Category Archives: photos

Review: Josh Ritter at the Belly Up, June 22, 2010

Photo credit: T. Loper

Josh Ritter is an anachronism. With his suspenders and curly head of red, newsboy hair, he could be a turn-of-the-century busker or a character out of a Dickens novel. His minimalist, acoustic folk albums fit snugly alongside 1960s Bob Dylan and 1930s Woody Guthrie. But the thing that most sets Ritter apart from modern-day musicians isn’t his wardrobe or his music. It’s his smile. Continue reading…

Review: The National; May 23, 2010; Spreckels, San Diego

Photos by Natalie Kardos

It’s official: The National are a great band.

The Cincinnati group’s newly released LP, High Violet, is their third stellar album in a row, completing the astonishing trilogy they began with 2005’s Alligator and 2007’s Boxer. Like those records, High Violet finds the band in peak form, maintaining a calculated mastery of their material that begins when the needle drops and doesn’t let up until the final track fades away. Continue reading…

Review: Caribou with Toro y Moi; May 20, 2010; Casbah, San Diego

Photo credit: by Eleanore Park

Though you might find the new Caribou album, Swim, tucked in the indie-electronic aisle, frontman Daniel Snaith samples a much wider buffet of genres in a live setting. As you’d expect, you’ll hear him match up against electronic contemporaries like Vitalic, Animal Collective, and even Paul Van Dyk, but a good portion of the show also has the wider influences featured on earlier albums. His previous album, Andorra, had vintage tributes to The Mamas and The Papas (if backed by the relentless drums of, say, Dave Grohl) as well as indie-style jams that evoke My Morning Jacket or Wilco on an experimental kick. Last Thursday at the Casbah, Snaith tied up this diverse palette with a fat beat and dropped it all over a late-night dance party. Continue reading…