between these albums and Stephen Malkmus’ work wi… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 28, 2009 at 3:13pm — No Comments

Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions: Through the Devil Softly (Nettwerk)

It's been eight long years since Sandoval’s first solo album, Bavarian Fruit Bread. So fans of the former Mazzy Star vocalist, she of the warm, quiet voice that brings to mind heavy-lidded whispers in the deep of night, likely will rejoice to learn she has a new disc out, and that it is perhaps a more beautiful psych… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 21, 2009 at 4:04pm — No Comments

Star & Micey: Star & Micey (Ardent)

Memphis, Tenn., is so infused with the history of American music—rock, soul, blues, country and jazz for starters—that the two are virtually synonymous. The Bluff City's newest export is Star & Micey, a young three-piece that arrives full-born with its self-titled debut CD.

Star & Micey sets the template for the… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 21, 2009 at 4:02pm — No Comments

The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come (4AD)

If you'll pardon the colloquialism, the new Mountain Goats album is super-duper good. Like, so good it makes me giggle and squirm and play it over and over again.

I would strongly encourage all of you to give it a spin, especially those of you who might have been turned off by the nasal atonality of John Darnielle’s si… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 21, 2009 at 4:01pm — No Comments

The Big Pink: A Brief History of Love (4AD)

In the opening sequence to Robert Altman's 1992 film The Player, producers at a movie studio pitch ideas that merely recycle things that have already been commercially successful. One guy wants to make "Ghost meets The Manchurian Candidate," while another pitches "Out of Africa meets Pre… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 15, 2009 at 10:26am — No Comments

The Black Crowes: Before the Frost … (Silver Arrow)

It's not easy being a Black Crowes fan. Since its debut in 1990, the now-legendary bluesy rock 'n' roll band has created some amazing music, most notably the first three albums (including the immortal Amorica, released in 1994) and a wonderful live collaboration with Jimmy Page. But other recordings have felt either… Continue

Added by Weekly Rhythm and Views on October 15, 2009 at 10:20am — No Comments

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