mitch easter Archive
30 Oct 2022
Album Review: Various Artists — We All Shine On
When thinking back on a particular year in music, there’s often a temptation to focus on a specific subgenre. And most compilations surveying a period tend to organize their selections […]
17 Feb 2022
Album Re-Review: Two Pound Planet — Songs from the Hydrogen Jukebox
Today I’m revisiting a review originally posted more than a year ago. Songs From the Hydrogen Jukebox received what we’ll call a soft release in late 2020. As nice as […]
12 Jul 2021
Album Review: The Eyebrows – Fight/Flight
Listeners wandering into Fight/Flight expecting some sort of slavishly imitative power pop outing a la [any of hundreds of current artists; pick one] will find themselves in for a shock. […]
29 Jun 2021
Album Review: Various Artists – Yesterday’s Tomorrow
If you’re at all familiar with the alternate and/or college rock scenes of the 1970s and ‘80s, you’ll know the names Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, producer of R.E.M.), Peter Holsapple […]
20 Dec 2020
Album Review: Two Pound Planet — Songs from the Hydrogen Jukebox
The story of Two Pound Planet is the story of countless bands: they write and played some great music, got the chance to work with a great producer who understood […]
26 Jul 2018
Album Review: The Eyebrows — Volume
Here’s the thing about powerpop: it’s either very good or hopelessly bland. There’s seemingly no middle ground; artists working in the idiom either knock it out of the park – […]
21 Feb 2017
Sneakers: A Walk Through Powerpop History, Part 2
Continued from Part One … Speaking of wanting (or not wanting) to know, around the time that the original Sneakers EP was released, the band couldn’t get many gigs. In […]
20 Feb 2017
Sneakers: A Walk Through Powerpop History, Part 1
In the histories of power pop, indie rock and college rock (and whatever you want to call the musical scene that bubbled under in North Carolina several decades back), there’s […]
12 Sep 2016
Album Mini-review: Waiting for Henry — Town Called Patience
File next to: Jayhawks, Wilco, Gin Blossoms Inside the college rock movement of the 1980s, there was a kind of proto-alt-country vibe that informed later groups like Wilco and Old […]
16 Jul 2014
Short Cuts: July Mini-reviews Part Three
Here are three more shortish reviews, this time all new releases. Randy Jackson – Empathy for the Walrus As a rule, I’m rather wary of tribute albums. More often than […]
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