review Archive
20 Oct 2009
Album Review: The Mary Onettes – Islands
On their self-titled 2007 US debut, Sweden’s Mary Onettes put forth a modern take on the sounds of Liverpool’s Echo and the Bunnymen and Australian group the Church. Well, actually, […]
19 Oct 2009
Album Review: Tiny Tim – I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana
Forget whatever you think you know about Tiny Tim. His cartoonish persona distracted from the fact that he was in fact a great musical archivist, a preserver of some of […]
18 Oct 2009
Concert Review: Charlotte Pop Fest, Day 3
After the semi-disaster of Night #2 (I had missed Night #1 altogether) of the 2009 Charlotte Pop Fest, I was left wondering how things would go. Event impresario James Deem […]
18 Oct 2009
Album Review: Blindfold – Faking Dreams
Icelandic quartet Blindfold offer up a subdued, dreamy mix on Faking Dreams, their first release. The opening track (“Falleg Depuro”, whatever that means) has an appealing verse structure, but waiting […]
16 Oct 2009
Album Review: A Camp (self-titled)
Nina Persson is possessed of a voice that’s at once icy and removed, emotive and sensual. As vocalist for the Cardigans, her pipes floated over their gimmicky-but-good arrangements. But A […]
13 Oct 2009
Album Review: Lost in the Trees – All Alone in an Empty House
I absolutely love vinyl. And I’m no audiophile; my hearing is quite damaged from thirty-plus years of playing in bands (and seeing the Who in 1980). I dearly value the […]
08 Oct 2009
Album Review: The Pineapple Thief – 3000 Days
Maybe it’s something in the British water. Or, more likely, in their wonderfully full-bodied just-below-room-temperature beer. It must be said: this is pretty derivative stuff. The Pineapple Thief sounds like […]
07 Oct 2009
Album/DVD Review: Blackfield – Live in New York City
Live in New York City is the first live offering from Blackfield, the collaborative effort between England’s Steven Wilson and Israeli Aviv Geffen. With two albums in their back catalogue […]
02 Oct 2009
Album Review: Otis Redding – The Best: See & Hear
Shout! Factory’s newest retrospective is a CD+DVD package of Otis Redding material called The Best: See & Hear. The “hear” postion of the package is rather short, even by the […]
01 Oct 2009
Concert Review: Charlotte Pop Fest (part 1)
The Charlotte Pop Fest (September 24-26 2009) was both thrilling and disappointing, sometimes all at once. It’s important to make clear right up front that attendees easily got value for […]